Havana Gold

Starts with salty black liquorice and lightly spiced cinnamon and an unlit cigar... but it’s not sweet. It’s Deep and expensive like the Scandinavian liquorice that you hunt down and the tropical cigars you buy in the Cuban marketplace. Slowly it starts to grow into a smoking tobacco leaves scent and you feel instant luxury from the drop of Benzoin. After 2hrs it settles into mainly Leather and tonka but the joy of deep top notes never really disappears. It’s never too sweet but also never dirty. It’s clean, comforting and rich. It makes you feel like you’ve walked into a red-light smoky jazz bar with the most beautiful humans lurking in the flicking landscape. This is a powerhouse fragrance for the confident man and woman. Leans more masculine. Full Bottle worthy. Will last a lifetime as a little goes a long way.

For me, this fragrance reveals itself in the most beautiful way in cooler weather. The opening slightly reminds me of Kilian Smoking Hot with a subtle touch of Initio Paragon. Spicy, a little smoky and intriguing. As it develops, the scent turns softer and more enveloping. A refined leather note comes forward, smooth and elegant rather than harsh. It blends beautifully with moist tobacco, which adds a mysterious and cozy character. In the drydown warm benzoin wraps everything together, bringing gentle sweetness and smoothness to the composition. Overall, the fragrance feels harmonious, balancing spiciness, tobacco dampness and comforting warmth. It comes across as stylish, deep, and atmospheric - especially enjoyable in colder weather 🧣

Much much better than I expected it to be. DVN have a theme of deep rich perfumes which are unbelievably beautiful yes. But can be a little cloying sometimes This has that rich thread running through it but not cloying in any way. Addictive. Spicy. It’s a perfume that makes you feel dressed up. You’d want to wear your favourite black silky outfit and spray this all over, it’s lux. Don’t let the notes put you off, this is very unisex too. Spray on skin. This immediately goes on my wish list once I’ve used my sample up. This is one of the DVN line that I truly believe it’s worth every penny.

Havana Gold opens with warm tobacco, suede, and a touch of anise and licorice. The tobacco feels rich and full, carrying a soft sweetness that is smooth and intoxicating. There’s warmth, a hint of nostalgia, and a quiet confidence in how it wears. It isn’t daring, loud, groundbreaking, but deeply comforting and beautifully composed. Dries Van Noten captures that golden, lived-in feeling with ease. 💌 Samples available at Nectar Atelier.

Crazy. Usually when things smell this good you have to be atleast three fingers deep into some hard liqeur. I see reviews claiming its a let down, and this scent is as much of a let down as heroïne is, in the sense that now you know you will never find anything better, and that there is a maximum on what good smells like. Its way to expensive, and you will never find this at discounters, but who needs two kindneys right?

A silky rich blend of tobacco and spices that might not be a ground breaking combination, but the execution is very good. The opening with anise complimenting the tobacco works really well and the tobacco is probably the most realistic I have come across and reminds me of unburnt sweet pipe tobacco. All of it sits on a bed of benzoin and tonka that isn’t overly sweet. Good longevity and performance as well.

This deserves all the attention it’s getting. It’s stunning and hits every marker with me. Longevity is insane, and the compliments this gets is crazy. One of my most complimented perfumes and I have 200 perfumes to date. It’s a very sophisticated male scent that oozes smooth tobacco, amber and spice. A very safe blind buy if you’re a tobacco lover.

Tried it yesterday. Perfectly blended. Loved as soon as I smelled it. Tobacvo is not cloying or too heavy and spiced as in Tobacco Vanille. Definitely a fragrance I'll get.

It took me almost two months of smelling my sample and occasionally wearing it, to finally understand: it's Ritter Sport - Rum Raisin Hazelnut. Period.

This fragrance is based on the perfumers most successful idea/ fragrance Which is oud maracuja And the rest seems also derived from one of the best hidden gems that I tried this year which is Thomas de Monaco’s RAW GOLD it performed admirably If you had both fragrances that I mentioned above and you like them probably you will like this one as well To me repetition is not my style so I have both scents mentioned up there so this is not necessary

I love licorice. This add a bit of an edge to the syrup tobacco. I will say this one pulls a bit sweeter than what I would like. I do agree with some reviews saying it does get a little bit dirty in a way, which is nice I do see this is more like a sexy leather jacket guy type of scent. I think it popped out a little bit more Mike than I originally expected, which is nice in my opinion. I will say the price is a bit much in my opinion.

Nice. I don’t get any licorice ,but get fair amount of tobacco and bit of leather. It’s nice and easy , does smell expensive but kind of boring. Remind me very much of tom fords. I have it. I will wear it but it’s nothing special. I expected more but I get compliments and people like it

Havana Gold has been receiving plenty of hype online, which unavoidably piqued my interest. It’s a good perfume, there’s no doubting that, but I don’t believe it deserves the mass of attention it’s getting - but maybe it’s just not my style. I tend to struggle with liquorice in general, I don’t even like the real stuff. Here it’s punchy and sharp, slightly sticky with a dense and heavy tobacco. The dry smokiness of this tobacco is furthered by other vague warm spices and a thick birch-y leather accord. It’s all a bit heavy and cloying for me personally, it traps the air around you so that there’s no space to breathe through it. If you like your perfumes to be that dominating, fair enough. But for me, I’m not a lover of it.

Smells good, but boring af. Like one of those spam-released elixir nuit absolu intense flankers of everything

Gold Havana leans strongly masculine, built around dense tobacco, spices, licorice sweetness and a leathery base. It’s not very original. It feels like a typical tobacco fragrance. Best suited for older men who enjoy collecting tobacco scents.

I find it similar in the dry down to Side Effect. Its a beautiful scent. Originally, I was caught up on the fact that there is barely any tobacco. & the fact that its a pretty basic yet pretty scent. Dries Van upped their prices recently. Its just not worth it atp. Its cool though. I wanted it to smell like a dupe of Tobacolor. Its a boozy liquorice scent. Maybe with some cold tobacco. In my experience with Dries usually one note listed out of the 2 notes one is more prominent. Especially when it comes to the cannabis scents all I get is earthy patchouli. So, fun fact I was drinking absinthe last night. I do a lot of research so I knew there was star anise, liquorice, wormwood, ect. I sprayed this on today.... I almost gaged. This is definitely a boozy ambery absinthe with a little cigar smoke or tobac leaves sitting around. For liquorice I gravitate towards Lheure Vert although they changed the name and scent. I haven't smelled the new scent yet. Like someone else mentioned it is 40% - 50% similar to Tobacolor which is my favorite scent profile rn. Someone else said rum raisin bar. Someone also commented that about Naughty Nonna by Snif. Snif is beautiful but more fruity than this scent. Probably would be a good layering combo. Its not worth $400 but a lot of things aren't now a days. Secondhand or discount from department sure. 3 sprays max. The more it goes into the dry down the more I like it.

My interest is always piqued , when perfume houses toy with the word “Havana”. It conjures up scent “memories” , semi-sweet tobacco leaves , sticky cigar smelling fingers that are tart and sweet , the list goes on and on . As soon as I took a deep sniff of this , I said to myself this is Mugler cuir impertinent! It’s all it . No wiggle room for creativity ! This is what happens when established houses become lazy .

So, I'm not the only one who gets the dry down of Smoking Hot? Glad I didn't buy this expensive arse dupe. 🤣🤣

way too sweet and brash. reminds me of Pi I was shocked how much I disliked it.

Probably the most “perfumey” of any Dries van Noten perfume I’ve tried. Thick rich and dense, with an enshrouding velvety texture. In the beginning there is a little sharpness, and that adds to the dangerous perfumey feel it has and I think it comes from a hefty dose of cypriol. I’ve seen people say it’s the licorice but no, it’s cypriol, poured in with a heavy hand. I think this is what gives this perfume its masculine edge and sets it apart from other similar profiles. Otherwise the first couple stages are not that different from all the other spicy tobacco scents out there, maybe more masculine- definitely more so than Herod, which also has cypriol but much less of it and it is balanced by more sweet, fruity notes. Havana Gold is bolder, a bit more traditionally masculine, and it serves up a gorgeous and approachable leather during the dry down to reinforce that feeling of gentleman’s club. The bottle for HG is absolutely beautiful. I don’t know if that justifies its higher price; that’s for the buyer to decide. This is a perfume you will be able to smell a long time, easily 10 hours.

Another Sweet Tobacco fragrance. There are so many now, and I have so many, that they just become a blur. I will say that the sweet licorice opening of the licorice and star anise is VERY nice. Maybe the best I've experienced. The very dry Tobacco takes over going into the drydown as the sweet licorice subsides. I'm not sure that the 'Sweet' accord should be the number two most prominent as listed in the accord stack on this page. It dominates the opening, but the sweetness diminishes after the opening. And the "Tobacco" accord should probably placed higher in the accord stack since the scent settles into tobacco dominance in the drydown. All in all pretty nice, but over $300? No thanks.

Immediately upon the first spray, it unlocked a childhood memory; walking through the tobacco shop with my father while he procured his pipe tobacco. After the dry down though, that memory was replaced with another; walking through the livestock area at the state fair after he refilled his leather pouch with the afore mentioned tobacco. I can definitely smell the tobacco, licorice, and a hint of the vanilla, but on my skin it turns slightly sour and barnyardish. It's not offensive, since I was raised on a farm with plenty of animals, but not something I want to smell like. I thankfully was able to sample this fragrance of a DVN travel spray set, as I'm still exploring this house.

Doubtlessly an unpopular opinion, but this isn’t doing anything new, it’s not doing anything better, and it’s certainly not doing anything worth $400. It’s nice. It’s likeable. It’s good, even. But it’s a little too much like a candle and doesn’t “breathe” on the dry-down. The notes pyramid smells accurate. I get anise, liquorice, cinnamon, cigar tobacco, cypriol, all of it. But it doesn’t have the note separation you’d expect of something like this, and that coupled with the memory of scented candles and room sprays from about 10 years ago puts me in mind of clone house perfumes. I suppose this is why we sample first, and I’m glad I did.

To me this smells like a rich, Texan cattle rancher, smoking a cigar in the afternoon heat. Mature, manly, tobacco-forward, confident, warm, almost smoldering, with a faint, animalic canvas. Glad others mentioned that it turns kinda skanky-barnyardish on them, so I don't have to feel insane. That is not to say I don't like it, it's a great quality scent and I dont think the funk detracts from the experience. Certainly makes it more challenging though. More testing is in order to see if I could envision myself wearing it and pulling it off. Definitely past my age group.

Really dense sweet synthy mud of tobacco in the opening that smells like every modern niche brand, dries down in a weird sweet place somewhere in between the worlds of Bois talisman and by the fireplace. Good concept weighed down by modern consumer trends. Way too dense and sweet. I think the blend needed to be more restrained and opened up, lots of heavy notes competing with each other. I’m sure it will be a hit though, it checks all the boxes for what people want

In love with this bruh. Idk how to describe it. There's a beautiful contradiction going on. It's so soft and warm, but performs like a MF??? Such a tastefully done tobacco wrapped in beautiful spice. This goes head to head with PDM Herod imo, which is my all-time favorite tobacco fragrance. bloody hell i wish DVN sold smaller bottles cos you're saying i gotta take out a mortgage for ts? 😭😭

Interesting scent, slightly sweet and ambery, with a dry tobacco note that stays the longest until the drydown. Little bit boozy. It feels like a hybrid that has aspects of Tobacco Vanille, Paragon and Halfeti...with a touch of Khamrah Qahwa! Nice, but not very original. A sample is enough for me.

It surprises me that this is talked about so much considering how familiar this is. Dark, spicy, and syrupy sweet; it’s very good don’t get me wrong, but I feel like you could achieve this profile without spending $400.

think rock the myrrh but turn it way up. like smilin’ flash into an open fire. take this to the family party and sit with the uncles and their sweet cigars. sweat a little, eat a little, dance a little.

Not bad but not licorice-y enough for me. It leans masc but i think it has its place in the femme world too. More of a night out frag for me. I just sprayed it but seems like it will be long lasting

I must admit I can't stop smelling it lol. It's really well blended. I feel it leans more mature tho. Like 40+. I imagine this is what Sully from uncharted smells like Lol

Definitely beautiful. That’s it...that’s my post, lol. A full bottle is on the horizon for sure.