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.

I agree that this feels like a more wearable riff off Oud Luwak and a proper cousin/descendant of Areej le Dore's other Oud scents. I do find Oud Luwak wearable itself, though--this is just a bit smoother, more floral, and it doesn't have the vetiver greenery of OL. I do really smell the violet accord. At the top, for a brief moment, the violet combined with the leathery oud and other spicy notes actually temporarily brings to mind some iterations of Fahrenheit. They aren't smell alikes, but share a definitely violet-leather-petrol moment. That impression is short lived before the more straightforward oudy drydown.

This scent is so Russian Adam man, french and oriental. Firstly, you get hit with this candy-like violet, then a very varm slap by the oud and coffee hits you. I usually do not appreciate coffee fragrances due to most of them being so damn sweet, but this is very nice. The warmth of Agar De Noir never fades during its lifespan but the coffee vibe does blend in more and more with time flowing. This scent fits well with how I interpret Adam in general and his vibe. Not to animalic but the sensation still lingers in the background. Well composed dark warm scent.

The dry-down on this reminds me of Fjerne. This one is a little more resiney-oudey than Fjerne, but they both remind me of each other, truth be told. I'm endlessly intrigued how different ingredients and different perfumers sometimes end up 'connecting' on something similar like this. Amazing scent, BTW; I could smell this for hours!

True to its name, "Black Oud" is smokier and more bitter than Picante (more edible spices) & Russian (more chocolate past the leathery stage). Although Luwak is an even bigger smoke bomb, it was literally incensed (infused) to achieve such effect, giving it some airy qualities—the oud in the drydown is also quite different and leans toward green. All in all, I thought I'd like this darker one the best, but turned out to be the opposite since the ideals of our taste don't always reflect reality!

I was an idiot & missed Oud Luwak... This is as close as I can get now & I'm so glad there's been somewhat of a "follow-up" to it... Coffee... on funk... on blackness... whatever that's supposed to mean. The result is addictive. If you hate it, I understand. It's not for everyone. If it's for YOU, good luck topping this. Even if you think you hate it, you probably just need to wait & try it again. It's exceptional. Another heavenly creation from Russian Adam & ALD!

Nice but fairly redundant offering, this is a gourmand woody scent that has been done before by this house in at least two variants before. The perfume opens with notes of guaiac wood and spices most notably cardamom. The heart begins to display the oud with a prominent coffee, surrounded by saffron and slight hint of ambergris. The perfume settles on a bed of labdanum and tonka bean with Peru balsam and benzoin. The slight masculine leaning scent has moderate to strong projection and very good longevity. Overall it’s a pleasing and easy to wear Oud-based scent but if you own Oud Luwak or Oud Picante, it rehashes the same theme. Enjoy!

Agar De Noir is a perfume that develops in its aesthetics around an accord of 'Chocolate Agarwood and Smoky Coffee that instantly refers to the previous compositions of the House, I refer to, Russian Oud and Oud Luwak, and also to a lesser extent to Oud Zhen. Even my fear was that it would be redundancy for me to bring it to the collection, but despite some similarities this did not happen. In Agar De Noir, a mix of 3 types of 'oud has been used, there are also sweet and spicy elements and the absolute of various ingredients: A Natural Accord of Absolutes that has been woven from Arabica Coffee, Saffron, Indonesian 'Oud and a fabulous sweet and sour saline Ambergris. We also have a Violet Absolute, which is a very surprising and eccentric plant combination in this composition. The most natural and realistic dusty Violet foliage I've ever felt. With the addition of more 'ouds from Laos and India, the latter reduced in my perception, and with this blend of 'ouds that constitute the main pillar of the composition brings the famous aspect of aged wet wood. But also multifaceted, with veneers: dense, viscous, resinous, dark; and with a deeply woody, smoky, animalic and slightly chocolatey profile. Nothing corral/fecal or controversial, sometimes you can feel a slight dirt, but these are nuances that are an interesting change and nothing compared to, for example, Oud De Burgas, where the 'oud itself becomes so "barn" that sometimes for a user unfamiliar with these types it can cause strangeness. In Agar De Noir the fragrance is composed of Resins, Balms, Aromatic Spiced Herbs and even an unusual and exotic note of Arnica that warm up the entire composition. Agar De Noir, like its predecessors mentioned at the beginning, has weight, is dark, mysterious, and certainly not an easy scent. For most users, it will take several sessions of use to fully understand and appreciate it. On a scale of 'difficulties' of the 'ouds Areej Le Dore that I quoted above, I would classify Agar De Noir as more difficult than Russian Oud, but easier than Oud Zhen and Oud Luwak which are even more similar. Delicious fragrance that calls for mild temperatures. Very good performance! Agar De Noir 🪵☕️🍫🤎😋

I am not an afficianado of Areej le Doré fragrances or oud fragrances in general, so I will keep this review brief and geared toward a more general niche perfume audience. Agar de Noir is the blissful marriage of a violet fougère and and a dark and unctuous oriental accord. The fougère half of this fragrance is characterized by cool, slightly camphorous herbal notes, a healthy dose of violet, and velvety tonka (a note I think can go awry quite often but here is simply blissful). The oriental half consists of syrupy oud, ambergris, and a classic amber accord. The two halves are bridged by spices and airily pungent hawthorn, resulting in a blend that is greater than the sum of its parts. In my mind this stands with Marissa Zappas’ Violette Hay and Hiram Green’s Arcadia in a gradient of wistful niche twists on the fougère genre ranging from Ms. Zappas’ water color wash to Russian Adam’s potent creation. Indeed, I am relieved that Agar de Noir’s potency actually makes it awkward for me personally, being too brooding for regular daytime wear and simply not the kind of thing I reach for in the evening. Personal utility aside, this is a wonderful and intriguing composition worth getting your nose on if you are a fan of either oud ambers or daring fougères.

Sweet chocolate herbal oud.. I keep on detecting chocolate almost everywhere but not direct and it is mingled with Laotian oud, balsam, indian oud, with a touch of cardamom & calamus. This is a very oudi blend that is sharp rather than smooth, & quite oily. I get some slight ambergris, & some violets. I kept on hearing people say that Adam stated that this blend is the darkest blend that he ever created! and me as other people see, it's not, i see it more powdery oud with gourmet chocolate that settles to a beautiful soft animalic powdery sweet oud that with time it whiffs beauty when you apply it on your cloths. Almost everyone compares this to be similar like "Oud Luwak", well guess what! it's not, although it is like a "Oud Luwak", "Walimah", & "Baikal Gris" mixed together as of the top note only but settles to a more chocolate sweet powdery blend than "Oud Luwak" which settles to a very bitter coffee note. Agar Di Noir is an impressive blend that could be a variation to one of his past fragrances but i see it a stood up blend that does gather quite an attention with it's balsamic Laotian oud. Just be aware that it stains like ink on light colored cloths. Very impressive.

Oriental yet Modern! An oriental masterpiece.. this Extrait opens with a bouquet of ancient apothecary tinctures, cardamom, arnica, calamus, hawthorn, and guaiac wood.. creating an aromatic, almost medicinal herbal bitterness reminiscent of a vintage digestif. The heart reveals a trio of wild ouds from Laos and India, softened by powdery violet and enriched with a proprietary co-absolute of high-mountain Arabica coffee, saffron, and ambergris. The base settles into warm, resinous depths of Peru balsam, benzoin, labdanum, and velvety tonka bean, leaving a trail that is smoky, balsamic, and utterly intoxicating. Such a wonderful and calming oudy coffee-like piece of fragrance. IG: perfumestalk.jo

Areej makes my favorite oud fragrances easily. So I am not really complaining but...They are all quite similar though. Kinda how his musks are similar in each line as well as his florals. Maybe he is just re-releasing the same stuff in different bottles with new names? Are we gunna continue to buy them anyways? Yup. Are people gunna buy them to flip them on ebay for 5x? Yup.

pepto bismol for better or for worse Update: 7/12/2023~ somewhat similar to musk deer by zoologist.... with an amazing drydown... sadly just cant get past the opening (pepto) ... I have to love all phases of a perfume for it to be deemed FBW, this is high quality and enjoyable but I cant justify a full bottple.

I have 8 Areej's but not Luwak. Not easy for me to describe this one but it is possibly my favourite. Its maturing really nicely and is very strong now - just two sprays max. If anything it has some resemblance to W&P with leather undertones but it is its own fragrance really.

Coffee and Oud with violet blended to perfection.Such a nice bold fragrance for Oud lovers.Eventhough it’s complex it’s smells wonderful.Somewhat similar to Oud luwak and Oud zhen but goes in different direction.It lasts on the skin forever.

It's very bold and people will smell it wherever you are, highly recommend for outgoing people