Ensang Noir

I've begun to grow addled from fragrance content, of which so much is a torrent of reductive and vapid twaddle. There are lists upon lists, full of graphics gilded like lilies, suggestions for what seems to be cosplay accompaniments and pairings for new eras of all sorts. It is not so much the fashioning of fragrance as cultural objects as it is a tinderbox for the hedonic treadmill of consumerism. To speak thoughtfully about scent comes at a premium in the attention economy. I shared a Youtube video on what I regarded as ten gothic scents about three years ago, and while I certainly was no pioneer at exploring the concept at the time, there has since been a wellspring of interest in what are perceived as darker, even somewhat more elegiac and macabre scents. Yet the selections chosen often seem a bit too safe and precious for me to regard them as gothic—again, they seem like cosplay accompaniments for those unwilling to commit to an aesthetic. Ensang Noir dares one to commit, while it diffuses a bloody, port wine and burgundy rose and its dark, cabalistic incense. It is a rapier that pierces right into all that is niminy-piminy and dress-up pretend—wet and penetrating, performing a winter ritual among bare poplars lit by a magenta sunset. The narrative engine here is tension and release: acidity and sweetness, poison and remedy, despair and relief. The use of cucumber aldehyde in the opening is a brilliant move on the part of Duchaufour, as it imparts this arresting effect of a cool snap to the already chilling and sharp aliphatic aldehydes. There is a heart of thick, pensive wine-rose with a side shot of Crème de cassis. It is underlined with an unsettling smolder of incense smoke and sweet, tarry resins. This is gothic. This is also pretty damn poetic. It's also commanding, and likely to frighten some. That's why I am not so sure it will make an appearance on a "if you want to smell like Wednesday Addams, wear this" list. I think it's absolutely breathtaking.

This is one of my favorite frags I've tried. It's got a clean, Crystalline, metallic like opening but it quickly settles and becomes a beautiful and jammy rose with some nice incense and smoky under notes. I love that this Rose doesn't smell too...floral? I guess? Like it doesn't evoke grandmas house. My wife said it smelled kind of like wilting roses in a gothic cathedral. Decent scent bubble and longevity. I'm trying a few others but if they don't beat this I would totally get a bottle. My only unrealistic wish is that it was slightly more masculine. But it's definitely unisex. Easy to pull off still if you are a pretty boy or going for Vampire.

Feels like being a kid again, running into a bush of my old neighbours’ prized roses, the kind nobody dared to touch, and getting tiny bloody cuts all over my body that I don’t feel right away because of the adrenaline rush. The cuts only give themselves away by the smell of iron cutting through the air of a breezy summer night. Almost drinkable, as the scent of warm roses makes me want to suck the juice out of my cuts. This one gets my heart pumping. It makes me feel alive. I had it on yesterday and couldn’t take my nose off it like a fiend. It almost felt like I shouldn’t have it. One of my all-time favourites. 10/10

This fragrance is how I imagine the burgundy colour would smell like. I am going to say that it's gorgeous. Someone here said that this would be Wednesday's perfume. I must disagree - it would be Morticia Addams' scent. It is far too deep, feminine and mature for a young girl. I do not see it as gothic, but it's a rather dark, feminine scent. Don't expect blood and metal - none of that is there. Deep rose, mature like wine, supported by patchouli and incense. This is mostly all you're gonna get. I think it's a stunning evening scent, and I normally don't even like rose.

This is a work in which olfactory art evokes visual art. While trying this perfume, various images came to mind: a signing of one's soul to the devil in order to receive one's wish, Robert Mapplethorpe's photograph of roses in the smoke, Joel Peter Witkin's photography, Aubrey Bearsley's illustrations for Salome... I've smelled many perfumes in my life, but I don't think I've experienced many works with such depth. Beauty in the pitch black. In the end, you'll feel like you're being taken somewhere by sweet whispers.

Dark and mysterious beauty, warming and enigmatic, full of contrasts! Nothing sticky or drilling, pure expression of a talent with so many facets. Imagine the notes listed above in ecstatic collision, it took my breath away! Wintertime treasure. The dark red color looks very appropriate.

Fruity, metallic rose. I wasn't a huge fan of Ensang Noir at first because I found it overly metallic on paper, but not in an interesting way like Amouage's Opus X, this smelled a bit odd and unbalanced. This is much better on skin, however, the metallic notes are sent to the background behind this gorgeous deep red rose and juicy blackcurrant. The rose is by far the most predominant part of this fragrance, yet it's a completely unisex fragrance as the rose isn't too bright or sweet, which would make it lean towards the feminine side. Likewise the blackcurrant here isn't sweet either, it just adds a juicy fruitiness to the rose, and the metallic note wraps up the composition by giving it the bloody edge Ensang Noir is aiming for. About 6 hours in an incense note creeps up close on skin, the exact same non-smokey incense from Altamura but dosed much lower, which ends up creating a resinous rose skin scent that's quite likeable. I think this is up there with Blanc Sada as one of the best from the line, not to mention this is also a more "mundane"/straightforward scent profile, if I could put it into words somehow, in comparison to something like Dawn Whispers or even Dorian's Spleen. Performance is just about the same as the other L'Entropistes except Dorian's Spleen, which was kind of beast mode on my skin. Moderate projection with a moderate sillage you'll smell without much of a problem for a couple of hours. Longevity is an easy 8+ hours. Not that this performs bad by any means but for the price I'd like it if they all performed like Dorian's Spleen, which projects moderately for around 10-12 hours and stretches as a skin scent for a total of 18 hours.

First of all I should say this is a sweeter and easier perfume than I expected. A red velvety rose... A ripe rose, dark rose. If you find Rose Tonnerre and/or La Fille de Berlin gothic, you'll find this one gothic too (though I was left slightly hesitant after smelling even darker ones). There's a yeasty feel in the opening, as if a wine feel was the intended goal. From the very start it signals that it's a bold scent, then it takes on an airy, clean and at the same time metallic state. I'm getting a note similar to patchouli, and something leathery. Right at this part (so in the beginning) there's a slightly urinal and sour note that I couldn't like. I wished to get past this part because this sourness isn't in the overall composition. The olibanum, which I didn't find smoky at all in the beginning, descends over the scent like a black mist towards the end. This whole composition will make those imagining a vampiric theme satisfied, because the roses are dark, there's a wine feel present, and if we tie the metallic side to blood (le sang), voilà! But but... I looked for at least a little originality here and couldn't find it, because I feel like I've come across the warm ambery-rose DNA in too many places. After fully drying down it has a longevity of nearly over a day, settling into a quality bold rose oil. Tag(s): velvet dark rose, wine, gothic-ling, vampiric, metallic, leathery

The rose changes from jammy (more enhanced black currant) in the beginning to fresh, juicy, and aldehydic (merged with cucumber) after about 10 minutes and during the dry-down, while keeping its dark, sensual posture throughout. It's like a few petals of peony and magnolia were placed on a rose flower, and when you close your eyes and smell it, you would think, “This rose is a special kind- with a twist.” There is definitely a dark, unsettling feeling about the composition. Even though I don’t get much warmth from it, it still pulls you in in a strange, magnetic type of way. Romantic goth, but not in a dry/decay type of way- more like fresh roses with a dark ribbon around them. My partner said this smells more masculine, but I completely disagree. I rated it as “female,” not even “more female.” The performance is absolutely amazing- strong projection and eternal longevity on tester strips, skin, clothes, etc. A very unique gem. A peculiar fragrance. For this price, I think it could easily become somebody’s special signature and be worth it. Note: Morticia would wear this when Gomez is not home, but as a guilty pleasure. I think she would prefer Romance Noire by Sylhouette Parfums or Les Tourterelles de Zelmis by Oriza.

Considering Ensang Noir’s presentation as a dark, gothic rose as well as its price point, I expected the scent sinking its teeth deep into my skin as a blood-thirsty vampire. Maybe it’s my love for garlic, but things between me and this one were short-lived enough to get the impression that my skin repels it. With all of the above being said, it’s a mesmerizing, moody rose that almost gets me past my overall dislike for rose notes. Another surprise was that fresh, juicy facets came out much stronger to my nose than anything resembling the darkness promised. It’s a goth presence walking through a cold, dewy garden at the brink of spring. Oh, how I love lending my senses to any Duchaufour creation, regardless of whether it ends up being up my alley.

it's as if you've thrown a bucket of water on the face of a beautiful woman, heartbroken and battling death while waiting for her lover, hoping to bring her back to her senses. another smoky, gothic rose fragrance from the mastermind behind antinomie revolte delicate, the love of my life. but this one actually has aldehydes and cucumber notes (which i detect more in the base notes than the top notes).

I don't get it, unfortunately. To me this has the same modern, sludgy, bleugh feel as the recent Amouage perfumes, although it's not as strong. I find it underwhelming, there's no hook, it's just sweet and dull. For the record, this smells absolutely nothing like Opus X.

More complex take on Reine de Nuit. Not better and not worse, just slightly different. This one is sweeter, richer, denser, like theatrical velvet. I like my dark roses to be drier but not as heady as La Fille de Berlin.

Sorry... no. Not in the first spray, not in the painfully slow dry down. Is no one going to say it? Ok I will. This is "vieja coochie" 90s perfume. So heavy. Not cloying, but so loud, sharp, and medicinal, like a sour rose potpourri that's been standing in the bathroom for years. Overuse of notes and they don't marry well. I get medicinal spice from top to dry down.

A big vintage rose casting shadows of animalic, jammy and spicy notes; a rose smell this thick always reminds me of civet and musk. Add some incense and some patchouli, and it fits perfectly into the vampire sub-genre of gothic and fantasy Victorian perfumes. There is also indeed a metallic layer of aldehydes and tart blackcurrant, but I feel it only remotely. After this initial burst, It gets tamer, maybe less exciting, but no less deep and complex. It's a scent for the lovers of vintage glories.

This perfume broke my heart. With how stunningly gorgeous top and heart notes are, it would have been the most epic rose of the century. I felt I should have blind bought the full size bottle after first couple of hours, but in the middle of the night I woke up smelling... dior sauvage. In disbelief I waited a day and sprayed it on the paper, on the 4th day sauvage started walking around the room. I can't believe no one else smells it.

Duchaufour said in some youtube podcast that Ensang Noir have some notes from Paestum Rose of L'eau D'Italie. I do not smell this. Paestum Rose was very nice gloomy rose with shadows and myrrh. Ensang Noir is poignant, hopeless rose. Not bloody - but without a hope. In essence, perfumery is all about the hope and L'enthropiste perfumes do not have hope. They smell pervert, hopeless and mortal.

A work of art! It has a very dissonant, aggressive opening, but half an hour later it settles into an arresting gothic incensey rose with blackcurrant. Very reminiscent of portrait of a lady by Frederic Malle. I can’t figure out which I like best, but I think it’s safe to say that if you like Portrait then you’ll like this one. Considering a full bottle. Strong thumbs up!

This is the scent Morticia Addams was wearing when she and Gomez where at their indoor garden. Gomez playing chess with thing and Morticia taking the red roses from the vase (with leaves, stem and thorns) saying "don't torture yourself Gomez, that's my job...", and immediately after cuts the flower.

Don't know why but in the opening all I smell is blood and incense. Later on less harsh incense, rose and black currant, very juicy, jammy. Interesting perfume for cold days