Kaaf Noir

Kaaf Noir by Ahmed Al Maghribi is a new release that has been very favourably reviewed online. It is not a dupe so I figured I'd pick it up for AED100 which is about US$25 / EUR21, to see what it is all about. Maybe it is just me but the bottle aesthetic infers something dark and heavy, highly masculine and perhaps with a lot of very heavy wood or oud or something. It has this shiny black finish with a gothic feel to it and the gold accents and writing really make it feel like something well off the mainstream path. Oddly, the fragrance is anything but that. It is a nicely done dusky almost-freshie with a lot very juicy and sparkly (but not very sweet) citrus in the top working off some very persistent juniper berry notes. It has a slight gin and tonic vibe in the opening but as it starts to dry after a minute or so you get these spices creeping in. I really enjoy the heavy patchouli and musk in the base and these grow in prominence as it dries down. I used to own K by D&G back in the day and this opens with a strong similarity but it diverges a lot as it dries. People have said it is a K dupe and I don't think it is. The florals in the middle and the textured vetiver and patchouli in the base are nicer than K and this doesn't go cloying or sticky like K did for me. I enjoy this one a lot more. The florals are a lot more present and better defined; this is a much better blended juice than K is to my nose. K is a lot more linear as well. Another area where this walks its own path well away from K, is the performance. I get a solid 8-9 hours of this off two squirts and it is clearly a vastly better performing scent, also in the way it projects which is much stronger. I'd go as far as to say you should be careful spraying this as it is very strong and you could overspray it easily. It has the sort of profile where overspraying wouldn't be good. There is a lot more Ambroxin in this than K and because of this it gives me Sauvage vibes as well. To me this sits somewhere between a darker reimagining of Sauvage and K but is considerably stronger and more projecting than both and has the same dense and high end complex feel I get from BDC L'Exclusif. A freshie this may be (just about....) but it is not a daily wearer and is more of a nighttime fragrance I would say. It is a darker blue spicy kind of freshie, so the BDC L"Exclusif comparisons are quite valid. It smells nothing like BDC but has the same dense, smooth blue aromatic feel. For the money this cost, it is absolutely magnificent. Somewhere in the midst of (but not a dupe of) Sauvage EDP and K by D&G but a bit stronger and heavier, but a quarter of the price of the first one and half the cost of the third. I can see this one going stratospheric once the YouTuber and TikTokker influencers get hold of it. If I have a criticism it is that the florals and citrus notes feel quite synthetic but that might be the Iso E Super throwing a fuzzy blanket over everything. Again, for the money this cost Kaaf Noir is outstanding. Three Word Summary - Black And Blue Layering suggestion: I tried layering it with some Lord of Misrule by Lush to ramp up the earthiness and patchouli and it is a combo I do recommend. It takes it out of the blue realm into darker waters I really enjoy. Really, really nice. Scent - 8/10 Sillage - 9/10 Drydown - 7/10 Bottle/packaging - 7/10 Performance - 8/10 39/50

Just got this yesterday, and absolutely love it. I do not own "K" by D&G, so I cannot reference that at all. I can smell a hint of Absolu Aventus in the background at the dry down, and I can smell a little of some remnants of BDC Parfum in the mid, but that in the background as well. I do not have anything in my collection that reminds me of the fragrance, so it is a welcome addition for year round fragrance. Performance is very much above average, which we can expect from this maker. This easily could be a signature fragrance, safe for 4 seasons, office friendly, date approved, just a great fragrance that pushes way above its price point. I have seen a slew of reviewers get this frag in the mail lately and are pushing it pretty hard, when the fragrance has been out for a good few months with zero push. I was skeptical if this just was influencer pushing this on behalf of the manufacturer, but I can say that this one is as good as the reviewers are saying. Also, this is one that you can go nose blind to if you spray it close to your chest. This fragrance projects pretty good, and for a long time. I thought that it had fizzled out, but I walked outside and could smell it like I just put it on after 1.5 hours. This fragrance is not weak, but does seem to become a scent bubble after 2.5-3.0 hours. 8.5 out of 10. Certified banger in my collection.

I wanted to use this so badly when I first got it, but just like Kaaf and other extraits from Ahmed Al Maghribi, patience is absolutely required because it takes a lot longer for these higher oil concentrations to settle and mature. Now, don't let anyone tell you this is a 1:1 of anything, it's not, but it's blowing my mind how good it is. I would say it feels like 75% D&G K EDP, 15% Absolu Aventus, and 10% BDC Parfum. When I first smelled it on paper I didn't get much at all, but as it dried down a lot of the K notes were jumping out at me with a little bit of that Absolu dry down. Almost 2 months later this is gorgeous. Blood orange smacks you in the face on the open, backed by spicy cardamom and a heaping dose of herbaceous juniper. The open fades but this is such a high concentrated perfume that it takes quite some time before showing you its heart of an aromatic lavender, very noticeable iso E super, and sagey florals. The base is very blue with a giant cedar and ambroxan push over musky grassy patchouli. This is an easy one to go nose blind to so don't spray near your face if you can avoid it and you'll catch whiffs all day.

You know there sure are a lot of D&G K clones for something that supposedly isn't that popular. I think the middle eastern companies know what's up with this one. This DNA is awesome and it's either my first or second favorite blue DNA(Savauge being the other). How come it's Kaaf a middle eastern name, but then Noir which is French?I love the blood orange I just wish it had more. It is just a wonderful deep dark blue fragrance at the end of the day. I find it's perfectly balanced between all the notes(except I want more blood orange). It has citrus, green stuff, woods, and some warm spices it's just fantastic, and great for all weather and any situation. They could have called this Kaaf Deep Blue.

My second perfume from Ahmed Al-Maghribi after Prometheus. The surname "Noir" is... A trap set by Ahmed Al-Maghribi for their customers 😅 Kaaf Noir, a flanker from their famous white-bluish bottle day perfume, Kaaf, is probably their plan to tap into more masculine customers. If Kaaf is intended for fresh or for sports day, then Kaaf Noir is for fresh formal day perfume. Although, I can imagine that this bad boy can also be used for sport occasion. For me personally, I might use this for almost every occasion, together with Prometheus. Kaaf Noir for day, Prometheus for night. But I might use them vice versa because for me, both are versatile enough for any occasions.