Dorian's Spleen

This one is classic Bertrand Duchafour sorcery, like something from the L’Artisan archives. It opens with a fairly bright accord of whiskey tang with whispers of stearn black coffee and dark chocolate. Just a sliver of each to convey the idea without trying to recreate perfume chocolate or perfume coffee (which always turns out like a scratch n sniff sticker imo). That intro quickly gives way to a mysterious grey heart of incense ash and jet black tea. The tea is made out of fruity and bitter materials that again convey only slivers of information, the rest stays submerged and obscured in cloudy incense ash. I get the tinges of sulfuric guava or papaya mentioned below but I think they are just part of the bitter aspects of the black tea note, oddly realistic. There is something so compelling about this whole scent where I swear I am having olfactory deja vu. This exact scent tugs at me from my distant memories, asking me to recall where I have smelled it before. Was it an old girlfriend’s perfume? The smell of my old drug dealer’s apartment? I know I have encountered something like this before and the buried memory adds to the appeal of wearing this strange brew. It has that perfect Bertrand Duchafour ratio of attractive to mildly disturbing. Good stuff. 3 out of 5.

Oh my god. Just oh my god. This is the one. They're mugging me on the cost if I lose my mind and full bottle this, but you know what? Worth it. It's just so good. It's surprisingly light and airy for this kind of scent, and the whiskey and caramel are almost fruity. The smoke is there, a clean smoke, and despite my reservations I'm not getting anything dirty or cigarette butt-y from the ash note. I dunno if I get much coffee, but I definitely that rich, almost-berry like dark chocolate. Reminds me very much of Mexican dark chocolate. Spices are a grab bag. Almost thought I was getting some anise on the first smell but this isn't licorice at all. It's just so good. I can see this being a year-round, any occasion banger. I would wear this somewhere black tie just as readily as I would wear it to run errands (though at around $250 for 50 ml, that might be a bit of a dummy move). This is so solid. I liked Altamura, but this is the king of this line for me. Jeez.

The themes of this perfume are addictions. That should already let you know how this fragrance will reflect. It’s so so easy to wear, beautifully experimental and artistically refined. It smells like everything that you shouldn’t be putting in your body and everything you want to, need to. Bitter dark chocolate, cigarette ash, Irish coffee and the sour air of the red light districts. Be warned at how easily you’ll fall in love with this perfume, it may just be that excess consumes you.

I gave up writing reviews here, but I can't just sit and watch so much injustice done to this perfume. This not your regular spicy boozy perfume. It starts as one, but it develops this sour ashy note in the heart. I am sick and tired of brands repeating trends. For my standards perfume has to be beautifuly done in it's theme with a special and unique touch, and every L' entropiste I tried untill now checks the boxes. This is art. This is masterpiece.

هذا العطر هو تحفة فنيّة رائحته تنقلني الى ليلة شتاء وبرد قارص وانا اجلس في مقهى مبني من الخشب واحتسي كأسا من الويسكي واستمتع بتدخين سيجارتي التي تنبعث منها رائحة الدخان ورائحة القهوة المطحونة التي تُقَدَّم للزباىن تملىء المكان برائحتها يا للروعة ويا له من مشهد رائع

I was preparing for the worst with this one, the notes were very much promising me an overwhelming headache :D Buuut... It is amazing! The scent is actually subtle and very well-blended, despite the whiskey and the coffee and the spices! I adore this!

Got a sample from Sebastian, TPG mystery box. The smoke and spices remind me of Tennessee barbecue. Spices are strong and mysterious. I can smell a familiar slightly acidic spice that I can't identify. This makes the fragrance unique and compelling.

Smoky and elegant. A gourmand with a soul : rich coffee, dark chocolate, whisky and ash, but never too sweet. Very memorable.

I love it ! This is definitely my favourite fragrance. So intense, elegant and addictive.

Niche quality at its best, beautiful and unqiue, yet so enjoyable and funny scent

It’s a beautiful tobacco fragrance. True masterpiece

I was shocked seeing such a low rating. Bertrand Duchaufour has created hundreds of fragrances. Many great offerings. One of them is Cafe Tabac. I absolutely love that. But, with this, I can see the lower rating. It has been a fun year in my perfume journey. Hopefully I squeak out a couple more reviews prior to it ending. I have found some great finds. Regio, Black Gemstone, Black Moonlight, Crumble Me Softly, Fan Your Flames, Tobacco is My Love Language, and Baraonda. I think Baraonda does whiskey better. I really wanted to like this. My anticipation to try it was sky high. The bottle, the perfumer, the name. I have been waiting to answer "Dorian's Spleen" when someone asked what I was wearing. Glad I only purchased a 5ml travel spray. The whiskey here is stale or sour in the beginning. On tester and skin for me. Just didn't work. It gets better in the drydown. But where some get a nice tobacco, I get an ashtray with chocolate nuances. I would wear it. But certainly not looking to purchase it.

Reviewing a sample from 2025. Dorian's spleen was launched in 2025. This is an elegant ( we are talking Oscar Wilde) gourmand take on a whisky/smoky fragrance. This opens with an earthy vaguely floral accord followed by soft smoke and leather. The coffee and dark chocolate are very subtle. Dry down of ashy tobacco and sweet vanilla with soft spices. Not unique and too polite to be the smell of decadence but very nicely blended by the master of disorder himself. Quality- excellent Unisex - leans masculine Performance- very good As in "The picture of Dorian Gray" wear this to smell as if you have overindulged in cigars, coffee and whisky and somehow still manage to look fabulous. 7.5/10

Starts with dark powdery dry chocolate, then moves onto a gently burning cigar held at a distance. I don’t get much whiskey if at all, but after a while there is a fruity cognac accord; it rises up from the skin in gentle puffs. Dorian’s Spleen is like the air from a gentleman’s club captured in an eye dropper and stored in an airless glass cloche for hundreds of years. It feels still, almost dead, airless, compressed. Although I would say it’s more traditionally masculine, the feeling of ageless and peaceful distance it has makes it pretty unisex. Honestly though it’s for niche perfume admirers, this isn’t a crowd pleaser, it’s too introspective for that. Lasts 6-7 hours on skin.

I smelled this after sample logging a series of really not-great niche perfumes and maybe it's softening my opinion but I do like it a lot. I think it's sort of like seeing a really mid Paul Thomas Anderson movie after watching 3 hours of reality TV: you start to think that even if this is an artist riffing on his own oeuvre, at least it's a good oeuvre. But I'm also a sucker for that sweet clear whiskey thing that's all over the world of amber gourmands lately and while I agree I've smelled it a lot already, I'm not super mad about that either. I wish the coffee here was a lot more pronounced; surprised one reviewer found it acrid or savory. To me it's actually not weird enough.

I tested this blindly (saw a new brand in a local niche store) yesterday and it smelled exactly like a strong black tea with a heafty dose of sugar. The opening was lovely, sort of sparkly even, somewhat barely herbaceous, but the tea-like heart accord bloomed shortly after. It stayed rather monotonous throughout the hours and ended up reminding a cooler watered-down version of the same syropy tea with a whiff of incency spirit when I woke up today. I enjoyed this scent even tho I'm not a big fan of sweet frags, but it lacks depth in my opinion. But I would probably search for a decant of it to have a fun tea party for one

Kahlua, tobacco, chocolate, caramel. What a strange fragrance. But I like it, reminds me of being in Miami. A drunk still zooting from the night before just spilled a colada, mostly coffee and sugar but with the hooch from the previous eventide’s all night booze fest. After a piece the heavy coffee softens and becomes almost effervescent. So far largely a skin scent. I chalk it up to the sprayer. It is a 2ml maison bottled sample. I pumped and I pumped and I pumped. Juice was applied but the volume left in the bottle hardly moved in regard to before and after application.

Holy moly.... The opening is quite harsh, but you definitely get the whiskey, bitter chocolate, coffee, and smoke! It's definitely a work of art and hits the nail on the head regarding good ol' Dorian Grey and his addictions, but it's not pleasant or wearable until about 5 minutes in when it starts to dry down --- at which point it transforms into a beauuuuutiful peachy, smokey tea scent :D @Astieren, just know your review alone made me need to sample this perfume xD

Very few listed notes in common with this one... but I smell a reference to another Duchaufour masterpiece, Jubilation XV... I believe it’s a material meant to mimick oud that’s bringing this out, thought perhaps it is a woody accord that the perfumer favors. I think the boozy/fruity/coffee/chocolate take is a nice update to the raspberry of the original.

Dark, sexy, broody and spicy. It feels like a late night drinking rum in a cigar lounge. Very masculine and bold.