Shiny Amber
Anna Zworykina Perfumes

Shiny Amber avoids the pitfalls common to the genre: cloying sweetness and a focus on vanilla that obscures the characteristics of the resins. That's not to say it isn't a tad on the sweet side. I would have welcomed more of the ginger-citrus top notes and, to get more value from the ambergris, still less vanilla-tonka in the base. Still, this is a fine entry in the category, and one I recommend to amber fans with the price point being the singular caveat.

It's not my personal favorite amber, though, and since amber is also not my favorite fragrance profile, I won't be indulging in a bottle.

Shiny amber is a quite pretty spicy/watery amber-based fragrance introducing itself with a sort of neo-victorian (hesperides, poudree amber and jasmine) "aplomb" which is immediately kind of soapy-hesperidic and vaguely anisic at same time. Resins are counteracted by citrus and light/airy watery spices, overall in a quite light and versatile sort of fluidy combination. The citric presence smells classic, structured and more than vaguely "cologney" (conjuring in part a sort of "Guerlain Aqua Allegoria's royal atmosphere"). Ginger provides the initial kind of airy/aromatic/minty/anisic twist. I detect cardamom enhancing the fluidy light spiciness while a benzoinic ambery base is a perfect kind of talky shelter for a dominant jasmine's presence. Dry down, though never groundbreaking, smells more than dignified, drier, mossier and delicately refined. A vibrant, light and versatile amber's implementation which (though always organic and warm) smells kind of neo-classic but at same time cleaner, simpler, vaguely rubbery, delicately powdery and essential. The overall effect smells as a kind of synthesis and re-interpretation of two traditional olfactory dimensions (cologney/hesperidic/naïf and powdery/talky chypre).