Ambrosial Nectar by Rêveur

I need to start my review of Ambrosial Nectar by Rêveur by being flat-out honest, I did not think I was going to like this fragrance. I got it as part of the complimentary discovery set that Rêveur offers on their website but I was not necessarily itching to try it. Why was I negative about it? Because of the category it sits in, through my fragrance journey, the term “fruity” invokes in me negative connotations like… weak, soapy, linear and boring, too many bad fragrances had jaded me against fruity fragrances....boy, was I in for a surprise.

One day, after forgetting those samples for a while, I decided to open Ambrosial Nectar and apply it to my skin because “I need to have an open mind”…I told myself. I vividly remember saying out loud the word….“fascinating” even though I was by myself, I literally stood there in disbelief, what is this fragrance? What is that nectarine note, that cherry, that vanilla, why is this so complex? How is it so fresh yet morphs the more I smell it? Why do I like this so much? My wife walked in and immediately asked what I was wearing and sprayed the rest of the sampler on herself. Now, that last line needs some context, I own hundreds of fragrances, I’ve sampled what can only be described as a ridiculous number of scents, my wife is usually the person I ask about new frags and she just nods or doesn’t say anything, frankly, she’s kinda tired of new scents. Ambrosial Nectar is the only fragrance she has reacted to in that way, it’s the only fragrance I wear and she immediately comments positively on it. I went for the bottle and now, it’s the only bottle of fragrance we share.

Perhaps you are thinking that I am over-hyping this fragrance without any merits, I’ll give you my data and let you decide by yourself, let’s deep dive into it:

The Bottle

I have the 100ml (3.4oz) bottle in it’s regular Eau de Parfum concentration. It’s made well, solid glass and the pink-ish hue of the liquid makes it a looker. Note: You cannot lift this bottle by the cap, it’s not tight enough, if there is 1 thing I would change on the bottle is the cap, feels a little cheaper than the rest of the bottle, a minor thing as I’m sure you can agree but, something to know. This is the kind of bottle you want to display and it’s the kind of bottle people will ask about, the color of the fragrance makes it so that you want to try it and the weight of the bottle feels great. The sprayer works with a great atomization and it’s easy for me to use with my left hand and still get a full spray, something that is not as doable with other bottles in my collection (because of the pressure necessary for a full spray). The bottle is a 9.5/10, taking off half a point off for the fact that you can’t lift it by the cap and the feel of the cap itself. *UPDATE*: Rêveur contacted me after my review and informed me that they are coming up with a new cap! Talk about customer obsession!

The Opening

This will be difficult to describe but I’ll give it a shot. Nectarines, Maraschino, Peach & Vanilla, when I just put those words in, it invokes a sweet bomb in my head, yet, that’s not what Ambrosial Nectar is about.  It opens so natural, with nectarines, but, more like scratching the inside of the red peel of a nectarine than necessarily the fruit itself, it’s complex and does not feel too sweet to me, it’s nectarines with character, it’s nectarines wearing a suit to a party, the nectarines play with the maraschino and the vanilla to be richer while staying fruity which is why I mention the peels, if you’ve ever scratched the peels of a fruit you like and then wait, the scent on your nails is stronger yet less sweet than the fruit itself and that’s the best way to describe this. The opening is airy which is the only word I can use to describe a fragrance that doesn’t feel heavy…that floats naturally on your skin….sort of like…nectar, everything smells natural, nothing is insulting to your nose or over-powering, it’s all about the freshness of the fruits, the nectarine accord with the maraschino and the vanilla will challenge you in a good way, they will introduce you to a new era of fruity fragrances, it will be love at first smell.

The opening is my favorite part of this fragrance, the first 15-20 minutes can only be described as opening a present on your skin, you remain fascinated by it, it’s so complex yet it’s not challenging,  what do I mean by that? Some fragrances tend to hide a lot of notes and it feels like trying to smell an open faucet where the notes are just shooting in different directions. Ambrosial Nectar, for me, is more like jumping inside of a bubble of fresh scent and trying to decipher what you can feel, the notes are not fleeing from you, they are there asking you to detect them. The scent bubble starts with the explosion of nectarines sitting on the maraschino, but, for example, if I smell this for a while…my mind goes to peach more and more, but, it’s only if I smell it a ton, I attribute this to the fact that my mind remains locked to the nectarine in the beginning.

The Mid

Vanilla and Amber. I feel the Vanilla becomes more apparent after the first 20 minutes or so, I feel in the opening it interacts with the fruit to keep the fruit from going too sweet but on the mid it gains it’s own power, Vanilla can overpower many notes and for me, it can overpower the peach note…but not the nectarine or the maraschino, those remain there through the mid, they remain strong too. The amber, rich as always, can start getting detected at this stage as well, but I’ll be honest, this is not what I would describe as a amber heavy fragrance, amber can become the character of a fragrance and Ambrosial Nectar does not let it do that, it lets Amber play but not overtake. In fact, I think the name of this fragrance was perhaps concocted at the mid stage…because its like Nectar (a sugary fluid secreted by plants) residing on top of an Amber leaf (my nose is not specific enough to detect labdanum, but, given the natural ingredients being used, that would be my bet).

The Dry-down

If, like me, you were expecting the dry down to make the fruity notes disappear….we were both wrong (I'm glad about that). Yes, the dry down is musk and amber, but the fruity nature of the fragrance remains, the fragrance does not change personalities like many others, you know what you are wearing hours after wearing it, my wife knows exactly what Im wearing when I use Ambrosial Nectar, I can’t say the same for other fragrances. I really enjoy the dry-down and being able to detect nectarines and those red peels hours after applying this, I feel it differentiates this so much from other scents out there. Fresh scents tend to lose potency over time of wear and change, this doesn’t, yes… it’s not as vivid as the opening but the DNA remains, well done Rêveur, well done indeed.

Performance

The scent bubble for me lasts for about 2 hours, that means that people up to 1.5 - 2 feet from me can smell me easily, but, because the fragrance is not cloying or insulting, it’s a very nice fresh bubble. This lasts on my skin for 6 to 7 hours before it starts disappearing and after 10 hours I would have a hard time detecting it. Note: this will be potent on your skin, this will have a presence, this will not disappear on you, this will have character, this will morph on your skin and it will remain there, make no mistake about it. You are getting quality.

Conclusion

I highly recommend this fragrance, this went from a fragrance I could've potentially ignored forever (by not even trying the sample) to one of my Top 10 fragrances of all time. It’s unique and it has character, it would be impossible for me to tell you that “it smells like….” because it doesn’t, it’s not like anything I’ve smelled before…. and I’m fascinated by that. Too many fragrance houses are creating stinky fragrances to achieve a level of differentiation from the rest, Rêveur achieved that status by creating an explosion of naturals. It’s amazing and it has made me look at Rêveur closely, they are bringing something different to the table and I for one, am watching.

It complements me and it complements my wife, a truly unisex gem. A 9/10 for me.


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Rêveur's Ambrosial Nectar
BONUS: Unwrapping video!