Musc Noir For Her

One of the Best Day, Office, "My Skin But Better" Scents I recently purchased some samples of many different perfumes and also added a sample of Musc Noir For Her by NR, one of the very few Narciso perfumes I hadn't smelled, and yes, I like this one as well. It is a "my skin but better" fragrance, a "no-perfume perfume". It is by far the most toned down from the For Her collection, it has a fruitness from the plum in the opening, but not juicy-like, but jam plum after some minutes it becomes very slightly flowery and vanilla-y with the slightest touch of almonds and after an hour or two it settles down in the most gorgeous skin-like powdery, creamy musk with suede. If someone wants a clean perfume without the soapy/deodorant/shampoo feeling you are here. I have seen people complain about longevity, but I don't think it's the issue here. Personally, I could still smell it for a solid 7-8 hours after I sprayed it on myself, BUT the sillage is very very intimate. VERY intimate, put your nose on my skin intimate, I could smell it on me, but people around me didn't give it any thought except if they were extremely close to the point of touching me. And this is where Noir comes into play I think. When I first sprayed it on I was so confused with the name Noir, that inclines you towards a darker/ night perfume and this ain't it, but it is an intercourse perfume for sure. It smells so good and so clean and skin-likecreamy powder, but also sweet and slightly fruity, that if you are intimate with someone it will be detectable and they will enjoy it. It is Noir because it's perfect for personal night activities, not for a night out and the bottle/color I think supports that, white/rosy/nude, undetectable and sleek. Loved it, my favorite from the For Her line, I am thinking of a bigger bottle. Not for people who want statement perfumes, perfumes that cling and perfumes with sillage.

I was very hesitant to try the NR perfumes for the longest time because modern musky perfumes seemed to give me headaches. I've smelt them off paper strips and had never been keen enough to try them on skin but somehow decided to give Musc Noir and Musc Noir Rose a go because of the latter's hype. I had each one sprayed on the insides of my elbow and went about my day. At the end of the day plus a sweaty ballet class, MN triumphed and gave me a "my skin but better" kind of vibe. I've looked for this in Glossier's You but it's never really felt like "me". Maybe it was being in ballet gear - the standard leather and suede of ballet shoes and amber/powderiness of the rosin - but it was perfect. It probably helps that I love heliotrope notes in perfumes too. Between the two, the rose flanker felt too commercial and honestly forgettable. With all the hype it gets on social media as well, it's probably permeating the streets more often than I realise. I sat on Musc Noir for a few weeks because I already have a musky perfume in Santa Maria Novella's Muschio Oro but that one smells incredibly soapy and seems to only work best in certain weathers. But I found myself pondering over getting a full bottle and eventually took the dive. I also received a free sample of Pure Musc together with the full bottle but that opens a lot sharper and gives me a headache. The drydown for that smells too much like laundry detergent. Uncomplicated, cosy and pretty easy to wear for a dressed-down day where I'm not in the mood for a loud perfume. I really like Musc Noir a lot more than I'd initially anticipated and would recommend this to people who are looking for skin scents that don't come off like deodorant smells (fresh, citrusy, watery florals, etc.).

When I was 30, about 20 years ago, I was in Germany I think on a stopover and it was the the first time I tested the Narciso Rodriguez perfume, the original. And it was different and gorgeous and I bought it. And it's still special to me. I have gone through my ups and downs, Lovely by SJP is a dupe, and in 2021 I bought this one, Musc Noir Rose for Her, and I still cherish my large bottle, its as beautiful as the day I got it, and it's deep and sexy, soft and powdery, strong and consistent, it melds with the skin like a musk should but it's not going to be shaped. Its DNA is distinctive and strong and able to be layered. There is a comfort, and a sophistication and the DNA imprints on your mind and your psyche and it's comforting. But this musk - musc - is the original to me. Narciso Rodriguez is so beautiful and well done and it's just a bit more fine tuned than the others and for someone who's sensitive to all the notes, from all the angles and all the stages of a perfume as it melds with my nose, and my skin, and the moment in time - this scent is beautiful, feminine and complex. It's like the face of a gorgeous sleek cat - I don't want to name drop - but how beautiful Christy Turlington's face is? Like that. What I mean to say is - comforting, and gorgeous, symmetrical and deep. I have to be VERY careful and mist this perfume sparingly. The longevity for me is almost eternal, I can smell it on me the next morning. Also, for me, the silage is long. I can smell it on me, so I have to be careful not to overspray this one. Or layer it, since for me even though the scent is delicate and "soft", it's very "strong". It's persistent.

i finally got this after craving it from afar for a couple of years, after finding it for a great but not too good to be true price online. I love the NR musk and i love heliotrope, and it really is a great as I'd pictured. A surprising amount of depth and brightness from these simple, potentially heavy notes. The plum isn't overly sweet, it's got just a bit of tartness, and the suede is powdery and warm without going full-leather or too literal. The musk is of course the rich, chewy, slightly sweet, clean-yet-not NR musk, and it pairs very well with the similarly rich cherry-vanilla fuzziness of the heliotrope. edit: the longevity is phenomenal! lasts something like 12+ hours on my skin, and i noticed i could still smell the mostly full drydown on my sweater a few days later. It's impressive! but I also now approach with a very light hand so that '5 hours from now' me doesn't get fatigued. Also, i believe the reason so many people think of 'bathroom cleaner' is the powdery cherry-almond aspect of the heliotrope. unfortunately that industrial pink soap they use in so many public restroom dispensers and gyms, as a cleaner etc, at least in the US, is also (cheaply) cherry almond scented. I've noticed this comment popping up on a lot of heliotrope heavy scents. If you're able to shift that association probably depends on how deeply implanted it is in your memory, and on how nice the heliotrope perfume is lol

I passed over this one for a long time and I'm not sure why. It's absolutely stunning. Sensual, feminine and mysterious, all while being soft about it, not loud. The ultimate 'your skin but better' scent, without the screechy notes I've noticed in others. From the beginning this starts off quite musk-forward (very similar to Narciso's Pure Musk) rounded out with plum and some florals. As it warms up on the skin, it becomes softer, warmer and more complex. It blends with your natural scent and gives off the most *beautiful* sillage - people will wonder why you smell so good, but not know what it is. Longevity is great - I applied at 9 am and by 5 pm (leaving work), I could still smell it quite clearly on my wrist. This would make an excellent signature scent, and I can see it working for pretty much all seasons apart from the hottest days of summer. The mid temperatures of spring and fall are likely the times of the year when the scent would work best (I've noticed Narciso's perfumes work best on my skin during those seasons). Of course anyone can wear this, but I see this working best on a woman between the ages of 30 and 40, who is kind but holds her ground, intelligent, with a tad of mystery to her. My partner is quite picky when it comes to scents, and he said he liked this one quite a bit. I may just have to add this one to my collection :)