When Jan Ewoud Vos wrote to tell me that Ambragio had finally launched, his excitement carried through the email. The founder of Puredistance hoped it would make the cold, dark days ahead a little warmer and lighter. After reading the story behind it, that wish feels like the heart of the perfume.
Ambragio began four years earlier, with an invitation to perfumer Stéphanie Bakouche. The initial concept did not find its way. Life intervened, as it does, and creativity needed more room than circumstances allowed. Vos eventually offered something extraordinary: no concept, no deadline, no year of completion. She could return when she had made something she loved.
In March 2024, Bakouche sent the work that became Ambragio. Vos found its name in the feeling it evoked, drawing together adagio, amber and abbraccio, the Italian word for embrace. The idea was unhurried warmth and intimate tenderness.
Its composition gives that sentiment a sumptuous setting. Rose, davana, Roman chamomile and rum introduce the fragrance; jasmine, cistus labdanum and Omani incense form its heart. Beneath them lie Madagascar vanilla, leather, benzoin, myrrh, musk and amber. Flowers, incense and resins: the materials of an imagined room dressed in silk and illuminated by candlelight.
There is poetry here beyond the formula. Vos and Bakouche wrote a poem together for the accompanying film, which she recites in French. Its themes of closeness, refuge and warmth make the perfume’s intention unusually personal.
My bottle is gorgeous. Vos mentioned that the final black flacon with its gold label had won out over an earlier golden prototype. It gives Ambragio a handsome gravity, a dark frame for all that promised warmth. The 60 ml presentation also includes a 10 ml refillable travel spray, supplied empty and ready to fill.
At 25% perfume oil, Ambragio is an extrait with a story that deserves time. What stays with me is the generosity of its beginning: one person trusting another to create something beautiful, and being willing to wait.
The fragrance was provided by Puredistance.
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