Jasmin Noir

A beautiful aroma. Classy. Elegant, sophisticated, sweet but in the grown up kind of sweet way. Love the black onyx bottle. At the first spray, you detect something sweet, tart and sweet, the licorice. Then the nutty almond and vanilla. The licorice, almond and vanilla give it a gourmand feel but this fragrance is more of a floral woodsy musk and not a gourmand by any means. The licorice persists and keeps this sweet and feminine. The jasmine shines through in the heart and also lingers. I don't detect the gardenia. This is not a white floral bomb as you might imagine with a 2 note pair of gardenia and jasmine. On me it's just jasmine with other stuff. The scent is soft and not throwing out a lot of sillage unless you over spray. It's dark and musky, spicy, slightly green like being in a green forest having a candlelit dinner with your man. Night blooming jasmine bushes all around. The dry down is musk and patchouli. A warm and cozy musk. The precious woods are dark woods and not distinct or specific i.e. oak wood sandalwood it's just some vague woods like looking at a hazy scene in winter of dark pine trees. I'm picking up on a leather note too. Like the inside of an expensive designer handbag made of leather. Black leather. The musky leather scent is so beautiful and smooth, making the dry down one of the best parts of the scent, as it mixes and mingles with the green notes and patchouli. There is definite patchouli but it's not a big player as compared to the musk at the dry down and as it fades away. If you like fragrances like Mugler's Alien this is a little bit like that but less powerful. Also reminds me of Crystal Noir by Versace. If you have experienced and enjoyed Alien and Crystal Noir then you'll surely love Jasmin Noir. It's warm and spicy, jasmine-floral, nuanced with gourmand edges of almond, licorice and a dark vanilla or tonka bean. This lasts over 4 hours but not all day. Great for fall and winter and to wear with dressy dressed up formal wear. You know for like a fancy dinner date. There is also an intellectual and melancholy brunette vibe. This is not for some teen age or early 20's girl who goes night clubbing and has over 5 thousand friends on her social media following her. She doesn't depend on that and defines herself by being herself and not caring about trends and popularity. Jasmine noir is deep and mature with a kind of independent woman successful but brainy and aloof hard to get to know her kind of scent. It's complex and has a lot going on. If you like leather, jasmine, and vanilla you'll definitely love it. Enchanting fragrance.

Oh, what a pretty and sophisticated perfume! I know that a lot of people consider this to be a "nighttime" fragrance, but I honestly think this can totally be worn during the day if you use a light hand. If I had to describe this fragrance, it would be a "warm white floral." The notes that stand out the most for me are definitely the jasmine, gardenia, and almond. Jasmine is one of my favorite floral notes in a perfume and I think it smells very fresh and beautiful here. The gardenia adds a little touch of sweetness to the jasmine, and the almond adds a nutty quality to it. On my skin, the other stand out notes are the licorice, tonka bean, and musk. The licorice adds a certain subtle spice to it that is reminiscent of root beer to my nose, and the tonka bean is used great here to prevent the sweeter notes from becoming too sweet (instead, the tonka bean makes the sweet notes smoother and creamier instead of just sugary). The musk adds a clean and powdery vibe to the perfume, to the point where I think it actually "lightens up" the fragrance, which is why I can see this being pulled off during the daytime. Also, because of the levity that the musk brings, I honestly would wear this during the Spring and Summertime at night as well. Personally, I don't think that the green notes and the patchouli really stand out so much, because I don't think it smells "earthy" at all. The florals definitely overpower anything "green" I might be smelling on my skin, I think. I would say that this perfume is basically the lighter version of Dior's Hypnotic Poison in the sense that I can see people saying that there's a slight "Play Doh" or "Root Beer" vibe to this perfume. I think that if you enjoy Hypnotic Poison, then Jasmin Noir is definitely worth checking out if you want a lighter option. My only "downside" to this perfume is the longevity. It doesn't last very long on my skin ... But that's something I'm willing to deal with because I love the scent so much. I also think that makes this perfume the very opposite of cloying, which is a very good thing for a lot of people (like myself). Overall, I love this perfume. I feel very "put together" when wearing this. I think it's professional enough to wear in a work environment (if you use a light hand, of course), I think it's pretty enough to wear out, and I think it's sexy enough to wear on a date night. I see this being a "signature perfume" for a lot of women, honestly!

I remember reading a review about this one probably a decade ago that said something like: "It's so melancholic that I could just sit down and cry." Couldn't agree more. Now, me, being weird as I am, I find melancholic perfumes (and rainy weather!) uplifting. So I have been savoring my bottle of this discontinued beauty like the ultimate treasure. I only wear it in very special fall/winter nights and when I put it on, I know that a memory is about to be made. To my nose, the green notes in the opening live only for a couple of whiffs. After that it's all about this perpetual dance of jasmine and almond notes. Sounds simple, but smells surprisingly complex. Almond notes here are not what you'd expect - think marzipan paste, but sweetened with licorice instead of sugar. What I find most impressive about this fragrance: I am not a fan of any of these notes individually, yet this is my favorite perfume. There's something in a way this is blended... it's pure art. It captures this beautiful, elegant darkness that reminds me of Baudelaire's verses. I know that the campaign for Jasmin Noir revolved heavily around Bvlgari's jewelry (images of which are also being evoked in the bottle's stopper) and buzzwords such as "luxury" and "expensive" were thrown around. This is doing great injustice to the bottle's content, IMHO. It's not about whether or not this is a high-quality perfume (because it indisputably is), it's that Benaim and Labbe created something that transcends earthly categories of "expensive" or "luxurious". As for the description of the woman who wears it, Baudelaire's quote comes to mind once again: "There are women who inspire you with the desire to conquer them and to take your pleasure of them; but this one fills you only with the desire to die slowly beneath her gaze.". Even though I think it's exquisite, I know that this perfume is not for everyone and the ratings (3.77 at the time of writing) reflect that. But if you're a goth-leaning, Baudelaire-loving pluviophile and you see a bottle of this fragrance somewhere, just buy it. You'll see it's made for people like you. It's not just a perfume - it's an experience.

For me, this fragance is a beautiful woman from the fabulous Far-East. She's reserved and polite, almost shy, but some air of mistery lingers around her. She's never harsh or provocative, but her eyes speak about passion. Her snow-white skin treasures the memory of sultry, heady nights. She smiles, but your intuition whispers that she hides a dagger in her clothes. Is she a virtuous wife, or a courtesan, an independent woman or an obedient slave, a virgin or a sex-godess? You cannot make up your mind... Yes, Jasmin noir is incredibly unique. It cannot happen by accident that while there are so many reviews, there's only one single person who has found a fragance thought to be similar. (J'aime la Nuit) I don't know this creation of La perla, so I cannot judge it. The label "erotic" or "sexy" is often misused and abused. Manufacturers think that it's a fascination consumers are not able to resist, when a fragance is thought to be sexy. But I think Jasmin noir is not intended to be passionate or sensual or sexy. Maybe that is the reason of it is so much! It's effortlessly feminine. When I want to wear a sensual fragance, I reach for this. Almond, tonca and woods make a sweet, compact base, which suggests confidence, warmth and emotional stability. From this solid base, the jasmin rambles away whimsically: sometimes 5 meters far, sometimes only 10 cms. This jasmin is absolutely beautiful. It needs skin to bloom: on paper Jasmin noir stays something sweet and pleasant, but not shockingly beautiful. As the name suggests, jasmin is the main theme: it makes the composition vivid and decadent, sensitive and fragile.

If I'm being honest, I have a hard time understanding how this one gets any amount of dislike! This is my first perfume I ever bought for myself and it is still such a beauty. I’ve already written a review more years ago than I thought but I will say I hope they never reformulate this (did they?)! I've had this perfume for over ten years now since when it first came out and recently just bought my second bottle; eagerly awaiting it in the mail. I'm not out of the old bottle quite yet but being low on it, I knew I had to grab another so I'm not out. This one is definitely a “lifer” for me. Always sensual, warming, elegant - it just envelopes me so gorgeously. The sillage is a little blast of heaven that lingers on and on! This one is like nothing else I own. I feel bad for the people getting strong indolic notes! This is all warm, nutty, soft musky, sambac jasmine on me. It's glorious. Big love! Edit: I didn't initially get the licorice comparisons until I realized my mind was going to candy licorice (we always had the red ones when we were little, not the black) and not ANISE HYSSOP which also known as licorice mint. This is a jasmine/anisic bomb and it is perfect to me! If you know any others with this almond/anisic/floral combination, please feel free to DM. Edit: Researched and found that Dior Hypnotic Poison EDP current formulation has a strong licorice note. Ooh la la!