El Born

I agree with Arabian Knight. This smells "rum raisin ice-cream" or Rum Cake. Either way, this is deliciousness incumbent, a must have in any gourmand collectors possession. I received two unsolicited compliments today on way to work, one at work... and a few heads turn on the train also. Again this is a simply ravishing fragrance, that anyone one with a sweet tooth will need to have. There's no rum note in this frag, but you will get a hint of it. The Benzoin, Vanilla, Honey & Peru Balsam shine throughout this fragrance. Truly truly unique! Can't speak badly about this jewel. Update: It's not rum...it's licorice I'm picking up...Little hints of it, when the wind blows. I used six sprays...both wrist, back & front of my neck, chest, and front of my shirt. Will I buy this again?...Yes(This time a full bottle). Does this fragrance enter BEAST MODE, good, just okay or weak sauce at best? Sexy Beast Mode. What's the strength of this? EDP. Am I willing to trade this fragrance? No. Should You Skipped It, Sample It First or Blind Buy It? Blind Buy Worthy, hands down!(If you're a gourmand lover). For everyone else, try it via Scentbird or eBay. But get a promo code, so it isn't full price. Can you use it as a unisex scent? Yes. Is it the old, new formulation? New. What's its availability; in production, limited edition or discontinued? In production. SKU Number: 8437011481177 Batch Number: 60301 (Production Date: 2016) Age: 25+ for men & for women 21+ From: ScentBird Size: 8 ML + 100ML Scent: 5/5 (This Is Amazing). Value: 5/5 (Cost $6.19 & $80.00). Sillage: 5/5 (Six feet). Longevity: 5/5 (Ten hours plus). Creativity: 5/5 (Gourmand Bomb & I'm loving it). Projection: 5/5 (Two & a half hours). Versatility: 5/5 (Perfect for the mid-fall, early spring and all of winter, and great for any time of the day). Compliments: 5/5 (Flawless victory). Until next time, I'll catch you on the flipside.

Whew! The opening of this is like walking into a tobacco shop - you want to be repulsed, but somehow keep finding excuses to stay. It's that sweet, slightly vanilla hue tobacco gets while it's virginal, fresh, and uncut; carefully nurtured in the proper humidity, pampered and loved. That's the smell that makes every cigarette smoker secretly, and quite seriously, think about switching to a pipe. And that is exactly El Born's affect. The opening: Solemn, brooding, contemplative, like an Englishman reading in front of a fire, at the precipice of telling us a gripping tale of perseverance and brawn. It is fantastic! And damn well should be at nearly $200 a bottle. (Insert second whew)! I see there are fig, heliotrope, and sandalwood notes present. But I will tell you, it takes tremendous concentration to pull those chords individually, for it truly stays tobacco all the way through. As we approach the heart, and further, the dry down, dusty notes emerge. I struggle to refer to this as a 'powdery' production, for this is terranean - dusty, like the boots of a saddle-weary cowboy, or the cobweb neglect of an abandoned church. Not much effort was placed on frivolous 'pretty' notes, just masculine contours - strong and dependable. There's just something provocative and niche about this scent. It slams us with the formality of a stuffy gentleman, and leaves us wearing the essence of John Wayne. Who wouldn't want to bid that into reality?! Exquisite masculinity for the men, and patriarch-defying solidity for the women. And quite an interesting addition to fall and winter wear.......until you remember again, the price tag staring down your bank account. Whew!

I have fallen in love again - I am turning into some kind of perfume floozy! El Born is delicious. To me there is a strangeness in that I get both a gourmand scent and a woody scent, from one perfume. I almost feel as though I have layered a light gourmand on top of a woody citrus. In the opening, for me woody notes dominate and I almost get a woodsmoke vibe initially and for the first hour or so. Its a really nice note though don't get me wrong. As this woodsmoke and woods with a hint of lemon note settles this is where it feels kind of like layered perfume - there is sandalwood, light clean jasmine, and lemon, and there is also something I find harder to identify, an almost chewy caramel gourmand note, which I guess must be the fig, honey, vanilla and benzoin? I am not sure. Unusually I am actually having a hard time picking out any distinct notes. When I concentrate I can clearly see the lemon, sandalwood and the "chewy caramel", but overall this is blended so well that I just get an overall feel. Kind of a black and white photograph of a city street in summer, looking across an intersection, there is a white square building on the corner, and in the photograph this building alone has been coloured pastel yellow. And I really love this. I have worn my little decant as a sample and then worn it all day today and I have been getting wonderful wafts of scent all day, I still smell fresh even in this heat after 12 hours since applying (with a 1 spray touch up at lunch). This projects well, maybe thats just the heat today, but I have had 2 compliments from people sat 4-6 feet away, and longevity is great. In all, I can see a FB of this in my life!

The very first carner i sniffed was El Borne and it was the one i discarded as an "okay" fragrance. So, Palo Santos and D600 became my favorites and those found my hand on their triggers very often. Until i revisited El Borne again. On initial blast you get an almost citrus like honey note. That honey note is so authentic that you actually feel it dripping down the sprayed area. While the honey note remains in the background after initial dry down, fig joins the party making this blend almost edible. But the note that makes this whole concoction majestic, is Vanilla. Vanilla is unlike any i have smelled in a Gourmand Fragrance, it is buttery smooth and velvety. This mouth watering blend is enveloped by Peru Balsam (not that i know how Peru Balsam smells like but i know how balsamic fragrances does), making this fragrance sophisticated and elegant. I would rank its performance somewhere between D600 and Palo Santos. While it does hold subtle nature of D600, at the same time it has sweet nuance of Palo Santos as well. Longevity is fairy good, lasting for about 6-7 hours. Projection in first hour is around an arms length but soon becomes close to skin, not skin scent mind you but nevertheless very close to skin. If someone passes by very close to you, they will be able to smell you easily. Occasion wise, this can be a perfect office scent as well as Dinner one. Season wise, apart from scorching heat, this would do great in all weather. Recommendation: This is totally lovable fragrance, you just can't hate it. If you like to smell good, you can't go wrong with this fragrance.

El Born has a blend of vanilla and dry, warm honey. Dry and warm to the point of having a powdery appeal. An excellent sandalwood base makes the honey and vanilla’s properties pop effortlessly. Here we flirt a lot with the idea of going gourmand, like french crepes/pastries with boozy, warm, dark brown raisin sauce over them, while not totally getting there as it is balanced by the key element in this one to me: Peru Balsam. Finally I’ve found a fragrance I love and where this note shines. While it helps the slightly darker and boozy part, it is first and foremost sticky and resinous, also a bit sour like pine sap (Helped by Angelica as well here), which brings some great complexity, uniqueness preventing this scent from being too sweet and joining the endless row of straight gourmand choices we can find on the market. It's just like a painting in Picasso Museum in the neighborhood of El Born in Barcelona. One that is easy to appreciate right away yet very different and where you find out more about it and its nuances each time you stare at it. I enjoyed Carner Barcelona’s creation right from the first time and I’m loving it even more with each new wearing. One of the most interesting vanilla or vanilla+ honey fragrances I've tried. It's in the top 3 of my best discoveries of the past few years.

I wasn't expecting much from this fragrance, since it is rare that El Born was mentioned in fragrance recommendations, reviews, and so on. But damn, El Born by Carner Barcelona is an incredibly beautiful fragrance. I think it has a combination of vibes from Naxos by Xerjoff, Ani by Nishane, and some other vanilla/honey fragrances. What I love about this fragrance is that... it is not trying too hard to be unnecessarily sweet, loud, or harsh. It is just very smooth, smoky, creamy, warm, quite complex, and really pleasant. I love the combination of the resinous and balsamic aspects of this fragrance, along with the vanilla, honey, florals, and that slight fruitiness. It is not the strongest/the most potent nor the longest lasting fragrance in my collection (in fact, it is quite far from being the best in the performance aspect), but the smoothness, warmth, and the feeling of comfort when wearing it is the beauty of this fragrance. It lasts for around 8 to 10 hours on my skin, with a very good projection in the first hour or so. It is not a strong projecting fragrance, but that very strong skin scent (at around the 4 hour mark) lasts for a really long time on me. El Born is an awesome fragrance. A very successful blind buy for me!

I had a sizeable decant of this and now it's almost gone. I clung to it dearly. So now that it's almost done after two years, I'll write a review. I can't say I will never buy this one but since I live in a warm climate, it's not at all practical. Maybe for special occasions. It opens extra sweet and resinous, honeyed resins to be exact. It lingers in this mode for some time, until the vanilla kicks in. An extreeeemely smooth and buttery vanilla. It adds such a gourmand edge to this fragrance until you start to get the angelica and fig. It starts to gain a somewhat green/woody nature to it ever so subtly. This is how this fragrance goes to me but I'm sure there is a lot more going on than my nose catches on. Somewhat in the same style of Mugler Pure Tonka to me, almost gourmand but not quite. Excellent, classy sweet scent. Performance is great. Easily 8+ hours of longevity. Projection is pretty killer for the first hour and then starts to become more subdued. It radiates out about the perfect amount for a fragrance like this. Supremely unisex, all ages. I would definitely say only in the cool to cold weather. Could be worn really in any situation as long as the climate is right. Fantastic!

Smelled my El Born decant again a year later and I'm mesmerized. What a stunning sweet intoxicating balsamic pleasure! It's deep, cozy and honey sweet with a wonderful natural vanilla and peru balsam. For me it's not cloynin or sticky but intoxicating and deep. The seductive silage is the best quality of this Barcelona frag and I really got a flashback to the old small streets with foodcafé's and wine bars with antique wooden furniture and cinnamon rolls with coffee. The dry down is very balsamic and creamy with a touch of dark wood. I just love this long lasting perfume and I had to order a 100 ml for a very good price. Lovely artistic stuff from one of my favorite cities. Edit: 1-3-23 After receiving the 100 ml bottle I noticed that this batch is lighter and less balsamic than my one year old decant. And also the opening is fresher and a bit more pleasant. But somehow I think Carner toned down the Peru balsam (unrefined Peru balsam is prohibited by the IFRA regulations), much to my regret. It makes the frag thinner and not as deep and sturdy as my tester. I hope my El Born improves after some maceration in the bottle.

My first scent from this house, and i got to say i am beyond impressed. The opening combo of honey, citrus and angelica backed by a bouquet of resins comes out with high end liquor quality, followed by slightly gourmand qualities mixed with green-woody-rootlike tone thanks to the flowers, fig, vanilla and again the angelica from the opening. The base notes are not as multifaceted, but again high quality and masterfully blended - sweet balsamic woody resinous honeyed vanillic and musky. Got a 50ml bottle from a small local discounter for around 60 euro, have to say beyond excellent for such a quality niche scent. The projection and sillage are not bombastic - have to say that despite the darker profile, this is more of a smooth, soft and sensual scent - which for me increases the versatility and puts it from strictly winter cold to a fall/early spring scent. Longevity - about the same - give it few hours and its close to the skin. Will definitely check other scents from the house if i spot a good deal on them - it might not be as high as Francesca Bianchi or Amouage quality, but the price is also significantly lower.

El Born is seemingly the most currently-discussed fragrance from the Carner Barcelona line-up, and since it's framed in many circles as being vanilla-centric, it's no surprise that it would make the rounds. I agree that vanilla is main player, if I had to choose one, but for me there's a lot more going in El Born, which has a resinous, spicy, floral, and perhaps even citrus side. I get hints of the benzoin, balsam, and jasmine, and perhaps the musk, but the citrus is totally lost in me in opening, so on my skin it comes subtly. Longevity is very good but projection is not impressive for the cold-weather-leaning nature of the fragrance. Still, it's certainly good enough as far as performance. Overall it's lovely and provocative--resinous, spicy, slightly floral/woody. I quite enjoy it, and need to sample it more, but tentatively the only thing about I don't like is the retail pricing ($180 for 100ml, $120 for 50ml on Twisted Lily and other US sources), though I'm told there are much better deals to be found. El Born is a very promising, interesting spin on an otherwise somewhat redundant vanilla genre. 8 out of 10

This already had a like on it and I do recall getting a sample a good while back and I suspect I've written a review already and just not posted it. (I do that a bit) Well I was surprised I wasn't keener to let people know my thoughts because Carner Barcelona's El Born is a fantastic and original fragrance. I say original but I can draw some comparisons even with things I've tried and reviewed recently like Aomassai. However El Born has it's own unique things going on. The opening is very reminiscent of my childhood and I can't quite place what it is? something sweet no doubt. This is a gourmand vanilla steeped in lovely honey, heliotrope angelica with a blast of elemi in the opening and a drydown of peru balm it's pretty special stuff. I love the almost boozy liquorice quality in el born opening and settling few minutes and later on that almond smell from the heliotrope. Yeah it's magic. I'm wishing everything was stronger at the moment so I haven't been commenting in much detail on performance, this isn't massive and due to it's make up a naturally low sitting skin scent.

Fragrance -El Born Carner Barcelona Bottle from - 2017 It was a few years ago,when I encountered the note of peru balasm for the first time.It was love at first sniff and the fragrance was Purple Patchouli by Tom Ford.I'm happy to say that El Born has the same effect on me as Purple Patchouli did. This is a enigmatic,exotic,moderatly sweet,complex and amazing blend of creamy vanilla and resinous peru balsam and benzoin with a nice touch of herbal angelica and citruses and with a wisper of sandalwood. Longevity - 10/10(10+ hours) Silage/Projection - 8/10(moderate to heavy projection for the first 2-3 hours) Weather - best in early spring,autumn and winter. Age - 24+ Compliments - 8/10 Scent - 9,5/10 Main notes according to me - peru balsam,benzoin,vanilla,honey,herbal note. The drydown is a bit woody,musky and resinous and I get some sandalwood,vanilla,peru balsam and musk. Emotions -exotic dream,sexy,enigmatic,seductive,complex. Occasion -perfect for nights out and semi-formal events. You'll get compliments with this one.Try before you buy.

El Born is a magnificent scent! It’s so rich and sweet, heavy on peru balsam, amber and thick honey with angelica, benzoin and some sandalwood. Very pronounced balsamic and resinous character from the very first seconds. Flawlessly blended with the sweetness comings from honey, fig and vanilla. The citrusy notes get lost completely in here though I can smell something slightly fresh in the first minutes. It gets a touch powdery and floral as it gets into dry down but remains as long as it lasts on skin mainly a balsamic amber. Another perfect fragrance for fall weather. It’s so warm and enveloping and intense that it would perform well in the cooler months! Feels like a warm, comforting hug from a loved one on a autumn, cold, rainy day. It’s so complex and delicious and addictive that I need to add it to my collection. This is full bottle worthy through and through for me. Carner Barcelona is such an underrated house, definitely deserves more hype, I love everything that I have tried from them so far!

One of the best vanilla - amber combos! It's not as cozy and dark as the Duelle by Diptyque or vanilla by Le labo. It's also not a soft fresh vanilla like the one in Harvest Mouse by Zoologist. It's not as tooth rotting sweet as the Angels Share by Kilian, and finally it's not as beachy as the Lalibela by Memo. This vanilla - amber stands out. It's bright, but not overly sweet, projects like crazy, is intense and direct, very warm and slightly even spicy. It's a perfect vanilla amber combo. I love it. This is incredibly boozy too but not as boozy as like Side Effect by Initio or Angels Share. This boozy accord is light and more blended. It's also not as cinnamon-heavy. I love El Born, it's an iconic piece, I even owned a full size bottle at some point. Currently I mostly used a decant as it's a fall scent and a decant is enough for me.

Since my fragrance journey began, I've been on the hunt for the perfect vanilla fragrance, since it is definitely amongst my favorite notes when done well. I just received my decant of this two days ago and I can already say that this is easily in my top vanillas of all time. I'm also a gourmand lover so that of course doesn't hurt this frag's rating in my book but either way this is just a beautiful and unique scent. It is a bit powdery but not enough to bother me or make it too femine. Due to olfactory fatigue I rarely rate scents with performance in mind, so with that said I have to give this a 9 or even 9.5 out of 10. May also want to add that the only other scent I have tried from this house is Palo Santo and I was NOT a fan. Unique sure... but the gaiac wood mixed with that strange milk note made it completely unbearable to me.

Sweet honey floral woody gorgeousness. Slightly boozy with a distinct vanilla scent.. how I imagine vanilla liqueur might smell. There are definitely woody undertones, but they're soft and subtle enough to keep it sweet overall. I'm not picking up any citrus at all.. but I'm not super great at identifying individual notes, so it's probably just so well-blended that I can't find it. The fig, on the other hand, is well represented. I'm a big fan of fig in perfumes, so this is a plus for me. Upon dry-down, I'm even getting a hint of tobacco... a sweet, fruity tobacco. Truly lovely! El Born is most definitely going on my want list. I foresee getting a lot of wear out of it. It's sexy, but understated. It's classy, but not stuffy. I'd wear it on a date. I'd wear it to the office. An interesting & versatile winner!

This leans heavily into gourmand territory—more than I personally prefer. It’s not a bad perfume at all; in fact, it’s a well-blended composition and one of the few vanillas I can tolerate. But it reminds me a lot of the sugary icing on a cake or that fine white powdered sugar dusting you find on pastries. There’s nothing wrong with that—it’s just not my style. Completely unisex, though it does tip slightly toward the feminine side thanks to its sweet–boozy–cake–vanilla character. Performance is solid—good longevity and projection, nothing extraordinary but far from disappointing. It’s versatile enough for both day and night wear in colder seasons. I like Carner as a brand—Drakon is one of my top five fragrances, and I enjoy many others in their lineup. This one, however, simply didn’t click with me.

I'm a big fan of amber so there's a bit of bias to my review there, but I literally cannot stop smelling myself when I wear this. On my skin, I get a lot of honey and amber. I'm not usually a honey fan, but this smells like a warm, treacle-y honey, but in a mature way. There's definitely a bit of a fig note underneath the honey, and an almost old-book smell lurking at the very base of this smell when it sits on my skin. I can see why the inspiration for this was the streets of Barcelona. Smelling this makes me wish I was sitting in a small, corner-side coffee shop, reading a thick novel, in the orange sun-drenched Barcelona streets, warm but layered up, with the sounds of people talking and laughing all around me. This smell makes me happy. Really happy. Can't wait to buy a full bottle.

I just started wearing El Born...and while these are my initial impressions, I can't help asking the question: 'why did I not wear this sooner?' This is nice stuff. This is a resinous scent with vanilla and honey and mild spices mixed into it. This is a mildly gourmandish scent and has one of my favourite notes at the base: sandalwood. This is a very nice scent. Most of the fragrances in my collection are in the 'like' category. This is not a 'like' for me thus far...this is a 'love'. Very appealing and sexy! Edit: I'm at a clothing store trying on a suit, and the attractive female sales associate helps put on a suit jacket and gets close to me. 'You smell amazing. What is the name of your cologne. I need to write it down'. Carner Barcelona El Born. Yes, this stuff is great.

El Born is an absolutely delicious, boozy, amber vanilla. Depending on when you're bottle is from, the balsamic notes may it may not be as prominent, with the newer bottles missing that syrupy, woody feature that plays so well with the honey, vanilla, and sandalwood notes. I personally don't get much licorice that others have commented on from the balsamic, BUT this is a scent that I have trouble picking out in general, so YMMV especially if you have a new bottle that's lighter on the balsam. It is very much a unisex scent and can be worn by almost anyone imo. An edible boozy balsamic vanilla gourmand that isn't TOO sweet. Probably one of my most complimented frags. Perfect for cooler weather and lasts ~8hours on the skin and up to days on clothes. (Review on 2016 bottle)