Agar de Noir

This is an absolute masterpiece and reference standard coffee fragrance. It starts out with a blast of herbaceous notes over some deeper coffee oud and amber before progressing to a powdery violet an coffee mid, after which the fragrance gets darker, smokier, the green notes vanish, but the perfume always has perfect harmony. Blogger Kafkaesque describes it better than I can on her blog, but what struck me was some comparisons I made, which are summarised below: Bortnikoff Lao Oud: another coffee oud, evidently darker and more challenging than Oud Monarch, yet still with the waxy tropical florals that stick out like a sore thumb. A great fragrance but the powdery violet and persistent coffee note of Agar de Noir with seamless blending gives AdN the edge (by not a small margin). Oud Luwak: I have a decant of this an the coffee note is here a top note rather than a mid or base note, so that beautiful civet coffee (my family had this once at Christmas) disappears and we are left with elegant smoke and varnish. Still more interesting than Lao Oud to me, but the smoke and varnish note makes it smell like a pure oud infused with smoke (which it is) and not that complex compared to AdN, which has a gorgeous contrast between the light and dark. Luwak is all dark, still wonderful, though. I think it is the excess smoke and dry vetiver, which remind me of the guac wood in Atelier des Ors Bois Sikar, that makes it more masculine and challenging to my nose. The only other comparisons I have seen is Kafkaesque mentioning Kilian Intoxicated, which I have, but this is nothing like it, as she mentions. To me it is like Roja's Pierre de Velay #4 (£500 for 100 mL, RDHP exclusive), but replacing the rum with coffee and oud. The PdV has a blend of sage and powdery violet (like AdN) over a base of rum and various resins. The PdV goes almost directly into the dry down, while AdN moves slowly and more confidently through its phases. All in all AdN eclipses the PdV by some wide margin. In the base we get burned caramel and vanilla with traces of coffee and powder. You just want it to go on forever. So in the triad of artisanal coffee fragrances I would say AdN>Oud Luwak>>Lao Oud. Lao oud would be higher but it needs more coffee (and other notes) and less florals to distance itself from Oud Monarch. TLDR: Agar de Noir is a winner!

OK, masterpiece! Of over 800 fragrance reviews and 20 or more Areej le Dore, this is my #1 Areej. #2 overall, Creed Windsor is my #1. The best oud fragrances are not oud dominant. I agree with Ramsey Ram on this point. This is beautifully blended oud with other notes. I've discovered the fresh grassy Armica note here. Very enjoyable. When I sprayed a larger dose, I got a beautiful booziness. Fragrantica confirmed. It's like a herbacious liquor they said. "Bitter herbs and sweet roots." I would add, a chocolaty facet to this liquor open. It's quite fresh in a green herbacious way. I love great woody and coniferous fragrances most. - So why this is my #1 in part. Let's start from the base notes and work up... Peru balsam is a coniferous green woody note in the base. With benzoin, Tonka and labdanum/ amber in the base, perfect. In the mid you have 2 beautiful ouds, with the best violet note in a fragrance ever, giving brightness. Close second violet is Dandy by Guerlain. (Discontinued) In the mid you also have a noticeable salty ambergris, a spicy saffron, and expresso coffee. The coffee note is hard to pick out at times, but other times it shines. The coffee and cardamom top note give the impression of Turkish coffee, as in the Kilian fragr, "Intoxicated". Oud Luwak may have a more pronounced coffee note, but I think I would prefer this fragrance as a whole. The coffee is enough. I have not tried Oud Luwak. As in great woody chypres, you have complimenting florals. Here the sweet hawthorn floral, slightly rotting indolic floral, with the slightly sweet and green, woody calamus. We are now into the top notes with the last several notes mentioned. A favorite note on top, cardamom, with a dusty green amica, a fine woody guaiac wood, round out the fine medly of top notes. I believe truly a masterpiece by Russian Adam. It all works together. It's interesting and complex, but not busy. You can purchase a generous 1 ml spray decant from "Sealed Essences" I believe is the name, for about $40. Well, I just scored a bottle March 15/ 25. The Ebayer was asking a fair price. So I did not chance making an offer and loosing it. It only comes up for sale a few times per year. Rating: 10/10 God bless. And Jesus said in John 8:58, "Before Abraham was, I AM."

This is smooth, dark, resiney and damn nice. The violet lingers around for about 3 or 4 hours. As soon as that's gone, this almost-horrid, acrid resin presents. And by that I mean resin burning on crude charcoal. Growing up, my mum used to burn frankincense during Easter and Christmas, and I grew an aversion to it. I actually disliked frankincense for this reason, and it wasn't until I was in the mid-east on my honeymoon that I experienced how it should be burnt on modern electric burners that did away with the horrible barbecue notes that I grew up with. I've tried to share this info with my ma, but a habit is a habit. Anyway, this unpleasant frank note remains for a few hours, and after you get through the violet phase and the acrid frank stage, it's smooth sailing. There is a little bit of bitterness that lingers, which could possibly be the coffee note, but all in all, a pretty nice offering, I would say. I'm still on the fence, personally, I might need even more trialling before I can say definitively...

Agar de Noir was my rite of passage into niche fragrances and the beginning of a new journey through natural fragrances. A very green and medicinal blast opens the fragrance and it quickly moves into the slight powdery violet along with the coffee note. Eventually the coffee and violet give way to the Oud and Ambergris which gives an animalic and “salty” effect to the composition landing on a very balmy drydown along the Tolu which makes you crave for your wrist. The drydown shares some similarities to Oud Zhen but they are different enough to own both bottles. Despite a French opening, I feel that AdN leans oriental conjuring waking up at a very cold dawn, smelling strong coffee along the burning of incense. Longevity is at least 20h and there’s an ever-present scent bumble during most of its life. Due to its slight sweeter nature, I wouldn’t use this on the warmer weather.

This fragrance puts an image of black cloaked hooded figures sneaking around a gothic castle in the dark ages having a secret society meeting and maybe performing some type of forbidden ritual. That being said it doesn't actually smell that dark. A big violet blooms on my skin giving it a smoothness like moonlight shining through your window on a pitch black night. And the way the violet mixes with the coffee and oud is just soo good to my nose. This is my favorite Areej, although I have limited experience. I think this is easily unisex and a great introduction to oud for those fearful. Spices are intertwined expertly to provide a fragrance that starts off kind of gloomy feeling but ends up warm and inviting. Like going to a new place and discovering that you belong there. Brilliant perfumery in my opinion.