Prada Amber pour Homme
Prada (2006)

This fragrance takes some getting used to because when I first bought it in 2007 I remember hating it. I forget the store I went to buy when I sampled it I said to myself, "hmm this is different let's give it a try". I took the purple colored juice home, I wore it that night, (I think), and after that, in the drawer it went and there it stayed. Fast forward many years later my tastes have matured and have become more refined. Now I LOVE IT! I love the strong soapy Woody tone it has right along down to the 10hr longevity. The bottle is eye catching as well and to me that makes a marked difference. Bottles can be had now for around $60.


8/10

I sometimes read reviews for fragrances that claim, "clean and soapy," and then, when I sample, they don't match that description. So, I am very happy to say this one IS clean and soapy, giving off a just-showered-with-a-high-quality-European-bar-soap scent. PAPH is very well blended, performance is excellent, and prices are reasonable. This one has quickly placed itself in my Top 20. My original purchase was a 50 ml bottle and have been liking this fragrance so much, I decided to go for a backup 100 ml bottle. I only have the purple liquid and not the newer gray version. Highly recommend trying.

The soapy-clean amber accord that became a sort of signature house accord for the brand. A touch sweet and powdery as it dries down, but in a fresh way. Very pleasant and easy to like.

The comparison to soap that has been made by so many was part of what led me to try this fragrance, but as I have come to love it I’ve wanted to better understand the composition’s underlying complexity. It has taken me awhile to sort out my impressions because everything I'm describing happens on a very subtle level. Here goes:

The opening is interesting…It is cold, bearing the piercing (if not quite metallic), complex mix of delicate flower-meets-carrot sweetness and papery muskiness we’d associate with iris notes. This is not included in the notes pyramid but is such a staple from the PRADA line (from Infusion through L’Homme) that its signature is hard to miss. Neroli and orange blossom contribute to fruity sweetness, with the neroli persisting (as does the iris) clean through to the heart of the composition. This is a ticklish phase, as the cardamom appears here as a stealthily spicy complement to the floral-citric notes, like green cardamom pods used to flavour certain Indian deserts, contributing an impression of cool, candied creaminess rather than heat... The secret weapon here is myrrh, which can smell cool and soapy (as it will later) but also sweet in a way that recalls root beer or cream soda. The result is a top that is cold yet candied, critic, and tender in a kind of hollow but complex impression of watery eau-de-cologne fruitiness that is given substance and clarity by a very clean vetiver note. Amber Pour Homme is not a linear scent per se, but its development is discreet. It should be listened to carefully though, as it is in the heart that things get gratifying.

I have great respect for Daniela (Roche) Andrier’s subtlety in composing Amber Pour Homme, as she manages to bring different facets out of her materials as the top-heart-base development progresses. The much-discussed ‘soapiness’ is delivered through a cunning undercutting of floral notes and creamy textures with just a touch of bitterness. Real bar soap must always smell just a little of lye, which smells bitter (try biting on a bar of soap and you’ll see what I mean); the ‘soap’ accord of Amber Pour Homme relies on powdery materials like orange blossom, but also on things that supply a hint of bitterness: cardamom can feel creamy but also just a touch bitter in excess (as when an excess of ground cardamom is added to a pot of coffee), just as myrrh can introduce a savour that is almost chewy or chalky that, despite its sweetness, can also reveal facets that smell burnt, rubbery, or even sour. Here, these textural tendencies are blended beautifully – none stand out distinctly, yet the fragrance has a low-key smooth, substantial, sensuousness. It is this warmth that belies any banal assumptions that ‘soap’ would in this case mean simply ‘detergent chemicals.’ The blending of saffron and cardamom, in particular, is terribly attractive – both are materials that can smell almost plasticky in their raw natural form – dense yet cool and remote (saffron threads have always smelled to me of pure sex, but also paradoxically of vinyl…)

Just as it should, the base brings the heart home and nestles it in the skin. Labdanum is often used to construct an impression of leather…this is *not* the intense sweaty saddle leather experienced in classic, isobutyl quinoline/castoreum/aldehyde leathers such as Aramis, Bel Ami, or Antaeus, but an impression of dry plushness that is closer to suede, especially with some help from a very measured use of patchouli. Here, married to the ‘buttery’ quality one sometimes gets from iris it feels like an approximation of musky skin in the best possible way. Vanilla is not obvious nor edible here but adds a certain earthy allure, an intimate space buffering the contact of warm flesh (labdanum, myrrh, saffron) with a white dress shirt (iris with ‘starchy’ musks, with a touch of lavender & geranium’s springtime-clothesline fougère vibe.)

I was saddened to hear that Amber Pour Homme might be discontinued, both because it puts something lovely out of reach but also because the perfume landscape (and certainly PRADA’s line) will be poorer without it. In my opinion, this fragrance deserves iconic status… Aside from being highly original in conception and execution, it offers a sane iteration of a genre so prevalent in the 21st century, that of unconventional presentations of natural materials (supported by a very conspicuous thematizing of synthetics) to create detached, spatial and futuristic effects… Amber Pour Homme can indeed smell like a ‘dryer sheet’ and yet does not wear as something inert, ‘bloblike’, monolithic, faddishly conceptual, or pointedly artificial…Instead, it is persistently warm, balanced, mobile, complex, creative, and reasoned – in short, it is good company for the human skin. While I get fairly moderate performance out of PRADA Amber Pour Homme, I find it easy to wear day after night after day, not because it is ‘office safe’ or ‘a dumb reach’, but because it is so quietly rich and thoughtful -- a thinking person's soapy bliss.

This smells like a posh woman's bathroom. Prada Amber Pour Homme is an aromatic fragrance that brings to mind the high quality toiletries that one would find in a good five star hotel. It's a very nice fragrance that I enjoy, however as someone who appreciates more classically masculine scents, Prada Amber Pour Homme does lean a bit to the feminine side for me. Regardless of the "Pour Homme" title I would say this could comfortably be a unisex fragrance. It is a very nice scent and well blended with some nice ingredients. While many have described Prada Amber Pour Homme as a clean, soapy scent, I find the opening a little spicy and as it begins to settle on the skin there is a brief period where the scent is almost gourmand. The vanilla, tonka, orange blossom and labdanum all make for a beautiful opening and early dry-down. The incense becomes more notable into the dry-down and the scent becomes more floral, here Prada Amber Pour Homme really takes on it's characteristic classy/posh soapy accord. Performance is very good, it lasts all day on my skin and projects just a bit beyond arms length for the first couple of hours. Overall a beautiful scent with a nice trajectory, I enjoy it but it's a bit too feminine to be a regular scent for me. Still I'm impressed with it and give it a thumbs up.

Today marks my long-overdue sampling of the 2006 release, Prada Man, also known as Prada Amber Pour Homme EDT, its characteristic purple juice being recognizable in the market but a designer release that I'm somehow avoided, and in short, it's great, a soapy fresh amber that's a satisfying borderline signature scent-type. It's fresh with citruses and orange blossom, earthy/woody with vetiver and patchouli, and a touch sweet with tonka and vanilla. It does, as its advertising suggests, seems somewhat referential of a fougere and traditional men's cologne, being somewhat on the sharper side of both, but not too sharp to be prohibitive, especially when most of the elements feel connected and well-blended. Even with the fougere and cologne archetypes in mind, it's not overly masculine to me, but rather agreeable in the way that men's fragrances tend to be nowadays.

This is a strong performer for a contemporary designer EDT, and is quite reasonably priced on the secondary market, under $60 for 100ml on FragranceNet, so I'll have to pick up a bottle, as it's an instant winner for me.

8 out of 10