Or Noir

I am a chypre lover, full stop. This is a beeeeutiful chypre. My Mother bought a small bottle of the Parfum when we were in Paris in the 80s and now I have it. I also have the vintage 80s EDT and the new formulation in EDP. This is swoonworthy and if you love this category of perfume, a must try. I find this smells like no other chypre perfume I own and I own and have smelled many. Just because it has aldehydes doesn't mean it smells like Chanel no 5; it doesn't to my nose. Chanel no 5 isn't even a chypre. One thing about chypre perfumes, is that a well blended one doesn't announce the notes to where you can pick them out perfectly, yet you can feel them as they rise off your skin over time. After the sparkly aldehydes and bergamot, I can pick up the yellow flowers for sure, slight spiciness and the soft, earthy green mossy dry down, but honestly I wouldn't have been able to tell there was cassis in the opening. Really, there are the usual suspects you find in a classic chypre. It's hard to rely on notes in these older style perfumes, in my opinion. This is definitely the style where some people are going to say it smells "dated", let's say. Either you grew up with chypre perfumes and love them, or it's an acquired taste, perhaps. The 80s parfum is softer, smoother overall, but clearly contains oakmoss and the other notes blended beautifully. The 80s EDT is far stronger and longer lasting than the modern EDP and has all the ingredients of a chypre, bergamot, oak moss and florals. Two sprays about does it here, so it really performs like an EDP. The modern EDP performs like a modern EDP so lasting power is about 5 hours. The modern version is also beautiful and while it smells so very similar, it is lighter, crisper and brighter on opening and there is something different at the far drydown; it's missing the slight animalic hint but overall it's quite similar. If the modern is reformulated, as it smells like to me, they did an excellent job. I imagine there is way less oakmoss because performance is not as good as the vintage, which is much more mossy in drydown. I got my modern bottle a few years back for a ridiculous price of $35.00 on Fragrancenet and I see it's no longer there. I can recommend all of the formulations. Edit; here are the notes from the Pascal Morabito website (no cassis??) NOTES OLFACTIVES Notes de tête : bergamote, mandarine, aldéhydique accord Notes de cœur : muguet, rose, jasmin, ylang ylang, iris, gardénia Notes de fond : patchouli, mousse, ambre

11. december 2013 My review is for decant from the vintage black bottle, i also have a mini in a claer rectangular bottle, which i will test later and update my review. LOVE IT! OLD SCHOOL CLASS, WHICH IS NOT OUTDATED! The opening after the initial spray is quite sharp and i can describe it as a floral soap. Kind of expensive floral soap, a kind of they used to produce along with the rest of the bath line for vintage perfumes. When i was young enough and couldn ́t afford myself a full bottle of expensive designer fragrance i used to buy soaps: Cacharel, Armani, Nina Ricci Ferre, Lancome (they do not make them anymore). That soap had the essence of the perfume, yet still had that typical soapy smell, but for me it was pure luxury! The ritual of lathering the soap and applying the lather onto my skin was an ultimate luxury ritual (btw i still have the empty saop doses for nostalgic reasons and they still smell great). Why am i telling you all this? because the opening of this greta fragrance instantly reminded me of that ritual: lathering the luxury soap. Such a noble feeling! The opening is amazing and i love that soapy floral note all the way through all the stages of this fragrance. The great combination of oakmoss and ylang-ylang making wonders in here. And while the very opening s bit more citrusy, it later turns very quickly into the ore floral -citrusy. Motor oil? Unisex??? No, i don ́t smell that and don ́t see it that way. Maybe the later formulation was altered and thatś where those allegories come from? Feminine, classy, rich, floral, soapy (but not the kind of Chanel nr.5 soapy), highly enjpoyable! I have to have this in full size bottle. (i always loose the bidding on it, but there is a chance i might get that vintage bottle soon, fingers crossed) This is not a kind of seductive scent, but the one, you want to wear to enjoy for yourself at first!

Or Noir – Pascal Morabito (1984, Aged Oil Form) There are fragrances... and then there are remnants of time. What I encountered here is not the perfume as she once was, but what she has become. With the alcohol long evaporated, what remains is a concentrated oil — dense, dark, and profoundly beautiful. The transformation is extraordinary. She is not indolic. She is not cloying. Instead, she wears like black velvet warmed by skin — intimate, smooth, and quietly powerful. A molten composition of ambered resins and soft, honeyed depth unfolds slowly, without sharpness or intrusion. Time has softened every edge, allowing the structure of the fragrance to reveal herself in her purest form. What might once have projected now settles, creating an aura that is deeply personal yet unmistakably present. There is no loud entrance. No need for it. She smolders. What surprised me most is the balance — the richness without heaviness, the depth without suffocation. She is dark, yes, but breathable... almost meditative. A fragrance that invites you closer rather than pushing outward. And in this aged state, she feels less like something worn, and more like something inhabited. Evaporation may have taken her sparkle, but what remains is the black gold — the very essence of her strength and beauty. She is not just vintage. She is enduring.

I've been wearing a small amount of Or Noir on one arm every other day for about a week. It may take me even more wears to fully appreciate and understand this glorious fragrance. Pascal Morabito is not a name I've been familiar with until recently. I've not sampled his other creations, but I feel that this must be his best work... it would be the best work of any perfumer! Mostly, Or Noir has a feel of a vintage Caron to me. A bit of Infini, a dab of Nocturnes. But it's as bold as very old Narcisee Noir, which I've only sampled, but when I did, was nearly knocked off my feet. This is powerful, heady, gorgeous, animalic stuff people! Maybe it is the narcissis, ylang ylang, cassis combination, but I'd swear there was a grand old civet in Or Noir. There is a twinkling of vintage Chanel No. 5 to confuse us just a bit. Or Noir is bewitching and beautiful, has a good radiance of sillage and lasts forever on me. I'm so very glad that I've had the opportunity to try this "could be vintage, could be a daring niche" fragrance. Now the hunt for a bottle of the original version begins!

This is the most delicious earthy, green, mossy, animalic, floral, skanky fragrance, that I am choosing to wear on a much needed duvet day, because it's rainy and windy and this is glorious. Or Noir by Pascal Morabito is a Chypre Floral fragrance which launched in 1980 but mine is the reformulation. This is quite an sophisticated, very elegant, slightly carnal and overly amorous beast of a scent. Which I only tested once when I bought it about 2-3 years ago and I didn't think much of it at the time. But today, due to my graduation and desensitisation to Rochas Femme, I can actually appreciate the skank in this. And although it's not listed, I feel that cumin is present here or at least something that smells very similar and thankfully it's wearable for me and as the weather cools. I think I'll start wearing this more often now that we are more acquainted. P.s the aldehydes in the present like the vinyl note in Paloma Picasso EDP which I find very enjoyable ❤️