• White/Grey Ambergris. March 2025-This lovely piece of Ambergris found in the Carribean, has an ethereal presence.  It leads with dry marine and petrichor notes, followed by hints of tobacco & moss with a slight, sweet herbaceousnes aroma.
• Grey/Gold Ambergris-February 25 2025-This piece of Grey/Gold Ambergris was collected in Ireland. It has a classic Ambergris aroma. The fragrance is warm and mellow, delicate, light and complex, with well-rounded marine notes, a hint of Black tea, all wrapped in a lovely warm animalic musk with no fecal undertones. It has much more character than the White/Grey or white Ambergris and, in my mind, represents what classic Ambergris smells like.
• Brown Ambergris-Found in Jamaica-listed 23 January 2025-Basically- a dark gold piece with lovely earthy petrichor and sweet marine notes. All in all, it has a soft sweetness to it. It is richer, deeper and warmer than the gold. Pleasantly robust. Most Ambergris pieces smell "Dry" to me. Not this piece. It smells somehow softer and more feminine.

Ambergris

Ambergris is one of those classic mystical ingredients that we find revered and referred to in many ancient texts and cultures.

I use my Ambergris oils directly on the skin or beard and reserve tinctures for perfume and incense blends.

 An alcoholic tincture brings out notes different from oil extraction and highlights the tobacco and marine notes present in the material.

An oil infusion creates a product with a different fragrance profile. It makes my heart skip every time. It is often softer, sweeter, more animalic and muskier.

Excreted or regurgitated by the Sperm whale (depends whom you ask), Ambergris is thought to form in the digestive tract as a response to the irritation of residual squid beaks which the whale cannot digest. With the aid of a compound produced in the whale's bile duct, a waxy substance coats the irritants and builds up in layers over the years. These layers are one of the indicators of real Ambergris. (Many materials that look similar to ambergris are regularly found on oceanic beaches worldwide).
Once Ambergris exits the whale, it can float on the ocean for years and lie undiscovered on a beach for decades.

Ambergris has been used as medicine and in food, and of course, it has been a key ingredient in the creation of perfume and incense for thousands of years.

Like other natural animalic fragrance compounds, the magic and power of Ambergris do not lie in the strength of its aroma.

Ambergris does not have an intense fragrance and does not transform a perfume by simply adding its aroma to the blend. Instead, it operates in a less obvious and overt manner, rounding out or pulling together a bouquet, adding depth, tenacity, dimension and projection to a composition by means of a mechanism that is not well understood.

Ambergris is most often used in an alcohol tincture at a very low 1% to 3%.
Typically, a tincture of Ambergris will be left to macerate at least 6 months before it is considered ready to filter and use.

To a great degree, all animalics work on the principle of more is less.
At 1%, 1 gram of Ambergris yields 100 grams, or over 100 Milliliters of tincture.
For instructions on preparing your own Ambergris tincture, oil and Attar, please see my post here-https://apothecarysgarden.com/blogs/blog/ambergris-how-to-prepare-an-oil-attar-and-tincture

Dan

Materials: Ambergris, Pure Ambergris.