Urban cool
This is another one of my favourite perfumes, and I bought it for a bargain price. Luca Turin gives it five stars and calls it one of the "great emancipated fragrances of all time." Annick Medardo created something truly new in perfumery with Black, there is nothing else on the market that smells like this and Bulgari no longer offers it, which is crazy, so if you want to try it you'll have to search for a bottle.
Black has a hint of bergamot in the top notes, then becomes linear with a smoky black tea, a wood note, and a non-sweet, very smooth vanilla. If you've never tried smoke and vanilla together, you must, it is an incredible combination. But the smoke note in Black is a shape-shifter, it changes from minute to minute. Smoke becomes black rubber, like tires on the pavement. Sometimes it smells of black leather, like a motorcycle jacket. Through the smoke and rubber and leather twists a ribbon of sheer vanilla, like your biker is eating an ice-cream cone.
Black is unisex, a masterpiece and increasingly rare. If you love perfume, I highly recommend picking it up while you still can.
Nose: Annick Menardo
Notes:
Top: tea, bergamot
Middle: sandalwood, cedar, jasmine
Base: leather, amber, musk, vanilla
Graphic: LayoutSparks.com
Black is one of my all-time favorites. Best on a steamy, hot day. Thanks for highlighting this masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favourites too - and come to think of it, it has that smoke and vanilla thing going on like my new lemming, Eau Duelle.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that Black is still in general distribution in shops in Germany, but you only see it in independent perfumeries now in the UK, or T K Maxx or on Ebay. Definitely on its way out, which is criminal as you say.
Like the idea of a biker eating an ice cream cone!
I have resisted trying this perfume, the thought of rubbery vanilla just made me feel ill.
ReplyDeleteUpon reading "biker eating a ice cream cone", my mind shifted and made room for Black.
sounds lovely
ReplyDeleteGoing away?! Who authorized that?
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking of getting myself a bottle for a couple of years. I guess it's time.
ChickenFreak: My mistake! It's still on their web site. Thank goodness. But the original Omnia isn't.
ReplyDeleteI'm like ChickenFreak. I should try this. I just don't know about the smell of black rubber... It must be quite special. Is it heavy?
ReplyDeleteHi theperfumechronicles! I guess "heavy" depends on getting used to it. The first time I smelled Black, I was a perfume newbie and I thought it smelled like car ties a la mode. But now I find it transparent like smoke.
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteThat's it... I've got to try Black. Heading to the perfume counter this weekend.
Normand
P.S. love the visual ;-)