Farmacia SS Annunziata dal 1561 - Ambra Nera

If I want to drink Farmacia SS Annunziata´s Perla and wrap up in Cara, when it comes to Ambra nera I´ll never want to stop smelling it. This is a perfume to move in to. This is a scent that makes me feel bot comfortable and surprised at the same time. Ambra Nera is complex and multi-facetted but also, extremly comfy, soft and warm.


Ambra Nera starts with one of the most animalic notes I ever smelled in an amber perfume. Somewhere in this scent there is a predator hiding. A golden striped tiger camouflaged among flames and shadows of golden ambery light. Ambra nera smells of predator, dangerous and animalic, but also soft, cuddly and erotic. When I first sniffed it I almost made a little happiness dance because of the amazing top note!


When I recognised the animalic note I can smell it all the way through the scent, still I do recommend Ambra Nera even to those of you not so found of animalic scents. Soon it fades away and become more like a nice kitten that have fell a sleep in the sun at the windowsill.


Ambra Nera is so much more then the smell of a tiger. It´s dense, golden, smokey and resinous amber and beautifully lifted by a top note of eucalytus. This is so cool, cause it makes the scent kind of transcluent and active.


This is lighted candles, sweaty bodies, a secret club, big city feeling paired with eastern mystique, incense, henna tattoos, dark eyes and erotic looks...


Excuse me, but Ambra nera almost manage to make Serge Lutens Ambra Sultan look like... well, something not as exciting and perfect when I´ve learned to know Ambra Nera. It is like the (of me made up) belly dancer in Ambra Sultan only was the fore-dancer to the one in Ambra Nera, the one´s that enters stage when all the tourists has return to their hotels. The belly dancer queen in Ambra Nera has a tiger as a pet, while the one in Ambra Sultan has an ordinary cat...


Ambra Nera has a raw, almost sweaty erotic quality, but at the same time laid back, soft and powdery. Some of you might think it is a little to much, but for me it´s perfect. The soft, powdery notes hides the raw and animalic, that maybe are most noticable when sniffing close. Which I of course do all the time, since I´ve got a masterpiece on my wrist.


Maybe it sounds like Ambra Nera is a very demanding kind of scent? But, strangly enough it isn´t. It´s both very sexy and so comfy at the same time. I feel so comfy when I wear it, and still discover new nuances all the time. Do you know what vetiver makes of a base note otherwise consisting of patchouli and amber? A lot of interesting things, it gives the scent a papery dimension while it also manage to calm down the patchouli and make it shows the chocolate aspects of patchouli. I almost think I like the base note the best if it wasn´t for the top note that is so incredible good...


The basenote is like being in a homey, old library and smell old leather bound books and old paper while a piece of dark chocolate slowly melts in your mouth. Do that sound like something you coudl enjoy?


Unfortunatly Farmacia SS Annunziata´s scents are quite hard to find outside Italy! Luckyscent has them, which is soooo good for you if you live in the US. And, Farmacia SS Annunziata´s scents has a very nice price point for being Italian scents. Italian perfumes are wonderful, but I think, sometimes a bit on the pricey side. Not so with Farmacia SS Annunziata. But I wish, they would come in smaller bottles though...


You can read more about Farmacia SS Annunziata here: http://www.farmaciassannunziata1561.com/


Even if Perla and Cara (and several others) are very nice scents, there isn´t any doubt about that Ambra Nera is the one wininng me over totally. Ambra Nera is a perfume, and still it has good sillge and of course good lasting power. I love it from first sniff until there is only memories of it remaining on my skin...





Pic: William Meredith

Farmacia SS Annunziata dal 1561 - Cara

I´ve never been much of a comfort eater, even though I have cravings for chocolate, salt liqorice and quick macaronies some days in the month. But the older I´ve got the less I can eat, when I was younger I could easily eat at least a big 200 gram of Marabou´s chocolate bar (Marabou is the most popular chocolate bar brand in Sweden, If we ever make a swap i can send you some, they are really jummy). Nowadays I don´t eat more than at most 50 gram. And with a very active young dog in the house, you know I should probably need to eat 200 grams of chocolate.


If I´m not much of a comfort eater I am much more of a comfort sniffer. I was one of those kids with a very close relationship to my favorite stuffed animal (Gammelnalle or Old bear), i didn´t go anywhere without my cuddly toy. And when it waas time to sleep, Old bear should be right under my nose so I could smell his inveterate smell. During teenage the stiffed animals was changed to a Palestinian scarf, and I hope your not curious about all that got spilled on that poor scarf? But the worst thing was when my mother decided to wash it just to be nive! Horror! It didn´t at all smell liked it should! I had a name for it too, "Palle". (Short for Palestinian)


The closest i got to a cuddly toy now is my husband. And I´ve got a theory that you chose a partner which smell you like. Otherwise maybe some perfumes will work as a replacement.


Farmacia SS Annunziata´s Cara is such a scent. It consists of the softest almond, swet fudge and smothest vanilla. Some talkum and amber is also there. Just like Perla, this isn´t a complicated scent, but while Perla is uplifting and cherful, Cara is more cuddly, comfy and caressing.


I prefer gourmands when it´s time to sleep. But it has to be a soft, not so sweet or loud gourmand. Cara is perfect, it can´t be much more comfy than this. Cara wraps you up with a smoth, creamcolored softness of almond milk, vanilla kisses and subtle fudgy sweetness.


Otherwise I have to admit it reminds a little in style about Perla, non of them are complex scents that takes a lot of analyse to be familiar with. But still, among almond scents it has become a big favorite for me. Less is more is so true when it comes to some kinds of scents.


Cara is an eau de parfum and has better longvity then Perla and nice sillage. During base note the wonderful almond notes dissapears and left you with a nice, but somewhat boring, vanilla.


But the scent I´ll write about next from Farmacia SS Annunziata is anything but simple. Don´t miss it!


Do you wear perfume when it´s time to sleep? And if so, what kind of scents do you prefer? Maybe you´re getting hungry and have to have a snack if you wearing gourmand scents in bed?



Pic: Flickr (blossoming almond trees)

Farmacia SS Annunziata dal 1561 - Perla

If Laboratorio Olfattivo is one of the newest perfume lines in Italy, Farmacia SS Annunziata is on of the oldest. Farmacia SS Annunziata is more then a line of perfumes, it´s an farmacy established in Florence 1561. During the years the farmacy has been driven -among others- by monks, but most of the documents get lost during France occupation of Tuscany in early 19th century.


Even though the farmacy history is interesting and Farmacia SS Annunziata is one of the oldest and still existing brands in Italy, I am -as usual- most interested in the perfumes. And Farmacia SS Annunziata sure has a lot to chose from, varies from eau de toilettes to perfume. The scent I´ll write about today is an eau de toilette.


About two years ago I tried a scent fokused on apricots. I thought it smelled good, but after all "how often do i want to go around smelling like apricots" I asked myself. And that was my opinion until I tried Farmacia SS Annunziata´s Perla...


The notes are lemon, osmanthus, amber and vanilla. But on me, Perla is all about apricots. And what an apricot! I could drink/eat/bath in this! Perla is an absolutly stunning, beliveable and mood lifting apricot scent. For start it´s the smell of fresh, sunriped and very juicy apricots and I can taste them in my mouth when I smell Perla. During the heart note, the apricopts become more like dried apricots, sweet, chewy and sour.


Perla isn´t complex, rapidly changing or surprising, except of that it is the best apricot scent I´ve ever smelled. Is even better then real apricots, since I can follow different kinds of apricots in Perla...


Perla is sweet, on me not too sweet, but the youngest daughter think it was to sweet on her. So no matter how much I enjoy Perla, I guess it isn´t for everyone. But, however, a scent that makes me realise that of course I need to go around and smell like apricots, is a scent worth trying, right? Maybe Perla will reveal things about you as well? Beware! :)


During base notes, perla becomes more of a soft, powdery vanilla but with nuances left of the apricots, even though more like delicate apricot powder. Being an eau de toilette it has nice staying power and also good sillage. There isn´t that much to write about a pure apricot scent, perla don´t take me on any cool olfactory tripps, byt it do makes me feel fine and like I am having my own private little sun with me wherever I go, and that isn´t a bad thing.


Do you have some interesting and nice scented surprises to tell about? Any note that made yoy totallt change your opinion just like that?




Pic: Flickr