Amber on a Thursday: National Pistachio Day, a Missing Ambre Narguilé, and the Glow of Hermès Eau des Merveilles

It’s National Pistachio Day and my perfume shelf decided to prank me. I went hunting for Hermès Ambre Narguilé for that plush apple-honey-tobacco hug, and poof - nowhere. Maybe it wandered off with my favorite scarf. No matter. I pivoted to Hermès Eau des Merveilles, and the switch was a little electric.

Here’s why. If you crave amber yet hate feeling smothered, Eau des Merveilles is the antidote. No syrup, no fog. It opens with peppery-citrus sparkle and sails straight into a mineral, skin-salted glow that whispers ambergris without going beachy. Think orange zest over driftwood, a dusting of benzoin, and that elusive shimmer that makes you sniff your wrist like you’re pretending to ponder art. It’s an amber-adjacent mood that still reads intelligent, even when your inbox is chaos.

Since it’s a birthday cluster of legends - Victor Hugo, Levi Strauss, Jackie Gleason, Fats Domino, Johnny Cash - I like the pairing game. Ambre Narguilé would have suited a novelist’s late-night desk: the slow curl of spiced smoke, a sticky page of honeyed fruit, a little rum in the inkwell. Eau des Merveilles feels like denim well-worn to velvet - stoic, bright, quietly sensual. One is a pistachio baklava fantasy, the other a treeline at low tide. Different muses. Both compelling.

Quick PSA for the amber-curious: amber in perfumery is mostly an accord - a warm, resinous idea - while ambergris is a rare oceanic material with a salty, luminous profile. Eau des Merveilles nods to the latter, and that’s why it stays sheer and radiant instead of veering into dessert.

Tomorrow I’m back on the amber track, bottle permitting. If your shelf plays nice, let Ambre Narguilé drape you in spiced comfort. If it doesn’t, Eau des Merveilles will still cut clean through winter light and leave that trail of quietly dangerous sparkle. Honestly, pistachio gelato in one hand and a saline amber glow on pulse points sounds like a decent Thursday strategy.