Rania J.’s Response To Ambre Loup Reformulation Question

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Fair is fair. Rania J. (Rania Jouaneh) has responded to the question of whether Ambre Loup been diluted and reformulated, and I believe it is only right to present her answer in full.

80% alcohol written on the side panel for the original silver box of Ambre Loup.

In yesterday’s post where I wondered if Ambre Loup had been changed due to the uncontroverted changes in the alcohol/fragrance ratio. Today, a reader, Craig Houchen, appears to have written to someone – a Rania J. retailer, I assume – about the alcohol number issue and that person forwarded the question to Ms. Jouaneh. Mr. Houchen posted her reply to the retailer in a comment today.

I believe it is only fair to publish that reply to as many people as may have read my questions yesterday, so here is Ms. Jouaneh’s explanation about the changing alcohol numbers:

Hi

I am fine and hope you are doing fine too…

I read the client message.

Let me explain what is the story behind 83% and 80%.
At the beginning, as Ambre is very thick we had some difficulties to dilute it, so we used 83% alcohol
At then, we were able to dilute it with 80% alcohol.
So first, i had the packaging with 83% and then we printed the packaging with 80% when we were able dilute the perfume with 80% of Alcohol.
The % of the alcohol has nothing to do with the fragrance.It is a production process only.

All the new productions are with 80% alcohol.
The perfumes with black caps (new packaging) have 80% alcohol.
The perfume is the same and will never change.

Take care
Best regards
Rania

I personally disagree that “The % of the alcohol has nothing to do with the fragrance” because it unquestionably does matter if there is more or less fragrance oils in the carrier alcohol. If something is more diluted or less diluted that is, in my opinion, a meaningful or significant change.

I also think that such constant, undisclosed formula changes by a brand raises some questions about that house’s operational style and consistency.

Those are different issues, however. I will leave it to you to make what you will of the official brand response to the reformulation question.

6 thoughts on “Rania J.’s Response To Ambre Loup Reformulation Question”

  1. Thank you, Kafkaesque! I always appreciate your scrutiny of the perfume world.

  2. Not sure why companies have to lie? Not like we are stupid.. . Sounds like another Chrypegate situation…

    • Sounds also as if buyers will have no guarantee of consistency in terms of what they’re getting, thereby setting up an Aventis batch code situation. By her account, they’ve quietly and secretly gone from 83 to 80 (to the 83 that she conveniently skipped over) then back to 80. Crazy.

      • So how do we know which version we getting ? I’m scrambling trying to find the old formulation now .. only way is looking at the label and the cap as discussed before ? Is there any other info on the label that can tell us which year it is ?

      • Hey Kafkaesque, could it be that you misunderstood the 83 and 80 meaning? As far I understand from the e-mail, this does not mean that there are less fragrance oils, but that the same amount of fragrance oils are diluted in either 80vol or 83vol alcohol. (160 or 166 proof alcohol). And the oil/alcohol ratio is the same.

  3. Pingback: Rania J. Ambre Loup: Sultry & Seductive – Kafkaesque

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