Cœur de Noir Beaufort 2015

Thanks to FavelaJoe for this revelation first of all. This gem was even personally delivered to me with the statement “Do you know this one? It's really smoky!”

I rushed up the stairs full of anticipation, rolled up my sleeves, and I can hardly believe it.
This review will be quite different from most of the fragrance reviews here so far.

Everyone who is active here will probably, like me, sniff several dozen perfumes a week - for me often 30-50 per week, which I can't even manage to list all here. Very often I have 2-3 scents on each arm and even more on my knees.

Very rarely, once every 100, there is one that completely blows me away. This one was IMMEDIATELY one of those.

On my skin, there is neither a particular darkness noticeable, nor leather or any note that should make it unbearable or “strong” for me, not even particularly smoky (compared to No Perfume by The Zoo, Bois d`Ascèse, etc.)

I immediately perceive a paper note, fresh, new copy paper, which I really love. Ink, light spices, and a balsamic vanilla. To me, it smells fresh and even aquatic through the ginger, like the theme processed in Zoologist Squid, just without the salt.

The smokiness here is blended with tobacco, vanilla, and cedarwood in such a way that Amouage Interlude immediately comes to mind for me, but without the oriental and penetrating parts, rather the sillage after about 8 hours.

Darkness is thematically hinted at here, as a summer night can be dark. Paper as a chord indeed has something airy, fresh, and light about it.

For me, a sensual composition that catapults me emotionally into various realms, from a summer night to a fireplace evening, from the depths of the sea to the paper shop around the corner, from the old gentleman with a monocle to the avant-garde yet romantic hero of an 80s film adaptation, straight into the modern age.

I have long been searching for a scent that unites what I liked in Encre Noire, Squid, Interlude, No Perfume, Lair du Désert Marocain, and Fougére and feels like my favorite color.

Royal blue heart massage.