Bond No. 9 – New York Amber
Bond No. 9, have built their reputation on New York-centric scents that capture and are named for the spirit of this great city’s legendary and up-and-coming neighborhoods—from Riverside Drive to Nouveau Bowery to Coney Island. But concurrently, they’ve lately been designing eaux de parfum that are metro-accented odes to their favorite fragrance notes. Simply put, their mission is to New York-ify these legendary scent notes, composing blends that bring out their metro bona fides. First came New York Oud, an homage to the oriental wood, which they modernized and energized for the fast-paced, multifarious cityscape.
Now comes a shared unisex blend which celebrates a very different aspect of New York: its seductive, sophisticated edge. Introducing New York Amber, whose powerful but quietly sensual key ingredient is a musky, earthy, honey-like tree resin with a haunting liquor-gold color that has also made it an enticing gemstone. Found far away, along the shores of the Baltic Sea, amber nonetheless has all the sought-after New York smarts—being as smooth and flawless as twilight on the Hudson, as cocktails at a skyscraper aerie, or a Gershwin rhapsody in gold. One of the most ancient ingredients in the perfume repertory, amber was so prized by the Greeks that they associated it with the Sun God.
Like the burnished jewel that it is, the amber in New York Amber is accentuated with precious scent accords that bring out its metro-smarts. Its starter spice notes—saffron, nutmeg, and white peppercorns—are lightened up with zesty bergamot. Next, a classic bouquet of rose, jasmine, and osmanthus takes over. All of the above are designed to pave the way for the lingering base notes: amber at its warmest, surrounded and enhanced by oud, sandalwood, musk, and myrrh. This is seduction at its most seamless and assured.
The Flacon
The New York Amber bottle design marks Bond No. 9’s first use of old-fashioned script as a design element. The translucent amber glass surface is covered all over with diagonal, looping cursive lines, declaring the name of the scent—and also connecting the pre-digital allusions of handwritten script with amber’s millennium-long pedigree. The jewel-like cap, in semi-transparent amber, and the golden base continue that effect, while the Bond No. 9 token logo at bottom-right is an assurance that this is an artistic blend, a master perfumer’s creation.