L'Heure Exquise

By far my favourite Bortnikoff. I experienced around 12 of his fragrances and thought he couldn't get any better until I tried the 2020 version of this (I think some of the reviews here refer to the first batch which I never had the chance to smell and reportedly had a stronger oud which I guess explains some challenging smells you can't find anywhere now). Together with Oud Maximus and Musk Khabib, L'Heure Exquise offers a perfect trio to get the best Dima has been able to reach so far imho. Not the easiest, nor the most mass appealing perhaps, but imo the best made, best ingredients, best blends... three jewels that deserve all the raves you've read here and more. I see a link between this jewel and two other fragrances from the same brand, Lucky Oud and Amber Cologne. It doesn't smell like either of those in the first moment when an explosion of top notch flowers, spices, bitter cocoa and rubbery oud strike and dazzle your senses but it definitely shares the chocky floriental dna of Lucky Oud without getting weird at any moment or too sweet like LO sometimes does to me and definitely cocoa here is handled much more harmoniously at the back, bitter, elegant, only in a supporting role. So I don't see L'HE as a gourmand really... every ingredient has its starring moment... notes that appear and disappear... but it is essentially a floral with guests performing golden moments in a seamless blend, if that makes any sense. Then L'HE transforms dramatically into a mouthwatering ambergris bomb and the connection to Amber Cologne is evident, think of a stronger AC in its ambergris phase without the citrus (which is my dealbreaker in that one unfo) with champaca, bitter oud and the softest of spices lurking in the back... salty saliva fest indeed. So my only word of caveat is: if you dislike ambergris in all its glory or flowers galore such as tuberose in Tubereuse Criminelle (here champaca and jasmin)... then perhaps it's not for you. Lovers of unisex florals, the best materials and performance... give it a try! I am hooked. PS: yes, it also smells like the best tutti frutti chewing gum you'll ever come across!!! I never thought it could carry such sexy connotations.

I've been waiting on reviewing this one till I'd really gotten a good feeling for it, but I still will not be able to do it justice. This is an unsung gem in the Bortnikoff lineup - maybe even a masterpiece. I can't compare it to anything I've smelled before. Here goes nothing. The first thing I smell is the brightness of champaca and jasmine, the richness of cacao, the sharp woodiness of cedar and camphor, and the beautiful chocolatey bitterness of Vietnamese oud. It keeps you guessing - is it a gourmand? Not quite. Woody? Definitely. Resinous? Yep. Floral? Of course. Oud? It subtly makes its presence known early and sticks around. As it dries down the sweetness of the florals dies away completely and gives way to bitter oud, cypriol, myrrh, camphor and salty ambergris. The transition is quite breathtaking - like you're getting two completely different fragrances in one. I'm at a loss for words in trying to explain what this smells like. The best I can convey is that it's sharply woody/camphorous with a gentle floral/resinous sweetness at the top which dries down to very bitter woods. You really have to experience it for yourself. It's the kind of scent that fragrance enthusiasts will love to dissect. In my opinion, it falls under the category of wearable art. And it IS wearable. For all its complexity it is an absolute pleasure to wear. You owe it to yourself to wear at least a decant's worth if you like unique fragrances.

The eagle has landed, all the way from Thailand delivering one of the most exquisite oud perfumes ever made. Since the very first moment I smelled it from a sample vial , I knew this was something truly special. L’Heure Exquise unfolds on skin with radiant citruses and the extravagance of exotic flowers perfuming the photorealistic cacao note adding a floral gourmand chocolate dimension to the star of the show “oud”. As the composition warms up on skin the duality of indonesian and vietnamese oud begin to wrap the exotic champaca and jasmine, and ambergris adds a sweet mineral touch of exoticism, along with the incredibly long lasting cacao note, and spicy cardamom nuances. Throughout it’s development, L’Heure Exquise features slight animalic facets, sometimes leathery and dry, incredibly dark , woody, with a resinous quality. Overall, L’Heure Exquise is a super complex and intoxicating concoction, very intriguing, rare, it’s uniqueness makes it a true jewel for true perfume lovers, also the scent possesses gigantic lasting power and room filling projection. I’m so impressed with L’Heure Exquise and Oud Maximus, I can’t pick one over the other as a favorite, as they’re equally stunning.

What can i day about such a wonderful perfume! The opening is very intense and dirty, with all these ápices and a very and medicinal noticeable oud. I has on the background this tipical Barn smell which is at the same time diagusting but very addictibe that most oud perfumes have. With the deydown the cocoa, champava and flowers begin yo appear making the fragance a bit less sweet but much nicer and weareable. After one hour the amber gets protagonismo and the fragance is fabulous. It is still Spicy and remember me a lot, even when It is not listed, to the smell of White pepper, maybe because if the mix between the clove and the Jasmine... I would recommend this perfume to all the ápices and strong fragances lovers, although the dry down is much more subtle. Scent: 9.5 Longevity: 9 Sillage: 8 Originality: 9 Versatility: 5 Quality/price: 5 ( It is expensive but has a very good quality) Global: 8 5

In my humble opinion, L'heure Exquise is an abstract Masterpiece by Bortnikoff, and the most interesting from the ones I have tried. It takes patience to appreciate it, I found it overwhelming the first time I tried it. I don't think it's a crowdpleaser, actually no one liked it in my entourage, and they laughed at me because of the price I payed for it. But then, when you train your nose and start understanding its different facets, it becomes addictive and a scent that makes you contemplative to its complexity... at least for me. It is a spicy, tropical florals concoction with a rich oceanic/sea vibe because of the prominent Ambergris note, and a dark sweet background thanks to the VERY natural Tonka bean. It is like having a cocktail in Krabi, yet it has the Parisian Dandy vibe to it. Not a safe blind buy, try it first ! 9.5/10 , great Job Dmitry !

Big. League. Chew. Bubblegum, but in the best possible way, and only in the silliage. On skin, this opens with an intense medicinal Oud, as well as a sweet ambergris, and dries down to milk chocolate, with whispy white woods lurking underneath. This is just plain fun and wearable. Completely unisex. I can literally see myself wearing this outside a Parisian cafe at sunset, sipping a hot coco on a cool fall evening. The longevity on this is great, and the projection is above average. People will notice this on you, and may think you’re chewing the most exquisite bubblegum ever made. If you like sweet fragrances, akin to Bee, Slowdive, or Saint Julep..you may LOVE this. I certainly do.

Bought this blind based off reviews and I amnot disappointed. Per usual this house uses the best ingredients and it lasts forever. The reviews under me are spot on. It's the world's best smelling big league chew. Once it settles its ambery goodness. The whole experience is delightful imho. Once again bortnikoff scents are not necessarily going to please everyone, but I also don't think you will go into a room where people are like wtf is that a hole wearing. And if you run into another frag head they are going to be like wtf are you wearing you glorious man. I say try it, if you don't like it @me.

I use Attar for this, I like it mostly mine. Dmitri Bornikoff manages to elaborate the oils in perfumes with mathematical calculations, which almost always give an excellent result and for this reason, it is one of my favorites, this perfume is also among them. So, if you are looking for an olfactory bomb Dmitry is not for you, but if you want a perfume with good ingredients and that stays on the skin even for 14 hours, with Bortnikoff you spend a lot of money but you spend it well. Dmitry is a great perfumer.

I think this is such a refined and opulent perfume that my review can’t do justice to this scent, It transitions beautifully from top to bottom starting from floral to heavy tobacco facets. The woods used for the drydown are exquisite. Please do yourself a favour and try it. Its performance is also not very intrusive neither too weak, exactly how a perfume should be. The chocolate texture gives this one a delectable feeling once you smell it in the air. Masterpiece fragrance.

Now this is definitely more my speed. Less oud forward and more oud backward. It really doesn't smell like anything else to my nose. The camphor and the clove come together beautifully with the champaca creating a lovely dry, yet sweet spiced scent with subtle floral essences. It does remind me a bit of clove chewing gum which was a selling point for me to purchase the full bottle. Fairly short life span on this, but I can usually get 4-6 hours from it. I love this one!!!

I’m a fan of @muzzbait and @DawnBreaker’s reviews. Have dived into a few blind buys because of them and have never been disappointed. Then after reading some of the other reviews, got a bottle of this for about 43% off. WHAT A STEAL. I am, without doubt, a big fan of Bortnikoff anyways. Still. This scent is so worth the retail cost. I won’t go into the scent profile, plenty of great descriptions here, but do encourage any fraghead to go ahead and pick-up a bottle!

I’ve had a 15ml decant for a few years now and every time I come back to it it smells totally different from what I remember. Right now it smells like a blast of those chocolate Andes mints with Oud, almost gourmand. Very chocolatey and minty/camphorous. This and Sayat Nova are the best I’ve tried from the house. If anyone has a bottle of this or Sayat and is interested in trading I have a bottle of Bort’s Oud Monarch, nearly full and in box.

What else is there to say the two esteemed gentlemen before me haven’t already said? This is a masterpiece. My favorite by Bortnikoff, and probably my favorite fragrance of 2018.

All I get is a rich chocolate with an undertone of menthol, that doesn't last super long...which makes this waaaay overpriced. Cool looking bottle though.

Smells great just let it breathe in an open area before you go anywhere

Absolute gem. A personal favorite.

A pleasing Oriental gourmand with floral facets to it, this is an offering with high quality natural ingredients and has a candy like vibe to it. The perfume opens with notes of bergamot, neroli and cardamom. The heart is a dense woody floral comprising of notes of jasmine, champaca, cacao, cedar, cypriol, camphor, myrrh and cloves. The perfume settles into a dense powdery base of tolu balsam, styrax, oud and ambergris. In spite of so many many dense ingredients, the perfume upon settling is a happy and pleasing scent and like many reviewers have noted has a candy or bubblegum like vibe. Moderate in sillage and projection and long lasting this can be classified as a unisex scent. Enjoy!

It really wasn't all that great when I first sprayed it; I thought it was completely hyped for some strange reason, but then an hour later!! Wow it was so delicious I couldn't stop smelling it! The transformation (from wet dust to Peru balsam + champaca, which reminded me of Benjoin 19) was more shocking than most oud fragrances!

This is a pretty complicated fragrance. To me, it smells like a Chinese incense I smelt in an Asian Grocer one time. Its amazing because I genuinely didn't think I'd smell that in a fragrance. This isn't really a cacao fragrance on *me*. Oud, yes. Not overwhelmingly so, though. I think I like it.

L'heure Exquise was the one of the three new Bortnikoffs I took longest warming up to. Now I feel that it is a beautiful composition of cocoa, florals, resins and spices. it is very unique and not that easy to decribe but if you have a chance, sample it!

It's truly disappointing for fragrance enthusiasts that you haven't mentioned this scent; it's similar to Hearth Criminal Elements, but with less longevity and durability. Your analysis of the scent is rambling and confusing. Especially since you all seem to have very limited and amateurish experience in fragrance appreciation. I'm a fan of Prinn, a master perfumer from Thailand, so I'm very familiar with the perfumery and fragrance-making techniques of Thai products.

Woody green fougere on my skin with waxy floral overtones. Not at all warm, or spicy on my skin. Very linear except for a horrible dry down, which I scrubbed. Mostly a menthol-ish, furniture polish, huge old wooden wardrobe filled with the dusty clothes of an old man who likes barbershop cologne. Smells vaugely op-shop. It's not great for me (middle aged pacific island/very white mixed race woman). Usually very "whenever/wherever" about scent, but genuinely can't imagine this as night fragrance, or for anything special. I can see how it might work, but would recommend a sample first because there are going to be some polar opposite reactions on skin with those notes. Hard no for me.

The exquisite hour. At sunset when the sun has dipped below the horizon, but the stars haven't come out yet. A time of expectation. Represented here by the smell of clove surrounded by balsam, myrrh, oud and woods. Raw organic power having a camphorous moistness. This moist quality, not the wetness of the perfume but a facet of the scent, flaunts an ultra freshness. A raw bracing attribute that's a significant aspect of the aroma. Just as aging some materials improves their fragrance, an immediate use enhances others. It wasn't till after I scrutinized the freshness, I found out that Dmitry Bortnikoff is a new breed of indie perfumer . . . the distiller for his house brand, as well as the nose. Wow and wow again. This explains how some of the ingredients have a just-harvested aura . . . some of it probably was. And why these exclusive batches are small . . . hand distilled and hand blended. Brandishing the dominant clove note, it's even more clear that the ingredients are special. I love the smell of cloves, and this is intense. This is not the polite dried clove of spice cabinets. But the Spice Islands' trade war bounty that screams for the sun and wantonly emits a bold aroma. Add the champaca. The sultriest, heavily sweet flower in the jungle. Pervasive without disturbing the balance, commingled with jasmines that add their own ambrosia. Mixed in, roasted ground cacao, still warm and comforting from the fire. And other dazzlingly hard to obtain materials. The aroma reminds me a little of an untamed Belladogia. Both having a spicy clove amid resins and woods. Perfect for an evening at Bortnikoff's Parisian cafe . . . a dramatic perfume for the artistic setting. L'Heure Exquise was recommended to me by a discerning Fragrantica member. She knows of my love of OCD perfumers who will go to the ends of the earth to find the best and rarest natural ingredients. For a perfumer, finding the ingredient to use is a crucial art in itself. Like Areej Le Dore' who spares no effort or expense, a kindred spirit to Bortnikoff. I have some scents that use materials shaped by the composer. Grown in their own garden or from their own beehives, and several from wildcrafting. But, a talented perfumer who distills . . . this is a rarefied dimension of perfume creation. Scents are never repeated, so you have to snag the ones you love right away. Will have to have a special reserve fund for these elite FB's!

this. this right here is why you spend, like, $10 a ml to experience such expertly mixed perfumery. the ingredients are top of the range, we know that, and for the most part, it's quite a floral, fruity affair, and then, something kicks in after the champaca begins to wane. a japanese wood appears. repeat, a japanese wood appears. I don't know what it is, or if indeed it is a japanese wood, but, for me it transports me to choo inaka japan, having just had a soak in an onsen or sentou (sp?), and just waiting for my wife in the waiting room. she speaks/reads japanese, and I don't, so a lot of what i experience is THROUGH her, and a lot of what i feel is WITHOUT her (japan-wise). anyway, in the waiting rooms, there is usually a gift shop selling local delicacies and/or specialties, and quite often, they have a chunk of wood for sale. of course, i have NO IDEA what the wood used in the traditional onsens is/are, but, i know the smell and of course, what it looks like, and the mid bit of this perfume, about 2 - 3 hours in, smells like the chunks of wood you can get in onsen omiyage shops. the oud in this IS there, but not as loud and distinct as i thought it would be. i've smelt 'real oud' before, and this one is quite chalky and dusty (peacoat and USB-powered hand warmer), and not nearly as 'offensive' as you're expecting. this is amazing perfumery right here. done well, done expertly and done exactly the way it should be done. it takes you on a journey and an experience to behold. probs not my cup of tea, entirely, but worth spraying on and immersing yourself in for the experience... ***EDIT*** about 5 or 6 hours in, the dusty comes through and it is very bearable, in comparison to other ouds from around the way. there is a very comforting element to this scent that i find very intriguing. i'm going to pop it on my neck and live in it to see how much i like it...

Very aptly named, it does remind me of beautiful days spent. Opens with quite a bright note of citruses, bergamot and slightly sharp neroli. Neroli is very gentle and elegant. Neroli is my favored top note and one of the reasons that I love this perfume so much. Few minutes into the spray, while fragile neroli and bright bergamot are enticing you with their flow, champaca comes through and steals the show. The white florals in the middle note are inviting. Come-hither type of sexiness is there. Very risqué. On a deep sniff, you can easily smell those indolic aspects of India Jasmine used in here. Heady and intoxicating. Reminds me of most sensual ruh motia, done right. Few hours into the wearing, you start getting whiffs of resins and woods from the base. A lot is going on this department. Smoky, non-animalic, no barnyard Indonesian and viet oud has been used in the base. I get smoky resinous vibes in the dry down. Very pleasurable. I would say, its a floral oriental with sweet gourmand facets. This perfume is a crowd pleaser as well as gratifying to self. The way Dimitry has blended everything, it seems like a harmonious melody. This is definitely a mist try and a bottle worthy scent.

I have this vintage official little 5ml bottle of Tom Ford’s Champaca Absolute & cannot stand what I’m now sure is that flower because I sense it in this..But this is quite better! But with two of these luckyscent vials I’m still having to dab it on more & more instead of spraying it on..& it doesn’t seem to last, It’s not easy to detect & it’s prob due to how it’s being applied & it’s kind of a shame because I like it! After Lao Oud I thought I may grab up this one, But may end up being another instead outta fear that this too expensive to be weak!

Luxurious white floral with balsams and chocolate -- it might not make sense, but it WORKS. There are scents that don't look like they'd appeal to me (on paper), and end up wowing the HECK out of me -- this was one of those. I sniffed it, I liked it, and then the drydown KNOCKED me out. Superb. I was just UTTERLY speechless. I bought one immediately -- then, I traded another Bort for my back-up of this, and then I got 2 of the attars in that covid-era panic-buying kind of way and regret NOTHING. It's in the pantheon and it belongs there.

The exquisite Barnyard fecal-matter challenge. If you make it: you'll be treated to exotic and timeless luxuries and joys of cosy resins, cacao and gentle, simmering spices, ahhhhhhhhh, NO Not fooled. I've seen this all too many times before; why can't Niches just scrap this 'edgy 2 hour zebra ride' at the introduction of their journeys? Can't they just be tamer, we won't laugh at them or something? Another waste of Quality ingredients and a wonderful scent screaming to get out, but trod under the barnyard hoof. My rating: 4/10

This is not the kind of scent you can just sniff once and immediately understand, it takes repeated wearings to really get a feel for it. I went from wanting to get rid of it, to really enjoying it. I find the clove note mixed with the Oud very comforting and reminiscent of high end Japanese incense. Somehow this manages to be somewhat challenging and complex , but also extremely easy to wear because of the natural ingredients and subtle projection. This is an example of fragrance as art. 5/5

I bought this perfume after an incredible experience with its sample. Somehow it didn't get translated into the bottle I have. It reminds me of smells from a printing press or a musty library. It does last a long time which is fantastic. I will try in multiple environs. to see if I get any different notes.

Sadly, what people speak about reformulations is true. The older juice is resinous and spicy. Truly wonderful. If you can find the older bottle, this is an absolute gem. The newer juice is toned down on the resinous aspect of it, and amped up the florals which makes it sharp and not what it used to be.

I got a decant of this. At first it was rough. And then suddenly, it turns. And I mean turns. Warm, golden, smooth. Resinous woods that feel almost holy. The shift in aura is subtle, but it’s real. It starts off a bit challenging but ultimately becomes something wonderful.

I love Bortnikoff's fragrances but this one was a little too challenging for me. Maybe less champaca and balsams and I'd like it more... but it is definitely very unique I'll give it that. I'll give it some more wearings over time and come back.

Tobacco, cacao, cloves, earty carrots and leathery oud. Lightly camphorous. Definitely focuses on dry, earthy tobacco. Not a love at first sniff but you will become addicted as time goes on.

Smelling this from sample it is similar to Tabac Dore (or vice versa as TD came later I think) yet they do not share many notes but same wet sweet spicy tobacco vibe from both

Our King has bestowed upon you the important task of finding and bringing back the most rare and exotic bubble gum from across the seas. Voila - L'heure exquise.