Cargo de Nuit

A new favorite of mine... I’ve always thought that the Luna Rossa line is decent, but falls short of realizing its potential to be truly great. Luna Rossa has a very distinct, recognizable smell—something along the lines of soapy, clean tonka with citrus adorning its top. It’s unique—really the type that needs to be experienced to be understood—and it fits a variety of versatile, clean-but-sexy daily wear fragrances that I find very useful and needed—but it’s always felt a little thin and unfinished. It opens with great promise, but sort of fizzles out quickly and leaves me shrugging my shoulders. Luna Rossa Black *almost* corrects that—it adds an Amber note in the base, giving it more rounded dimension and an altogether thicker, beefier presence. But it’s soft, and still somehow manages to smell a little too thin or suppressed for its own good. It’s a nice smell...but there doesn’t seem to be much behind it. Enter, Cargo de Nuit. On a very rudimentary level, Cargo de Nuit smells like something between Luna Rossa and Luna Rossa Black. It presents a similar soapy, musky-tonka accord that can be found in the others, but the way it wears, and the way it behaves, and how it feels is completely different. Rather than feeling thin, or kind of flat like those I’ve mentioned, Cargo feels, for lack of a better word, “puffy.” It feels inflated and cloud-like, as if the basic tonka accord has been blown up with an air pump, and is now three-dimensional, radiant and enveloping in its gauzy poofs of soft-silky clean Luna Rossa-tonka. I’m not sure what gives it this grand, cloud-like effect. My instincts tell me there’s ambroxan afoot, providing its fuzzy-fluffy dimension and soft but undeniable radiance, but it’s not listed as a note, and though I think I catch mysteriously subtle wafts of salty ambergris on its back-end, I can’t quite pin it down and grasp it. So maybe it’s the Iso-E Super that’s responsible for Cargo’s curious lift and silky smooth flow. Maybe not. Either way, that brings me to another point about CdN—it’s incredibly smooth and rounded, not a rough edge or bumpy notch in sight. It’s Cargo de Nuit’s material that makes it this way. It wears as more of a gauzy glow than any wood or plant or bean. Its fabric equivalent would be cashmere. Finally, CdN distinguishes itself by its performance. Aside from the fact that it has easy 8–10 hour longevity and good projection, it leaves an incredibly beguiling trail in the air, weaving in and out of the spaciousness it creates around itself. I don’t think sniffing this on paper comes even close to doing it justice. You can certainly get the basic idea of its smell, and if you dislike that there’s no need to explore it further, but you won’t get an inkling of its character and what makes Cargo de Nuit so special. In fact, I wouldn’t even recommend sampling it with a dab vial. For this one you should use a bottle, or at least a spray vial, and apply 3 or 4 solid sprays from about a foot away, at least one of them on fabric. Wear it for the day and let its true nature unfold. This fragrance is relatively new to me, I’ve worn it three times so far, and I’m sure I’ll notice more enjoyable twists and turns as I wear it more often, but for now it’s an immediate thumbs up that I’m giving an excellent 9/10 rating, and which could possibly move half a point to a full point higher in time. Recommended for sampling due to its price. Side note: You might be wondering where and when to wear Cargo de Nuit. I think it should be worn anywhere where it won’t be wasted. What I mean is, it’s versatile enough to pretty much wear anywhere, but if you’re going to be too busy to notice it, or if you’re going to be wearing it in an environment where a good fragrance is no more appreciated than an Axe body spray, do yourself a favor and hold off on it until you’re in a different situation. This is one that seems to fit so many scenarios you may find yourself reaching for it very frequently, and that could become too frequently once you notice you’ve drained half your bottle in a little over a month, and you realize that the male convicts you teach at the local prison and the peewee-league baseball team you coach on the weekends probably didn’t give af about what your SOTD was, and that you probably should have reserved emptying more of your $300 bottle for another time. So just make sure that at least you, or one other person are going to appreciate this precious juice when you wear it

My ultimate wearable perfume. Strong, long-lasting AND impossible to dislike, setting it apart from all my other strong perfumes. It's almost TOO wearable such that I ration it only for occasions which require a clinically inoffensive scent. Think first dates, interviews and important mixers. It's reassuring to know my scent is reliably there, creating a diffusive ethereal aura around me. The first time I smelled this scent on paper, it smelled formless like an innocuous musk, yet unlike other musk dominant perfumes. It felt unnatural, sci-fi-ish, reminiscent of polished metal. Like many other 'molecular' style perfumes, such as Another 13 or Molecule1, it needs a wearing on skin to be understood. When I gave it a chance, it struck me how much it smelled exactly like iron steam. Though strange to want to smell like steam, it's such a clean, comforting and enveloping musk. The coumarin adds the faintest tinge of sweetness and helps to fill out the scent. However, the main player is the ambrettolide. Here it presents a rich clean musk that is superbly smooth, almost buttery, working in complete synergy with the smooth iris. The coumarin, ambrette and iris mesh completely together in a smooth musky accord. It's pure bliss to smell. Performance of the scent is helped along with Iso-E and ambroxan, which comfortably extend the life of the scent beyond 12 hours. Projection is strong, yet diffuse, along the lines of BR540 (but even more agreeable!). Interacts easily with heat. For instance, I feel its reach extend after a brisk walk warms my body. With Cargo de Nuit, it's impossible to make a bad impression. You run a small risk of making not much of an impression, because it is a genderless, almost formless un-divisive scent. However, I love every inch of the scent and the confidence it gives me easily outweighs the cons. Though expensive, I feel its worth every dollar even at full retail. Luna Rossa Black doesn't even come close in terms of scent or performance. Sadly, availability is sparce due to low production likely attributed to its high cost and low popularity. Impossible to find in Australia, my brother had to source it all the way from France.

A supremely interesting fragrance. It fools you into thinking it’s a superficial musky coumarin, with its transparent aroma chemicals the first impression is of a designer fragrance It is indeed similar to Prada black but somehow totally different. Prada black is a powdery musk with herbal touches to my nose while this one is what I will call a futuristic “white Amber” At first it doesn’t seem like an amber, rather it’s just coumarin sweetness with a strange synthetic musk background. It has a sharpness in the opening that reminds me of a super transparent moss , like that found in wood sage and sea salt and pacific rock moss; However quickly it shifts into something puffy and fluffy with a bit of musky weight, sweetened and dreamy. I really don’t want to call it an amber but what else can I call what I’m experiencing? It’s as if amber is recreated using only modern white materials; vanilla replaced with coumarin, the gummy weight of resins replaces with ambroxan and musk, sandalwoods replaceD with transparent iso e super based cedar. Add to it all a tiny abstract flourish of white floral hedione. It doesn’t fit any category but it seems like a cool (in temperature) amber. An amber that doesn’t remind you of gooey warmth, but one of a dark night and wide open skies in the middle of the ocean. However as a word of warning I will say that if you don’t like aroma chemicals and ambroxan type smells just skip this, I totally see how this fragrance can be interpreted as a strange synthetic conconction that strips amber of everything good, especially if you have more traditional leanings. This is for the type of person who like the Luna Rossa Line and wants an upgrade. On the whole very unique and enjoyable scent. It’s not that I absolutely love the smell, it’s that nothing else has this vibe of sublime mysterious coolness.the name is perfect- like gliding through an ocean of dark modernity except it’s your element and you move like a breeze

Cargo de Nuit is a musky, ambery scent in the manner of Escentric Molecules/Le Labo Another 33/Juliette Not A Perfume et al. It is an excellent take on this trend - complex, cohesive and cosy yet sophisticated. It embraces its synthetic nature, and is pleasant and luxurious throughout. CdN is musky and grey from initial spray. Instead of austere or unpleasant, it is utterly wearable. @heavyindustry below nails it: it smells exactly like a steam iron at first - clean and grey. The muskiness develops, becoming warmer and more well-rounded as it progresses. The addition of the ambrette-coumarin accord is genius - it is smooth and slightly sweet, complementing the Iso-E-Super to perfection. As it develops, some subtle powdery florals creep in. They smell synthetic, but it works alongside the musky-amber accord. It doesn't change too much from the opening - the steam iron accord remains throughout, just is given body by the other notes. Some woodiness emerges as it dries down, remaining musky until final fade. Sillage is moderate and longevity is long-lasting - it lingers but wears pretty close to the skin, especially as it progresses. A great unisex musky-amber scent, CdN is an excellent example of its genre. I don't personally love this type of thing, but this is the best one I've tried. Futuristic, minimalist and easy-to-wear, it is an everyday year-round scent. Avant-garde yet approachable, this is beautifully composed. Prada, bottled. 4.5/5.

This is a clean white musky molecule (synthetic) type scent that literally smells like clean skin. I get lots of ambrette with some white woods, ambrox, tonka and a soapy atmospheric quality that I gravitate towards. It has the same vibe as Another 13, although the scent itself is vastly different. It also harken Prada LRB. Overall a clean soapy musky atmospheric scent that smells like your skin but better. Almost like just showered in an expensive hotel. Interestingly, also reminds me the most of the drydown of Pengaligon's Lord George. I love wearing this kind of thing to the office or anywhere I want to smell crisp, clean, professional, and polished at a high level. They mix well with my chemistry and I get tons of positive feedback. To my dismay, it is IMPOSSIBLE to find a bottle of of this stuff! I've only once seen a full bottle of this and I've literally been looking for 3 years. I hope Prada brings this back into production. If anyone has a bottle in the United States for sale, please message me. Until then, I suppose I'll need to try Luna Rosa Black. TL;DR Soapy clean expensive hotel and linens. Easy to love, impossible to find. Scent 10/10 Performance 7.5/10