Ocean Noir

I was at a perfume boutique in town, the only one, which does not give me great sensation. The owner sprays half a spray on tester strips and the Sephora worker next door said that she thought they sell fake fragrances. Now, I don't believe the last part. This store must have a deal with Michael Malul London (actually from Ohio) because they have so many of their fragrances and it seems like they are desperate to sell them. The owner said "price is $110, but for you my friend $90" (this is the price you can get it for online from MML website, mind you on discounters it is the same price). But after I said that I have to think about it, the price dropped to $70. I think I could have haggled more, but I felt like $70 is a fair price to ask for this one. Anyway, to the review. You may get the sense that I feel I got scammed with this purchase, but the truth is, I am very happy I got this. The bottle is very nice, hefty, the pressurised atomizer is the first in my collection, which I think is pretty neat. The scent is, generally, marine. I struggle to find other notes than "marine" and the coconut in the opening. The downshift into heart and base is incredibly quiet, to the point where I don't notice a transition as other fragrances do if I am consistently smelling them. Under the ocean's surface, treasures await, a gentle, inviting sweetness and ambery-ness that clings to your skin like the salty sea water after you come out. It is a dark blue scent, but not in a menacing way, but moreso in a pensive way. To me this is sunset on the beach in Peru with my grandparents when I was a child. It is that breeze that the sun carries on its way down over the Pacific. Its the smell of wet sand and sunscreen, the feeling you get when you breathe into your towel after drying your face. It's the knowing that you are away from the real world for a few weeks. It's the smell of new money that is too self-conscious to be loud and presuming, but wants to have a boat with a chef. Its inoffensive and enjoyable at the same time, but distinguished enough from the gourmand trends I see on FragTok. You can wear this any time you want, forget about seasons, but frankly its sillage is on the poor side - it doesn't project well - a trait I have come to appreciate more lately, so probably summer will be better for it. It lasts a long time on my skin with minimal spraying. Great job, Michael Malul. I will cherish this one for a while.

Arguably one of the most unique blind-buy safe fragrances. I say unique because Ocean Noir, while easily being classified as a "blue," "shower gel," or "freshie" scent, there's nothing quite like it that's widely used. It smells both airy and deep at the same time, evoking a sensation of what can only be described as "dark blue." The combination of its amber, musk, citrus, and aquatic accords result in a fine richness that gives the fragrance a darker and sweeter character whilst still retaining a fresh, slightly aquatic profile perfect for the warmer days. I am a fan of musky fragrances, and the way the musk note develops smoothly and warmly in the dry down (whilst still granting a unique richness in the opening) is addictive to my nose. The genre of this fragrance is very mass-appealing and blind-buy safe, although Ocean Noir presents a unique facet to the category with its depth. The performance is far above average for a fresh fragrance. On my skin it can last the whole day from early morning to night (becoming noticeably sweeter, ambery, and less aquatic as the day progresses), and projection remains noticeable throughout the day. It is important to note that I get nose-blind to this fragrance very quickly and easily, which often made me underestimate its performance when I first started wearing it. Overall a fantastic fragrance and one I will always keep purchasing for the summer and any day when I can't decide what to wear.

This isn't your typical blue freshie here. This fragrance has more depth than that. On the opening, I get the sea notes and coconut that are sharp. This has a very tropical vibe going on. This gets a bit darker in the mid, maybe that seaweed. I would characterize this as a deeper blue scent. There's definitely sweetness in here. This dries down to a woody and sweet scent...maybe that Amberwood and tonka beans. To my nose, this is a pretty good scent. Excellent for the beach or vacation in the summer. I can see the wearer lounging in a chair at the beach eating an orange in one hand and a martini in the other, surrounded by coconut trees. Reminder, this opening is sharp sea/tropical and citruses. This lasts on my skin about 7 to 8 hours. The projection is very good for the first 1 to 2 hours. Silage is great at more than arms length until the 6 hour mark. Very good scent! The younger audience may not like this as much with that opening, but this is purely subjective. This is actually a very good versatile scent. May not push off skin as well in cooler months. This is exceptional for the spring and summer months though. Projection: 8 out of 10 Silage: 9 out of 10 Longevity: 8 out of 10 Scent: 9 out of 10 Price: 6.5 out of 10 (depends on where you get this one. Was able to find this for $50, so for me the price was great. But normally these sell for around $100-$150) Overall: 8.5 out of 10

I got a sample that was given to me for free with another purchase and never heard of this brand or scent. It's interesting scent that gets better in the drydown. The best thing about this fragrance is the musk IMO. Not sure if it's my skin but this lasts easily 6+ hours on my skin with strong projection for the first hour and a half. The scent DNA is pretty well known but it has a twist, it's more tropical and the musk makes it stand out. Again the FAR dry down when you get into the musk is when this really shines, absolutely addicting, but you have to get through the invictus style DNA (not my favorite) to get there. I looked it up and to me at least it's a bit overpriced (120 for 100 ml on discounters). If the price goes down by at least half I might consider picking it up but as it stands there's no way I'm paying 100+ for this fragrance. EDIT: I sprayed this on a test strip a week ago and it's still projecting faintly around a foot and a half. People saying this has no longevity might be going through major nose fatigue. This stuff lasts on fabric it seems and on skin I got good performance. Hoping it goes down to 70-80 bucks because I would pick it up because of that beautiful dry down musk.

Its generic, but people over the internet and on fragrantica have said it to death already and people expect it to be some amouage level unique creation 😭 Say what you want about the company though, they are actually based in ohio and have a lot of creations that are eerily similar to popular fragrances. Anyways, my review. This stuff is amazing and people are going noseblind to it, including myself. I get a big burst of something marine smelling and a juicy orange citrus. I also get a sweet undertone coming from the tonka and coconut. About an hour in the citrus starts to die off and you keep some of the marine smell, but the sweet base starts to come out more. It pretty much stays like that until the deep drydown, where its mostly a blue sweetness to me. This is my favorite blue fragrance hands down. Its generic without being boring and thats what I love about it. Coconut is also my favorite note in a fragrance and I can smell it most of the way through. Performance is good, I get a solid 8 to 9 hours. Sillage is mediocre, my girlfriend had to be within an arms length to smell me with 5 sprays on. 9/10

Every fragrance I've had from Michael Malul has had perfect performance. This projected (like, above average projection) off of my skin for a solid 5-6 hours. At the 7 hour mark, where most fragrances are basically done, this fragrance is barely calming down. Not abrasive, or overly strong, but strong enough to constantly give me amazing whiffs all day. I woke up the next morning (sprayed around 4:00PM) and I actually smelled it when I walked to the bathroom for my morning shit. If you cannot smell after 30 minutes, that's 100% nose fatigue and nothing more. A perfect 5-8 sprayer to use for absolutely anything for any season, especially summertime. This fragrance has a kind of elegant, exotic quality that makes the name absolutely fitting, and gives it a good evening vibe that dresses up really nicely. Highly recommend, blind buy safe if you enjoy fragrances such as Y EDP, Le Beau line, or just fresh / sweet / aquatic fragrances in general. I've gatekept this for a while and always enjoy wearing it. Great quality and well blended as well this sings off of my skin

Do not hesitate on this one. It smells like a designer version of nautica voyage with an innovative edge. Great layering scent and on its own. I can’t say that I smell all the notes but this one is aquatic, fresh, a bit sweet and very pleasant. It smells like drinking a blood orange vodka cocktail at the beach. You asked the bartender to make it a virgin but he spiked it cause you’re on vacation. The ocean is welcoming on this one, not scary or full of sharks. An innovative take on an aquatic scent that is truly ahead of its time. In terms of performance, I sprayed it in the morning and I did a lot of sprays but it’s 8pm and I can still smell it on my shirt and it lasted about 6 hours on my skin. Even though I sprayed some Jo Malone wood sage and sea salt on myself, ocean noir is taking center stage, dancing with it but still leading. Safe blind buy at $25 for the travel size and you can get it for $90 bucks on their site. Hoard worthy scent. 10/10 for what it’s shooting for.

Second review on this and I came here just to emphasize that dry down. This is the best part of the entire fragrance and its not the type of dry down that stays as a skin scent, it actually still projects. Shame that I am not as much of a fan of the opening or else I would pick up a bottle. That being said, I'll wait till this gets down to the 60-80 dollar range and at that price point I would buy it just for that musky tropical dry down. A pointer for those complaining about the performance/longevity, you are likely going nose blind. People think that more sprays means more lasting power and that's not always the case, especially with fragrances with a good amount of synthetics (like this one). More sprays will make you go nose blind while choking everyone around you. Instead spray two in the back of the neck and maybe a spray on the wrists. No more than 4 sprays, and allow the sillage to hit you for time to time. Dont spray it on the front, or close to your nose.

If you're like me, who loves the playful, refreshing, and clean scent profile of Hawas, but considers it a tad too juvenile, then Ocean Noir might be for you. Remove the bubblegummines from Hawas, and make it a bit more bright and sparkling, and there's Ocean Noir for you. Judging purely by the scent, this blows other contenders in the shower fresh genre out of the water. This scent profile suits literally anyone of any age in any occasion. Now, the glaring shortcoming of this fragrance is its performance, or the lack thereof. It's abysmal. There's no way around it. If you're in a closed evironment in close quarters, and are prepared to carry a decant with you, then yeah, it gets the job done. But thinking of an outdoors event or a night out? Look the other way, Ocean Noir is not your answer. Such a shame. Overall a terrific office workhorse - but that's about it. Would be a fantastic every-occasion workhorse if it wasn't nerfed by the hilariously bad performance.

Wow this is Great, you can put this blue up there with the Mount Rushmore of blues for sure. Every time I buy a new fragrance I always spray on a shirt and leave out the room for a few minutes . I sprayed and came back in the room a few minutes later and wow, something about the fragrance really reminded me something LV would put out. It has this blue amber salty cloud that lingers in the air.I have the Og bottle I get about 5 to 6 hrs of projection and lasts days on clothes.For a niche fragrance $130 on there website is well worth it, and smells better than $510 Aventus is crazy, which Aventus and imagination are some of favorites but for there prices this Ocean noir does pretty much the same thing with faction of there prices , fresh , clean , office safe, date night etc... very versatile , surprised it haven’t won any awards on fragrantica yet , 12/10 good job Roger, you have a winner here.

Pressurized atomizer pushed out so much juice. Best quality atomizer out of my entire collection. 3-4 sprays is enough. Longevity is phenomenal. Projection is great for the first 1-2 hours. Y'all are going nose blind. I go nose blind to it too, and then randomly pick it up again several hours later. But it's presence is definitely in the air. I think it is the best marine/sea note scent that I have ever smelled. I don't tend to like coconut in perfumery, but it is pleasantly done here. It also has the best amberwood note that I have ever smelled. About a half hour after I sprayed it today, my wife could smell it throughout the whole house. She proceeded to ask me what I was wearing (she doesn't usually care). She said it smelled like palo santo. I am not sure what resin and basalms they used to create the amber wood note, but the final product is near masterful.

I’m just gonna keep this short & sweet.... This fragrance is simply INCREDIBLE! I usually avoid marine & aquatic fragrances so I was hesitant about this one. I smelled it on a test strip & thought it wasn’t bad (certainly better than some of the others I was given to smell). I was dead set on purchasing something that day so I pulled the trigger & got Ocean along with another fragrance buy one get one half off. I’m so glad I did. Finally had the chance to wear it out & I can confidently say Ocean Noir is quite possibly the greatest scent my amateur nose has ever had the pleasure of smelling. It fresh, warm, creamy, yet has this sparkly quality about it that is just beautiful (not to mention, the performance is really good [7-9hrs]). Oh Jesus, this juice is amazing. My new signature scent. Please DON’T get a bottle of this. Leave them all for me!

As far as blue scents go this is probably my favorite one, very clean aquatic blue. The coconut is not overwhelming but rather a nice compliment to pull this together really well. I wear this regularly as an office fragrance but would also work well on a day out in summer. It definitely doesn’t last all day on me, but it doesn’t immediately disappear either. I spray it pretty heavy (6-8 sprays) and it lasts from 9-2 with decent projection in the first 2-3 hours before tapering to a skin scent. I usually reapply something similar around 3-4 which is standard for most of my fragrances. You can grab this for way below retail in the right places, I paid about $45 for mine which is extremely worth it. Scent quality punches way above this price point. For retail for $120 or whatever it is, the performance hate might be more justified.

As much as I love this fragrance, it is not quite suitable for a younger user (specifically a kid in highschool like myself) The opening is gorgeous and aquatic, followed by sweet citrus notes perfectly blended in. As it dries down it becomes very dark, fresh, and aquatic and with a hint of coconut. Thankfully the seaweed note is not recognizable lol. For an EDP it's very subtle and is hard to tell which direction it's coming from which leaves people questioning "where's that coming from? it smells good". I've found 3 sprays is perfect for keeping things subtle but still noticeable. The longevity is great and lasts 9+ hours on skin for me all while still projecting. This fragrance is perfect for anyone over the age of 20 as it is very masculine and mass appealing. Highly reccomend picking this up from a discounter.

One of my favorites now. It’s a pretty basic blue aquatic scent but the coconut adds a really nice roundness to it that just feels pleasant in your nose. I’ve seen mixed reviews on the performance but this lasts and projects on me all day long it’s actually nuclear. 3 sprays around the neck and 2 on each arm sleeve (7 sprays total) and i literally couldn’t get this off my skin. This projected HARD for a solid 7-8 hours to the point where i feel like i oversprayed cause the smell just would not fade. I sprayed at 8am, went to work, went to the gym, came back home at 11pm and i still smell it on my forearms which i didnt even spray directly on skin since i was wearing a long sleeve shirt. Overall this is a 10/10 fragrance it’s very simple and mass appealing and the performance is out of this world for me

I’m a fragrance lover and purchased this at a local perfume store in hopes to introduce it to My husband who does NOT like unnecessary attention. He wore this one day in the summer and it smelled SO good on him I couldn’t stop smelling him. I spritz 3 sprays on myself. We went out together and kept getting compliments😅 so much that he refused to wear it again in public. A deep blue marine with sweetness, transparency and creamy non-sunscreen coconut & Tonka that lingers and floats. Not sure what others were experiencing with poor longevity and projection, but mine projected for at least 6 feet (mostly good sillage) on well moisturized skin in the humid south for 4 hours then sat closer to the skin. After 6 hours was a small personal bubble.

Let me tell you a story. I’m walking on the sands of Myrtle beach with my mom and I can smell that nice salty fresh breeze of the ocean I often find myself missing that smell when I go back to my home around East Tennessee so as the story goes I find myself at a fragrance shop you know like the ones at tanger outlets I’m smelling various expensive French colognes and yeah they all smell nice but nothing I’m willing to spend 150+ on yeah any ways i get to the final bottle I wanted to smell and as the cap reached my nose there I was back in Myrtle beach at night with my mom walking the hotel strips collecting seashells and now I can forever remember those times with this beautiful smell Projection 7/10 Longevity 7.5/10 Smell 10/10

i was visiting a perfume store looking for discontinued fragrances and a sales person sprayed this on a paper then magic started yes! first sniff i decided to buy it.yes i like it a lot. i didn’t know about this michael malul ocean noir ‘ the freshness of the opening with that marine vibe then comes some type of smoky coconut , this fragrance is airy so i didn’t expect that ‘ that’s a 10! when settles on skin i get a clean musk maybe because the tonka bean . Note this is not dylan blue or smells like that. this has a blue de chanel vibe but not 100% . this is a really good blue fragrance honestly’ or signature scent for work ,casual, everyday , day night time too. michael malul surprised me . i wasn’t expecting this.

2nd review here. It's been over 2 years since that review. Wearing this fragrance today for the first time in awhile since the temps are warming up a bit. Sprayed on at 6am, still humming strong at 3:30pm. Only 4 sprays, 2 on the neck and 2 on the arms. Just a joy to sit with and experience. No note stands out more than the other as this fragrance is masterfully blended, but if I have to...the notes that continues to grace my olfactive scents are the sea notes, coconut, resting on the tonka beans and musk. It's not the most expensive juice, but that's subjective these days. Too good to be a daily driver though, a bit more of a selective juice. Hope you all enjoy this fragrance as much as I have!

Got a travel size of Ocean Noir in a Michael Malul box set I picked up at Fragrance Outlet for 50% off. Loved it so much I just picked up a full size bottle at Perfumania during their Black Friday sale for $52.50+tax . This stuff smells absolutely divine and lasts at least 7 hours for me. It is not a projection monster but it makes up for that with how complex and layered the fragrance is. Sweet tangelo, fresh aquatic notes, hint of coconut, a bit of warmth and creaminess from the base notes. It's like sitting under a coconut tree on a warm day at the beach, drinking a cold Cactus Cooler. Or something similar. Excellent spring/summer/warm weather fragrance. Downright intoxicating.