Black XS

I almost never purchase fragrances again once I finish the bottles but this is one of the few I do. This was the most love at first sniff for me. I remember getting this when I was 18. I was very new to fragrances and was in a department store and tried a tester of it while my dad was yelling at my brother to try some clothes on so I had time to kill. The original formulation and L'Exces both were as the internet says "beast mode", very loud , yet it was deserving because the scent is that good and it lasted much longer than anything I had at the time. I live in an area where you don't get very many complements yet I had gotten a ton of them from this. The original has been discontinued so all the hustlers are all trying to sell it for silly amounts of money. I'm on the fence whether or not I want the updated version as they did a fantastic job on the L'Exces update which I did not think was going to be better than the original but after trying the tester the next day I paid retail for it how amazing it was which is the first time I'd ever had a flanker (slight update/variation) and the original on the same shelf. So how does it smell? Dark, rich, an alcoholic strawberry drink with a splash of fresh cut exotic fruit is the opening. You almost want to eat that opening. It's sweet and sticky, yet not sickeningly sweet or unisex like One Million. As you pull the scent into your nose it slowly goes up in such a way that you are pretty much introduced to every note in this scent and trails off like a shadow. I What is similar to it? The cheapest is Black And White by Degree the dry spray not antiperspirant stick. There are many that this copies as well just like One Million it's often imitated. This is very easy to wear, it's hard to find an occasion not to wear it. This is a great first scent for someone in school to 40s maybe. Night time, dating, clubbing, intimate moments. Go light on this if you work in an office or something similar. I used to do 2 or 3 sprays and get through the day with it without running out to your car or smelling yourself to see if you can still smell it. Longevity 8/10 Scent 10/10 (I'm nostalgic) Blind buy worthy? Absolutely, Good luck getting it in the near future, How copied it is as well you can probably find 5 or 10 companies who do it cheaper but who knows how long they'll last or how accurate they will be. The last time I was this impressed by a scent was the copy of Creed Aventus by Al Haramain called L'Adventure I tried last summer. If you had a bad experience with Pure XS (original) or found the original Invictus or One Million too unisex this will make up for it.I wish they would make an EDP of Black XS. I think we're all getting tired of the 9999 invictus and one million flankers that all smell too sugary sweet, unisex leaning for her and playful.

This was the second cologne I owned, gifted by a family member. It was late 2009 and I was in 10th grade, I used it until I ran out in late 2011. The scent immediately brings back memories of those days. This was a unique scent at the time, maybe still to this day, and women loved it! In fact, I remember getting stopped one day by a classmate whom I had a crush on, she mentioned how good I smelled and asked which cologne I used. She took a photo of it, and her friend sitting next to her naturally got jealous and had to mention "you should get it for your boyfriend". Funny enough, I remember not liking it that much when I first tried it because I thought it smelled a lot like bubble gum, and at the time I liked typical freshies in the 2000s style cause they smelled mature. The scent itself is nice, leaning towards the younger crowd. It's really sweet, cinnamony, fruity, and bubble gum-ish. The performance was quite good when I had it (2009 batch or older), it's hard to remember now, but I might have gotten 6-8 hours out of it, with good projection for 3-4 hrs. It was well blended but also had an edge and character to it, unlike most of the mish-mash of freshies released at the time. If you smelled it, you knew it was Black XS. Side note; I was actually grilling pineapples coated with cinnamon and brown sugar the other day and the smell reminded me of black XS, despite pineapple not being listed. Was it the best scent around at the time? Maybe not, however, for its category - sweet, youthful, night-time/clubbing, desginer, cheap-ish - it was a spectacular bargain. The downside was like that of 1 million, it became very popular. It was eventually reformulated in the early 2010's, which hurt the performance, and kinda took out its aggressive edge. Then they extensively refromulated it in 2018 to make it less sweet and fresher (the sweetness was what made it stand out from the freshies in the 2000s in the first place) and changed the bottle design (I prefered the slimmer bottle). Later batches were still good and the newer 2018 is decent, but they lacked that kick you got from the original formula. Although Black XS holds sentimental value, I won't go out of my way to buy a vintage bottle, as there are endless options in the sweet-clubbing category and I'm out of the age bracket for this fragrance. I did pick up a bottle of Nike Man Green for 10$ to scratch the itch and it does resemble it enough. It'd be interesting to try out the other flankers of this line as they are better rated, but those seem to be a rare find. Overall a solid fragrance! Scent 8/10

I'm an old head and wore this when it first came out. Just recieved my new bottle today, 2012 batch and as far as i can tell the scent memory tells me its the same. i was actually expecting the newest formulation because my online order showed the newest bottle packaging. i was happy to get the pre 2018 formulation/bottle (shown here) because of all the hub bub on fragrantica about reformulations. my first impression within minutes of spraying on is citrus but not tart. sweet underneath, has that trademark deep strawberry smell and i can also pickup a sweet musky undertone that reminds me of versace man eau fraiche. i can't speak for the newest 2018 and newer batches, but this 2012 version still bumps as far as smell. it has that trademark warm strawberry vibe and just smells great. The name Black XS is kind of a misnomer, this is not a dark scent, its fruity sweet yet masculine/leans unisex, warm and pleasantly musky. i cant detect any traditional dark or spicy notes ie black/hot peppers, smoke, booze, tobacco. there may be a touch of cinnamon but its not spicy at all. can be worn all season except for maybe high heat weather. it might be considered juvenile because of that happy sweet vibe but my 50 year old self will wear this unapologetically. I'm glad to add this again to my collection. ill add to this review for longevity and performance once i give it a few more wears. Update after wearing few days: if you like warm, sweet scents designed for men that might be unisex safe this would be a great addition to your collection. My 2012 batch performs just fine, on my skin all day (8 plus hrs), projects strongly four about 4 of those hrs and continues to envelope you in a decent scent bubble, creating sillage as you move about for about 4 hours until it dies down after 8 hrs. it lasted on my skin faintly after 8 hrs until i showered at night about the 12th hr and actually remained very faintly on my skin after a brief 10 minute shower. Total longevity 12 plus hours on my skin. Projects real good for 4hrs, moderately (sillage/scent cloud) for 4 more hours. Skin scent for 4 more hours. Everyone please calm down on the poor performance and scent change gripes, at least for pre 2018.

I bought Black XS again recently to reminisce and because I remembered how much I loved it, especially since it garnered so many compliments back in the day. Sadly, the new version is a mere ghost of its former self. The iconic sweet, fruity, almost floral opening, with its strawberry-like character swirling in wet tobacco, is almost entirely gone. The sweet, dark complexity of the original has been generically freshened up in the reformulation, which was a disappointing realisation. Let’s rewind to when it was great. I got Black XS for Christmas in 2005 or 2006 after asking for it. I had seen the rockstar-themed advert with its rebellious, edgy vibe—it really spoke to me at the time lol. On Christmas morning, when I first sprayed it, I hesitated. 'Wait, did Mum buy the women’s version by mistake?' I panicked. My girlfriend, amused, checked the box and assured me it was the men’s version (not knowing the female version hadn’t been released yet). Back then, this fragrance felt revolutionary. The opening was sweet, fruity, and almost floral, with a dark amber and tobacco twist that was unlike anything I’d tried. It was worlds apart from fresh, sharp scents like HUGO (OG Red Label) or CH 212 Men (NYC). Even my dad’s Calvin Klein and my cousin’s Tommy Hilfiger fragrances felt conventional by comparison. Black XS was bold, blending sweetness, florals, and tobacco in a daringly modern way. Its gourmand twist set it apart and felt ahead of its time, paving the way for sweeter, daring men’s scents. Black XS helped inspire the massive success of 1 Million, solidifying the trend of bold, sweet, and unisex-leaning men’s fragrances. Overall score for the original: 8.5/10 New formulation score: 7/10 A rather nostalgic sweet, fruity, slightly gourmand blend with dark tobacco and amber was ahead of its time and still resonates with today’s trends. I wish Rabanne would re-release the original or something that captures its original scent.

I first got into fragrances back in 2005, and this was a new release at the time. I absolutely loved this stuff and it became my signature scent for 10 years alongside Chanel Allure Sport. This generated a lot of female attention and "What are you wearing" comments back in my early/mid 20's, and having recently a new bottle after a break of 6-7 years, the memories and nostalgia returned. The performance and sillage on this used to be excellent, however I must say my most recent bottle is very disappointing in both departments, it now disappears after a few hours. It also doesn't seem to be a rich as it once was. For me this is a unique fragrance as it doesn't really smell like anything else, a great combination of fresh, sweet, aromatic, woody. It smells somewhat oriental. It's super pleasant, hard not to like. Some people have mentioned the sweetness, but I don't think it is overly sweet when compared to stuff that's on the market today. I personally think this can be worn year round, in any circumstance. Office safe, but interesting enough for evening events, spicy enough for winter months, and fresh enough for the summer. It's a real shame that Paco Rabanne didn't do more with this line, as it's much better than a lot of the stuff they are doing these days, but then i understand their fragrances are money making behemoths, perhaps this is too sophisticated for the common Paco Rabanne fragrance buyer!? Personally, I'd love to see this be released in a parfum version or revised and modernised in some other way. It does smell somewhat a product of it's time, as do many fragrances released back in the 2000's. Whilst I'm glad to have it in my collection, perfumery has evolved and there are so many other good fragrances in my collection, I don't wear it as much as I should, but I had 10+ years of great memories with this so I have to give it some love 8/10.