Euphoria Men Amber Gold
Calvin Klein (2018)

Boozy honey provides the backbone here, and it's an excellent version of the note; just a little sticky, but not so much that it clogs up the composition. It sits beneath a dry potpourri of green herbs and woods (thyme, oregano, sage, cypress) with incense and suede and a transparent amber accord rounding things out.

I'm not sure who this release was intended to be for, exactly. The boozy tones mingled with that somewhat peculiar herbal bouquet might have won over some Amouage or Lubin customers, but it's an odd choice for the mass market. Euphoria Amber Gold fits neither into the sets of clubbing gourmands or amberwood freshies that have dominated the market.

If it's not exactly as opulent as a niche version of the profile might be (the "incense" here is more of the "incense stick" variety), it does well by its designer budget. The weak spot of most designer fragrances is the late drydown. Even after eight hours on skin, it's still pretty lovely, with the honey note having evolved into its richest form.

Pretty good stuff.

The latest Calvin Klein Euphoria men's flanker, Amber Gold Euphoria, follows well from my favorite flanker to date, the one-time hard-to-find Liquid Gold Euphoria, and is comparably dense and sweet.

Amber Gold is, as its name suggests, centered around the note of amber, a resinous incense type of dry down taking over most of the fragrance after a relatively limited opening of citrus, florals, and herbs. It's ambery but certainly leans more toward a mainstream designer release than it is the likes of Amber Absolute, Ambre Sultan, Ambra Aurea, etc.

I see Amber Gold as a nice alternative for those that find niche and/or high-end amber-centric fragrances to be offputtingly quirky or unviably expensive. That said, it's certainly not on par with the quality of better amber fragrances like the aforementioned. It does perform well, though, with loud projection for an hour and modest to slightly loud projection for another couple hours thereafter. It feels reasonably dense, if not quite as dense as Liquid Gold.

Now, neither Amber Gold nor Liquid Gold seem easily accessible, though there seem to be a few bottles scattered throughout secondary markets.


7 out of 10