Amour Nocturne

THIS IS LOVELY . Review of official carded sample and then original, gold cap bottle (they smell identical)- THIS is what I thought BACK TO BLACK By Kilian was going to smell like! On my skin I get smokey, honey carmel with a darkness that stays silky smooth at every step. SO Sexy! THIS is more befitting of the memory of Amy Winehouse! (Rather than the sickly sweet honey without any grunge or depth that was my experience with B2B.) THIS wonderful creation brings to mind classic winged eyeliner, a tough leather jacket, and a gun... target practice in the woods with a flask of honey whiskey after. (Which might be unreasonably special to me considering I'm an Alaskan). An intriguing, sweet, seductive scent with a note of danger. Perfectly unisex. Completely addictive. Sweetness with an edge speaks to my soul and AMOUR NOCTURNE calls to me. P.S. Full bottle is on the way. Due to the unique composition I will try this as a signature scent but will have to find a place for it to shine. This is richly layered and intriguing, it would garner too much attention to be professional. This might be best during off hours. Will update. UPDATE Even my 4-year-old niece, who is my harshest critic when it comes to fragrances, really likes this one and says it's "yum". Pairs perfectly with black leather jackets which are staples in my wardrobe. Bought a back-up bottle. NOTE I'm not sure why this is compared to T.F. BLACK ORCHID as I find that one to be a patchouli bomb and this one has NO PATCHOULI at all (thank-goodness). This also has very strong smoke and honey notes that are completely missing in BLACK ORCHID. Though I can understand why they could inspire a similar rebelious mood. I totally agree with PeachK, this does NOT resemble Tokyo Milk Dark BULLETPROOF, although that is another one I enjoy. It's an unusual scent that has a bit of a bite or bitterness to balance out the sweetness while successfully staying smooth. If you like that one you might also enjoy this one. PERFORMANCE NOTE Speaking of lasting power, I can still smell it on my skin when I wake up in the morning, which can be 10-12 hours after I put it on. I wonder if the original, gold cap bottles have better longevity than the newer style black ones. Mine are the gold cap, special edition, shorter/rounder yellow glass bottles from the Explosions d'Emotions collection, before they added AMOUR NOCTURNE to their main line. Hope this helps. I have not tried the current formulation in the black bottles.

This was a blind buy and I could not be more happy. Ever since I smelled ELDO's Fin Du Monde, I determined that gunpowder was a unique note that I liked a lot and needed more of. It lacks the BBQ or incense element a lot of smoky fragrances have. Too many times I was drawn into trying a perfume because it listed smoke as a note, but just got artificial bacon or backyard smoker. On me, Amour Nocturne opens with cedary pencil shavings that are immediately balanced with an unobtrusive flower and milky, salted caramel. I like when flowers play a supporting or tandem role rather than trying to steal the show. The gunpowder is subtle, but still adds a memory of kettle corn that instantly conjures a summertime carnival. The caramel is not a sickly, saccharine one! This is far from scented candle territory and is very similar to caramel made from scratch on the stove. For a split second, I whiffed the dreaded dill pickle note some other have mentioned. Luckily it disappeared as fast as it came. But I see you stealth pickle! A little gourmand, a little edgy, I am supremely digging this almost skin-scent that feels very natural and soft. Instead of a night-vibe, I am getting more "lazy Sunday morning" (MMM's fragrance, which is more laundry based). To compare, ELDO's Fin Du Monde is spicier and harsher. The carrot seed, cumin, and pepper penetrate the buttery gunpowder, where this one languishes in creamy sweetness. I wonder how they will do layered? Ultimately, what tipped me over the edge into purchasing this was another reviewer's mention of one of my all-time favorite perfumes: Mariella Burani's Mariella Burani. I totally get what they are alluding to when they say there is a similarity, but it is hard to articulate what exactly that is (it is probably the tonka, rosewood, amber, vanilla, sandalwood, benzoin, and unlisted powder notes that are combining to create such witchery). I disagree, however, that: 1. You can find MB: MB for $20 on the internet (you can't) 2. MB is a caramel scent (it's not) 3. Amour Nocturne isn't intriguing (it is) This is truly a unique and lovely fragrance that I am glad is not discontinued. It is a perfect daily driver and special occasion perfume all wrapped into one. I love it.

For a gourmand lover like me, a caramel note is a good sight at first, but it can become cloying quite fast. However, here it stands together with a milky feel(I don't really enjoy the smell of hot milk and here I felt only a glimpse of it, fortunately) and a slightly powdery combination of orchid and vanilla - or maybe it's the orchid itself, I'm not sure. This combination is an unusual opening for sure. It gives a feel of a thin-textured cloud with the just right amount of sweetness and powderiness. The allmighty gunpowder note arrives a bit later. Now, I have no clue what gunpowder smells like, but the note I get is metallic and dry with a somewhat smoky quality. The interchange between pastry-like opening and the ground metal is unlike anything I've smelled in my life and I like it very much. The drydown is rather familiar as it adds a slightly synthetic cedar note which overwhelms the rest, but, honestly, I do not care about the drydown when the earlier phases are this special. The longevity of Amour Nocturne is very solid on my skin, with a nice projecting wave to follow it. This is a definition of a unisex scent, either gender can wear this one with equal success. I see this mostly as a midseason scent, but it can be worn whenever, with adjusted application. The scent itself is more linear than complex, but it cannot be put into any of those two categories. The one thing I'll never learn to like about this scent is the different-than-usual L'Artisan bottle, but I guess that's just me, and is more because I love the iconic look of a standard bottle than because this one isn't nice. Also, it's quite expensive, both compared to other L'Artisans and generally speaking. However, this is a magnificent scent in my book, a very unusual gourmand, and certainly the best of this Explosions d'Emotions collection. 9/10

Amour Nocturne would be on the shelf of my top 5 all time favorites if I could bring myself to demote any of the beauties already there. And since my stupid-large collection now exceeds, ahem... 700 bottles, I'd say position #6 represents a pretty darn good recommendation. No question about it, it's gunpowder that makes Amour Nocturne so special, so unique. Without it AN would still be a delicious, milky caramel gourmand treat and a MUST HAVE for every gourmand lover. But the addition of gunpowder to the "recipe" moves AN out of the kitchen/sweetshop and into a delightful nighttime summer vacation experience of enjoying a big bag of caramel corn while watching a brilliant fireworks display. Delicious, gooey caramel with a surprising pop & bang of tangy smoke. Pure pleasure! Every time I spray it on my eyes close with happiness and I'm not only sniffing my wrists, I'm tempted to lick them. I vaguely, but only vaguely sense a bit of cedar that seems to serve as a solid foundation for all the sweet & tangy bits but orchid is too elusive for this nose to parse out. No way would I have guessed orchid was in the mix if I hadn't seen it in the notes pyramid. There are still many of the discontinued 4.2oz bottles available on line. I've got my back-ups already so all the rest are there waiting for you! Don't miss the chance to have this marvelous summer evening in a bottle for your very own. Edit: In warm weather I couldn't parse out the cedar but on cold, winter chilled skin the cedar note jumps right to the forefront with the caramel and gun powder. And I mean it really, really JUMPS out. No matter how much you might love caramel if you cannot abide cedar then AN will simply not work for you.

Okay, how to put this together. To me, this perfume is so poetic, I cannot even describe it. In Sicily, there are these tiny streets, full of people, screaming and dirt. You can feel a bit lost or even threatened there, something so lively is in the air. And at one point you come to the spot where you have funeral service on one side and baby equipment shop on the other side of this tiny street, opposite one another. It is bizarre, yet so poetic. This perfume reminds me of this. Especially at the start, the gunpowder and smokiness dominate, which smell very churchy and cemetery to me, a bit edgy also. And then the sweet milk comes in, creating something so safe, so innocent, a bit nostalgic and mostly, beautiful. Everything, death and birth blends together and stays blended till the end. I love every single note in this one, like someone would create a scent only for me and I can smell every single note listed. Wow. Like the first reviewer said, the notes here feel as if they weren't smells, but thoughts or feelings. This is true. To me, this perfume is so alive, so inspirational, so poetic. I am an actress and I work in theatre. I often find fragrance for each character and I was thinking which one this could be. But then I figured out that this is not a character fragrance, this is a theatre itself fragrance. This is how theatre smells, how it feels. An old theatre, full of memories, full of inspiration, poetry, life, death, boundaries, hard work, laughter, hedonism, stories, tears, full of everything. Like I've said, I cannot describe it. This is not a perfume, it is an artist.

Amour Nocturne is imho the most interesting and unique out of this line. That doesn't necessarily mean my favorite. It is a very nice gourmand, with this interesting bitter-sweet side that makes me think of Aomassai... a bit of Dzing!... and still very recognizable on its own. It is definitely a shock producing fragrance when you first try... it shows mastery and has a very defined wow factor. However, it is not the one I'd go for since I feel it leans towards feminine (like most of the line btw). If worn by a guy, it gives me the impression of a very elegant and well dressed one (not me lol). I think it really fits the bill if you are looking for a reliable gourmand and and among my friends it has been the "this is it". I personally think you have to check if it doesn't end up bothering a bit your nose with its gunpowder and strong personality. I received my pack of Explosions d'émotions and I admit my first impression of it all was: "How bad this is!!!!" After a few days I started liking a loooot most of the offerings and even if I could well live without, I think it is a well thought collection. You have very well made summery scents... 2 intriguing wintry ones, an animalic but wearable one... a playful chewing gum one and in the whole a sense of group that I respect. If they weren't so feminine for my style I'd definitely would love to have most of them. The coffret with all the collection in 7ml vials is a superb present for any lady friend, so don't miss them when they get on sale!!

I like this one. I'm reviewing from a carded 1.5ml sample. I have unforgettable, which is a clone of black orchid by Alexandria fragrances, and I find amour nocturne has similarities. Possibly just the orchid, but the feeling when wearing it is similar. What I get mostly is the orchid and the gunpowder. I'm almost positive what I'm smelling is this gunpowder note, it's a bit ashy and metallic. Where black orchid to me leans a bit more floral and my opinion also has this beach vibe to it that kind of gives off a coconut like smell, amour nocturne leans more earthy/gourmand (if those 2 could even go together), with some subtle sweet smoke and ash and maybe a bit of a powdery thing underlying. But the orchid for me is very prominent in both fragrances. The smoke with the very subtle sweet note possibly from the combination of caramel and milk reminds me of just almost burnt caramel (if you've made caramel before, you know what that smells like). Mostly I get this just in the opening. I like this scent quite a bit, what I would like is for it to last a bit longer and project a bit more. I wore it to work today and it lasted about 5-6 hours, sprayed probably 10-12 sprays from the sample on clothes and skin and it was just ever so present for about 5 hours then pretty much vanished. Longevity and sillage could be not as good from the sample? I don't know. Overall it's a nice scent, would like to possibly find a bottle if anyone has one they don't like it wants to swap or something.

Another subverted gourmand from L'artisan. This one is absolutely special. When I first applied it I got some sweetness with a strong, bitter, rough note that reminded me almost of pepper or some other bitter spice. After reading the notes I totally recognize the gun powder accord. Yknow on the 4th of july, when the last few fireworks are launched off and theres just a slight haze over everything with that smoky smoldering scent? bingo. Shortly after the firecracker opening, a warm, smooth, sweet caramel note starts to wake up. It grows and grows, and then right before it gets too sweet I suddenly notice that theres a nice, peppery cedar note. Was that there the whole time? I don't know..but it keeps getting more and more prominent. Eventually I was left with a slightly bitter cedar caramel scent that I could not stop sniffing. This is not a fragrance for everyone, its definitely unisex and a little strange at first. But I think if you're not afraid of cedar or gourmands this could be a love. I also imagine it would greatly appeal to fans of Dzing who are looking for something else from the 'strange and sweet' corner of L'artisan. It definitely is not worth the ridiculous retail price but seeing as how it can be found at discounters for less than the normal l'artisans its a big winner. One of my favorites from a house that I thought I was bored of. 8.5/10

Wow, I LOVE this. I was cleaning out my sample stash and found a decant of this from years ago. My goodness it's amazing. Why didn't I try this sooner? I didn't want to love it because the notes seem so weird, but I just do. At first I get a blast of delicious caramel, but a grown up caramel- sweet but not artificial or cloying. Then when the carmel softens, I get the gunpowder and the milk. I cannot describe the gunpowder. It's just there, kind of like the smell of ground up rocks or something. I don't know, but along with the milk, it's smooth, creamy, cozy, and delicious, yet grown up. When it dries down, the woods blend in perfectly with the creamy milk. I'm in heaven. I think the reason I like this so much is that I love gourmands, but I am sort of over the teenager-type, sickly sweet sugar bombs I used to go for. I like a masculine/grown up edge to my sweets, and this does it. Well done. Shame it's been discontinued.

OH MY GOD !!! It has been a minute since I wore this, large collection and all, but DAMN, this is so Goooood! I think I only stopped wearing it because it was discontinued and rare/expensive, but honoring something by not using it is a sick/destructive way to show appreciation. This is going back into my After Hours rotation. COMMENT ON NOTES This is no milky frag, it's smoooth but it you're looking for milk you'll be disappointed! This is sweet Honey caramel and gunpowder smoke with a cedar base. The milk and orchid notes are only to balance and smooth. The drydown is rich, sweet, and agressive! (Please see my previous review for greater detail.) My only experience has been the golden octagon bottles and official carded spray sample from the Explosions d'Emotions collection. I have no knowledge of the reformulation in the black bottle with white label.

I would like to thank my wonderful swap partner for the chance to try this. Let me preface by saying it is absolutely a true stunner and a lovely warmer weather scent. My bottle is the clear glass shorter one in the white box. Upon first spritz I was somewhat nervous. It had a medicinal type vibe. But that vanished in about 10 seconds to all of the notes mentioned on the top of the page. This is a unisex fragrance but a female can very easily pull this one off if she enjoys gourmand smokey scents. I don't feel it to be masculine at all however I would not be turned off smelling this on a male at all. The presentation box is Phenomenal. A stunning white soft felt type box and the bottle within is equally beautiful. All done in a very unisex style. This is definitely going to be a new favorite of mine. And by the way, mine has incredible lasting power.

Oh she's UNIQUE. I hated this at first. But after looking at the notes list, I get it. Wear this to a Beauty Influencer Brunch or when you meet Rihanna, but don't tell her what it is or it'll be the next Fenty fragrance! This one made me realize I like gunpowder notes. Gunpowder adds that addictive odd sharpness (at opening) to a fragrance, if that's your thing. It eases to the background quickly. Once it completely dries down, everything blends to smell like watermelon-scented lip gloss in the tin. I also typically do not like orchid notes. NOT longwearing. It's a sophisticated, subtle gourmand that wears / fades / dries down way too fast for it to be a good investment. I'm conflicted because it's unique. The milky, sweet caramel is perfectly balanced with orchid and cedar. I think I'm gonna have to get it.

Stunning masterpiece from one of my favorite perfumer’s, Bertrand Duchaufour. I get all the main notes — caramel, cedar, milk and orchid — and the note that sets this scent apart from others, gunpowder. It’s this note that adds to the contradictions: soft but powerful to sexy but aloof. And it’s gunpowder that gives this scent mysterious connections to metal, smoke and incense. I owned another gunpowder dominant perfume, ELDO's Fin Du Monde but I ended up letting it go. It was just too sharp, too harsh and difficult to wear. I didn’t find it enjoyable though I respected the daring exploration of notes. Amour Nocturne is still firmly in the niche bucket, but what makes it a better perfume is that it’s wearable art. This is a beautiful and complex perfume, it stays close and I love it that way.

It 'an explosion of color,sensuality and surprises you now!! This parfum definitely high level, and unique. I've never heard anything like it,here the perfumer B.Duchaufour created this beautiful scent, which is a veritable "explosion" of pyrotechnical known gourmand and at the same time "dusty" (Thanks to gunpowder). The orchid and cedar give an accent sublime composition, making this perfume phantasmagorical with a veil of mystery. The caramel note is the most noticeable. Good for cold days of autumn or winter... With this fragrance I can once again to confirm the great talent that is B.Duchaufour, surprised me so much... has created this masterpiece hard to forget ,really beautiful. Highly recommended!!! Sillage: 6/10 Longevity: 8/10 Scent: 10/10 Overall: 10/10

I love L'Artisan Dzing! Amour Nocturne smells nothing like it, but I'm quickly falling for it, too. Why one makes me think of the other is this... Both of these fragrances give me the feeling of being at an old-time carnival. Dzing is the big top tent, animals and all that goes along with them. Amour Nocturne is the mid-way. Freshly made caramel apples, buttery popcorn, a breeze brings the scent from the wooden rollercoaster. They've fired off the fireworks, and that oh so lovely gunpowder floats all around me. It is night time, and I'm holding hands with my handsome "crush". Will he kiss me? How could he not? He loves sweet things ;) and he has a thing for going to the shooting range with his dad. Love and fun. That's Amour Nocturne to me.

Amour nocturne opens with a blast of smoky, metallic gunpowder. Unlike many perfumes with "weird" notes, you can actually make them out clear as day here. However, that blast of gunpowder only lasts for a few seconds, quickly giving way to delicious creamy vanilla and realistic caramel. The gunpowder still lingers in the background but it is now only a shadow of what it started as, and rather than having a pronounced metallic scent, it just adds a nice coolness that makes the whole composition smell like... ice cream! Vanilla ice cream with caramel swirls. It's not exactly what I'd expect from a perfume called Amour Nocturne, but I love it. PS. I actually got a compliment on this today, and believe me when I say I NEVER get compliments.

This is a superb nutty lactonic. Korrigan also has this note, and it's catnip to me. The same gunpowder as Chinatown, and again, that gunpowder note is a favourite. All the Explosions series are very distinctive, but this is the one I really picked out and bought 3 bottles of. It lasts all day too. I've also smelled this nutty milky note in some fig scents, but I'm relieved there's no fig present here. I notice cedar is often backing up lactonic scents, it must be a natural partnership, because this is smooth. Another Duchaufour stroke of genius. Not a blind buy - you have to want that nutty milk - but I'm a big fan. And again if you like this, Korrigan is a logical next step. Yum x

I received my decants of this line from the magic world of perfume lovers a few years ago and instantly loved them all, which was at the time very much against the general consensus. But I love sweet rich perfumes and I found I wanted full bottles as I ran out. Lo and behold they started showing up at the discounters! This one is probably my favourite. I adore the strange metallic gunpowder note juxtaposed with milky caramel and rich florals. The quality is great, it lasts and projects. I hope many other perfume lovers have found these for good prices, although considering the stratospheric costs now in the perfume world they were good value even at original price!

Wow, this is still developing on my skin at the moment, but I knew from the past experience of Douchafour's signature style that this would excite my senses! I crave fragrances with the slightest juxtaposition of notes. I read with interest the descriptions given by others and couldn't wait any longer for the contrast of sweet and full caramel, softened and lifted at once by the milky notes, the deliciousness edible sweetness made fresh and new with the sharpness of the gunpowder note which clears the palette and gives you another bite of dessert all at once. I'll be sniffing this happily as I close my eyes for sleep tonight. Love it.

Very sweet and feminine incense-y gunpowder on the first blast, that mellows down to a sweet and gourmand caramel milk with a twist... The equivalent of pastel goth in a perfume. It’s actually pretty strong. Definitely something that you need to wear for yourself and savour. It can be your little secret ;) It’s cute, it’s comforting and it’s very wearable. Too bad it’s been discontinued, it’s absolutely incredible and really unique ! I’ve never ever smelt anything like it before. In my opinion, completely blind buy safe and worthy. My sibling told me it made them hungry so I suppose it falls right into gourmand territory :)