No. 4 Nappa Noir

Okay, why oh WHY is this not available??! I got a sample of this and went berserk and bought a couple of 15ml lab samples from the SixScents site because it’s all he has left. This perfume is absolutely amazing!! It’s everything I love all rolled into one, it’s like holy grail material. My freaking dream fragrance. Like I don’t even know where to begin. First of all, it’s a makeup/lipstick scent with violet and iris, with very prominent leather and a biscuit like gourmand accord. There is tobacco and coffee, saffron, resins, vanilla, birch tar, musk, it’s crazy insane good. It’s like a makeup scent gone dominatrix or something. Not the usual innocent thing you get from cosmetic scents. This thing is dripping in latex and closing down the bar at 2am. It’s amazing how it’s clearly a makeup scent but at the same time has so much more going on than that. This was made as a project by Joseph Quartana where he paired fashion designers with perfumers to come up with a perfume that reflected the designer. Shoe designer, Raphael Young was paired with Calice Becker (of by Kilian fame) and the strong leather is the reflection of his shoe creations and I assume the glamorous cosmetic aspect of fashion. But the outcome is one of the best fragrances I have ever smelled, I could live in this stuff. It covers my cravings for so many things, all wrapped into one. I swear it feels like she read my mind, this could be a bespoke fragrance just for me. I don’t think it’s possible to make something I could love more than this. Since hardly anyone has even smelled it, it feels like almost my own personal fragrance and I love that but at the same time it’s so good I wish more people could smell it. Ylang Extra Moheli, Violet Leaf Absolute, Violet Flower Accord, Tobacco, Coffee Co2 Extract, Indonesian Patchouli, Florentine Iris Resinoid, Speculoos Cookie Accord, Cistus Absolute, Styrax, Leather, Birch Tar, Saffron, Vanilla Beans Resinoid, Serenolide

Second wearing of the brand new 2021 Six Scents release, Nappa Noir, first conceived of some nine years ago and finally available to the public. The name conjures dark leather, and “floriental leather” descriptor seems very apropos. For me, the leather and violet factor prominently into the opening in particular, yielding a sort of “black leather jacket with tar violet” vibe that’s fairly sharp but becomes more balanced over time, giving way to some of the sweetness (resins, vanilla, cookie) emerging as part of the mix over time. As it dries down, the blend feels less sharp and the leather somewhat smoother. Violet is still a part of the mix, but it feels more like a mélange of leather, violet, resins, vanilla, and ever so slightly, patchouli. Overall, though, it never ends up feeling predominantly like a gourmand; it feels like a leather-with-violet tempered by gourmand and resinous notes, a juxtaposition that works effectively, taking some more acerbic notes and counterbalancing them with something sweeter and more familiarly comforting. Fans of violet should adore the opening and fans of leather should enjoy the fragrance as a whole. I’m definitely not a fan of violet (but enjoy it as fragrant note sometimes, as in Green Irish Tweed) and though I have many I love, I still consider myself to be relatively picky about leather in fragrance, but as a leather fragrance with a prominent violet note, Nappa Noir is very well-executed and provides an option for cold weather that I find very useful, a powerful wake-up call in the morning that is nonetheless sophisticated (and unisex) for the evening. Like the other recent Six Scents releases, Nappa Noir is available in a 30ml size at EDP concentration and is very reasonably priced, at $78, comparable to the pricing of Ascent, Urban Tropicalia, and #087 (at EDT), and is sold through the house website. And it performs the best of the lot, very impressively loud during its opening hour and then with robust longevity thereafter. 7 out of 10

completely about the leather and sad that the clove, cinnamon, nutmeg and violet are not here; more masculine, dry with an edge of sweetness; only notes I feel are detectable are LEATHER in that plastic bandaid leather way, a little styrax, a drift of birch on the drydown from the top and some orris to give it a powdery feel; sweetens as it dries; I do like it but it wasn't the rich spicy fragrance I expected; in the base it is very soft and barely there with some white musk and NOTHING like Fahrenheit

The biscuit note with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg is what hits me immediately and also remains the predominant scent in Nappa Noir. I do get the violet, violet leaf and leather. I can't say I'm a big fan of the combination. As in "M" I get something like a raw dough note that I am not really in love with. Definitely unique though. It's not often you find un-sweet gourmand/pastry notes in fragrances.

Just got the 2021 release, and my first impressions are that it’s nice. I immediately thought of Dior Homme parfum and Fahrenheit EDT but lighter and while also doing it’s own thing. Definitely needs to macerate/age a little longer because right now it seems pretty weak (sprayed my skin and clothes). Makes sense because it’s a brand new batch. I’ll come back to it in a month.

I love leather and I love iris/orris and violet. I'm a huge fan of Dior Homme as well, and I also love gourmands. This perfume seemed to be right up my alley, and I was also drawn to the Speculoos cookie note, which I think would add a beautiful sweetness and warmth to a composition like this, so it was a blind buy. Unfortunately all I can really smell from this is leather and violet, and I don't love it. The leather is also a very specific type of leather- it is not a warm, soft, worn-in brown leather with a sort of earthy smell to it. This leather is a black, shiny, leather jacket fresh from the manufacturer, still smelling of chemicals. It also reminds me of the new car smell- you can really smell the shiny leather and plastic, glistening with a fresh coat of Armor All. Or perhaps it is the smell of new leather shoes, but they are strong, and almost headache-inducing, like they need to "off-gas" some of the manufacturing chemicals before you can wear them. And this piercing leather is of course softened, albeit only slightly, by the powdery orris/violet. I don't get much of anything else, and I certainly don't get cookie. If you are looking for a blast of leather, this might be up your alley. Sniffing the nozzle, I don't hate it. I almost enjoy it in the way I like to smell the new car smell, or gasoline, but this isn't something I want to smell for more than a second, and I certainly don't want to smell like it. Immediately sold it. Performance is good/average. Definitely unisex but leaning masc.

I’m relieved to see others who blind bought this also only detect new car leather and powdery violet but not much else. Certainly no biscuit cookie vanilla gourmand notes. Rubber tires & faint violet. The kind my husband hates on me. Bottom of grandma’s purse dirty Chowards. I actually keep a bin in my perfume closet labeled “violet” and was stoked to add this to my collection. I dunno what to do with it. Re-sell I guess. I suppose it could be rad on a dude though.

Too heavy-handed with the vanilla and tobacco for my taste. The scent is thick, rich and very sweet, and then you get lots of talcum powder, and the powdery aspect ages this scent. It reminds me of something my grandmother would wear in 1978 after spending $4 for a gallon of cheap perfume at a Pay-Less drug store. If you like powdery vanilla and tobacco, this one is for you! This stuff is just rank and a super hard pass from me and not what I had hoped and expected. Selling my bottle with one spray missing, if there are any takers!

Just received the 2021 version of this reasonably priced, lovely leather, and I'm really happy with my purchase. To me, it kind of smells like a marriage between the themes explored in Lancome's reimagined Cuir (violet, leather, iris) and Cuir Ottoman (the spicy inflected, sweet styrax/birch tar marriage with a little fruitiness in the top in particular). It's smooth and well balanced and has a real textural element of leather. Excited to own and wear this one. EDITED TO ADD: There violet-fruity-leather in this also evokes Lutens' Boxeuses, now that I've smelled it more. It's not as spicy, and Nappa Noir emphasizes violet more.