Beyond Noir

This juice is smoothly smoked pineapple in a bottle! Bonfire on a beach! Love, love, love this one! It is daring, bold, and fearless! There is a small amount of John Varvatos Dark Rebel or Maison Martin Margiela By The Fireplace going on here, but with the added note of pineapple, a once underrated, and now, totally mainstream, DNA! Note, guys, that the smoke far outweighs the pineapple in BNPV ... more on that later. So is this one for you? To put it plainly, some guys will simply not be able to pull this one off. You must have some level of ruggedness to do so. Skinny girly-men, like one unnamed YouTube fragrance reviewer I can think of, need not apply. They have it listed as a unisex scent ... NOT EVEN CLOSE! This is way to masculine for a beautiful, sensuous woman! Taking a closer look at the nuts and bolts of the scent, the pineapple we have come to love in the other Pineapple Vintage offerings from Parfums Vintage is here but way in the back, well beneath the smoky birch! The opening, heart, and base notes ALL have birch. Now, from a chemist's point of view (which I am), the molecule size would deem that impossible, however, Damien Stammers claims to have done it, and the scent-line from start to finish would indicate that he has! There is not much of a transformation, whatsoever, from opening to dry-down; just extra-smoky pineapple for the life of the scent. And life it has in abundance! I can get anywhere from 6 - 10 hours, depending on the temperature. Cooler weather ... it lasts longer. It would be wise to stay away in the summer. Fall and spring? Closer to the 6 hour mark. I get compliments, sure, but I also get a lot of "WHAT are you wearing"? And not in a bad way, either. This is where the "daring" aspect floats in! Again, I will reiterate, from opening to dry-down, there isn't much fluctuation in notes. Birch reigns supreme! This is smoky, like earlier Creed Aventus offerings, such as, perhaps, 2010 ... and maybe even a bit more so. Good stuff! Quite literally, as I stated at the beginning, Beyond Noir is smoke in a bottle! And it is delicious! Projection - 8/10 Sillage - 8/10 Longevity - 9/10 Fragrance - 10/10 Compliments - 9/10 Seasons - Autumn, Winter, and Cool Spring Nights to a lesser degree Time - Day or Night, but preferably Night P.S. If you want more of the pineapple to come to the top, layer a controlled spray of Armaf Club de Nuit Intense over Beyond Noir, and you will be pleasantly surprised at how well these frags compliment each other! P.P.S. Guys, note that any of the dislikes for this fragrance are, most likely, actuated by girly-men. If that is you, stay away from Beyond Noir, and leave it for the real, testosterone-filled dudes!

I only smelled old smokey Aventus batch once and this isn't it. I can not smell pineapple or bergamot here almost at all. But in all fairness, this is a fragrance of its own: probably closer to TF Tuscan Leather than Aventus, it is a great birchy/smokey/slightly vanillic fall/winter fragrance. I don't like Tuscan Leather that much (I find it too synthetic and too cloying), however Beyond Noir comes across more natural and does have a little leather overtone because of birch (even though there is no leather note here) but mostly woody. I am not a fan of PV but this particular one is a gem. Not for everybody, so test before buying. No middle ground here: you will either love it or hate it! :) PS If you are a fan of smokey Aventus, this could be your layering spray scent over current Aventus version. I tried it once (4 Aventus sprays and 1-2 of Beyond Noir will give you the 2013 smokey batch impression pretty close, I must say). ...and, yes, it smells a bit like pastrami sandwich in the first 15 min of the opening. :)

Beyond Noir is honestly beyond many people's comprehension in the frag world. That bbq smell IS the birch. Think about it, they use wood when smoking meat for bbq and that's the main flavor that pops out in the meat. Most people don't like this because they are used to sweeter frags and don't have as refined of a palette, just from my observation. This is HELLA dark woods and smoke, other than that you get a wonderful charred pineapple and creamy vanilla as the main notes that stick with this the entire ride and it's a long one. This lasts for about 12 hours on me, being a skin scent around the 8 hour mark. This is truly a beast. I layered Maximus AND Napoleon over this and I could still smell the Beyond Birch KICKIN.

This is an exceptionally smokey Aventus clone that would be similar to the earlier batches of the Creed classic. I really like it after the first 30 minutes, once the smoke dies down. I layer it with Club de Nuit Intense Man for the extra pineapple. Not a bad buy for the price if you like the smokey version of Aventus. Enjoy!

Its woody and leathery, the other notes are toned down almost non existent. I layered my sample with Aventus and I must say, it was fuckin' great. This can be a way to bring the smoke back to fresher batches. But this is an overall excellent smoky and woodsy scent all on its own.