Fortunately for perfumery, ambergris' distinctive odor is principally owed to just two chemicals, ambroxan and ambrinol, both of which are now synthesized.
Really interesting to read. So IIUC ambergris is _sometimes_ formed in the 4th (last) sperm whale stomach, is basically a constipatory plug of indigestible squid parts (beaks, quills, and eye lenses) which either eventually passes thru the whale’s anus, ruptures the intestine and kills the whale, or is (was?) harvested on rare occasion by whalers. And if you’re lucky you can find it washed up on beaches.
one of my favourite frags 'Kouros' by YSL uses ambergris (or synthesised)
shame that over time the formula has changed so much.
as per descriptions..it really used to smell like "sweat"/"heavy"...and has changed to much fresher and cleaner.
See also: <a href="https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/773/chapter-92-ambergris/" rel="nofollow">https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/773/chapter-92-amber...</a>
Up until not too much ago we also extracted musk essence from the anal glands of white belly musk deer. Another interesting thing is oud. It's a resin produced in aquilaria trees when infected with a specific fungus, and it can cost tens of thousands of dollars per kg. I think one of the first famous commercial Perfumes to use it was m7 by ysl, you can read an article on it on fragrantica: <a href="https://www.fragrantica.com/news/Yves-Saint-Laurent-M7-Revisiting-the-Modern-Classic-18098.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.fragrantica.com/news/Yves-Saint-Laurent-M7-Revis...</a>