Poivre Noir

L'Orpheline's less melancholy cousin, Poivre Noir shares that other perfume's deceptive simplicity and subtlety. Like L'Orpheline's treatment of its incense note, Poivre Noir's black pepper is not punchy and sharp, but restrained. Compared to L'Orpheline, Poivre Noir is a little more masculine, a little less long-lasting, and just slightly sweeter (though this is by no means a sweet fragrance). I should stress, it doesn't really smell like L'Orpheline. But it wears similarly and my guess is that if you like one, you'd like the other. And if you do like it, Poivre Noir can be very versatile. Though it's not crowd pleasing or really blind-buy safe (it's far too specific), it's often available for under $60 at discounters. And at that price it's an absolute steal.

It's Black Pepper alright! At first smell from the bottle, you get full pepper: slightly bitter, spicy and a little old-school. After spraying, it unravels with something green and then something sweet. Compared to other Lutens, it doesn't develop or evolve too much, or deviate from the initial concept of black pepper. It never goes too sweet but stays fairly masculine and gives off my father's aftershave in the 80s vibes... It has its place... for me, mainly when I want something more linear and less complex than other Lutens and that's cool. I have mediterranean ollive skin and those spicy scents work well with it. The drydown lasts a fairly long time.

I LOVE THIS FRAGRANCE SO MUCH that I wish I never smelled it bc I am not in the tax bracket for shit like this 😭😭 Love the pepper, it’s not too masculine smelling... on my skin it has almost sweet undertones. My sample spray definitely lasted 8+ hrs no problem. Have genuinely never loved a fragrance as much as this one.

This fragrance is gorgeous. Simple and masculine–it combines cedar and pepper to create a signature worthy masculine scent. It performers well and is unique enough to provoke unsolicited comments from women whenever I wear it.

a timeless fresh masculine scent, nothing unique about it, but its does justice in this category. so underrated, hard to love yet easy to hate.

@Eastport lol I’m broke, the store I was at only had full sized bottles but I’ve seen a few travel size ones on mercari that I’m eyeing :3

As a lover of black pepper; this is tremendous. Absolutely perfect in my opinion.

Spicy black pepper on a bed of musky synthetic calones. Only Serge Lutens can pull off these linear "anti perfume" beauties like this and my favorite Eau Froide. Theres not much going on here but let it settle on your skin, then the subtle transitions happen over the 8 plus hours of its wear. The unisex scent has moderate sillage and excellent longevity. It is simple and mysterious. Some may argue the emperors not wearing any clothes. But for those initiated into this venerable brands minimalist aesthetics, the ride will be exciting. Enjoy!

A very nice and a simple scent, not very complex (the scent) - pure pepper with a small undertone of some kind of a citrus, not sure that it’s even citrus or twist of geranium or ginger or something green like vetiver/moss !!!! Really can’t explain. it has some a little of leathery/oud feel. Not very strong but either week Long lasting and not in your face like comme des garçons kind of pepper I like it, very masculine not for everyday use, day or signature scent. Those who don’t like it give it some time.

Right after spraying, my nose was tickled by a blast of pepper. However, the pepper calmed down quickly and was joined by a fresh ginger note, along with some citrus. Only once dried down, I started to perceive some warmth together with a pleasant and fresh spiciness that smelled like an infusion of fresh ginger, lemon and black pepper. The interesting combination of fresh and warm notes makes me think that this could be a lovely fragrance to wear in fall.

I disagree with the negative reviews, I can say yes it s simple non changing or linear perfume yet very nice and safe with a good quality; ok in one fact that it s a bit far from Mr Lutens creations which are more original and which used to be a more complex game of layers . furthermore i dont know if it s really formulated of 2 ingredients. Myself i can easily buy such a masculine decent and elegant perfume. Merci Mr.Lutens

70% woody amber, 10% pepper, 20% something missing. It doesn't smell bad exactly, but it seems lazy, especially for such a prestigious brand. There are hundreds of similar basic synthetic-smelling perfumes like this, it's just boring.

If you like Molton Brown Black Pepper Bath I guarantee you'll like this perfume. Near exact match.

Despite the brand being known for their heady, Arabesque compositions, the much subtler "Mohairs" of Lutens include some of the greatest achievements in recent fragrance history such as Iris Silver Mist and Serge Noire. Poivre Noir now joins the collection, but I think ultimately isn't for me. Poivre Noir opens with an unusually stereotypically masculine synthetic blast which recalls to me the mood (though not the smell) of the brand's own L'Eau de Paille (which incidentally I prefer). Yes, the first few moments of Poivre Noir take me to a drugstore masculine scent shelf, replete with names like "steel", "blue" and "sport". After a couple of minutes on skin the scent opens up and a strong, pungent black pepper note emerges but while the scent of black pepper is absolutely present the texture, seemingly, is not. To me, black pepper implies cracking, milling, grinding, and calls for a "snappy" texture, but Poivre Noir is persistently watery, cloud-like and reminds me of mist or fog. However, rather than water this fog is made of black pepper-infused tea, if that's even possible to imagine... It's not as bad as it sounds but I also don't mean to imply it's somehow good either. I do admire the brand's continued pushing of boundaries but I'm afraid that as far as the "cooling spicy" category goes (to which Poivre Noir undoubtedly belongs) Lutens' own Serge Noire has this beat a hundred times over. It is definitely an intriguing scent and longevity on me is okay (6 hours). Extremely conventionally masculine (which is unusual for a Lutens and will be part of why it's not doing much for me) but on a woman this might somehow work better given the contrast? Not sure what to make of this one, but I encourage fans of the Mohair sub-collection to give it a try and see if they can find whatever it is I'm missing here.

Am I crazy or is this just a "spicier" version of L'orpheline? And by spicier, I really only mean a puff of "pepper" for a few minutes and then nothing else... Because, let's face it, spicey isn't really a thing that's happening here. Woody, yes, but pepper? Only if you've never encountered pepper in your life before. L'orpheline at least has this airy feel to it, whereas Black Pepper feels constrained, trapped in a cedar box filled with pencil shavings that suffocates and dims whatever potential this perfume pretends it wants to have. Get this it you really want a spicey/woody Lutens and you don't already have L'orpheline. Otherwise, you can find much better elsewhere.

Smells very linear at first, but SL never does linear things. At every whiff I find a new layer. Very fresh, "sporty" fragrance, I get the disappointment of all those who expect a deeper experience from a SL creation, also because an untrained nose will easily mistake it for a far more commercial scent - from the 90s. As the initial green notes fade away I smell something more fruity, like grapefruit maybe? The pepper comes out stronger in the drydown. Definitely not my cup of tea, but I would not say it's bad.

Aside from the usual high quality of blending and ingredients, there is little i can praise here. Black pepper and nutmeg, that's it. Safe and mass appealing - sure, but rather uninspired and one note as well. What a drop off from SL as of late, i guess all the good ones are reserved for the bell jar line now. Another one bites the dust.

Poivre Noir smells... like pepper. In the background, a small, undefined green note, perhaps aromatic, arrives much later, but the star is indeed the pepper. In short, a disappointment. Edit: this green/aromatic side ends up mixing perfectly with the pepper smell, which makes it more pleasant, but I'm far from convinced.

Pleasant fragrance, but not the quality I expect from the revered Serge Lutens, whom I admire very much. I had wished for a little more punch and spice that keeps going on for hours. Instead it’s quite mainstream and average. I’m hoping for more power and creativity next time they launch something new.

I’m a hugeeee fan of peppery perfumes, but this is soo so weak on me. L’orpheline from the same house sticks to my skin and develops very well, this unfortunately doesn’t. Still, definitely worth checking out for spicy perfumes fans, I just wish I could experience this properly