Déclaration d'Un Soir Cartier 2012

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7.4 / 10 490 Ratings

A perfume by Cartier for men, released in 2012. The scent is floral-spicy. The production was apparently discontinued.
Pronunciation

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Main accords

Floral

Spicy

Woody

Fresh

Synthetic

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Cardamom

Pepper

Cumin

Heart Notes

Rose

Nutmeg

Base Notes

Sandalwood

Perfumer

Mathilde Laurent

Ratings

Scent

7.4490 Ratings

Longevity

7.6389 Ratings

Sillage

7.0393 Ratings

Bottle

7.4387 Ratings

Value for money

7.6148 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 01/04/2025.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Déclaration d'Un Soir Intense

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Rosenthal

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Reviews

26 in-depth fragrance descriptions

01/04/2013

10
Bottle 5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 10
Scent

Coutureguru
223 Reviews

Coutureguru

Very helpful Review 7

Cartier does it again!!

I remember vividly trying the original Déclaration for the first time. I was buying fabrics and notions in the Garment District in downtown Los Angeles where can also be found numerous little 'hole in the wall' fragrance shops, their shelves bursting with bottles a lot less expensive than could be had at the department stores.

I tested Declaration at one such vendor and went about my shopping. After some time had gone by I kept getting whiffs of the most stunning fragrance (you know, the one that haunts you above all others) and simply had to have a bottle ... in fact it remained a favorite fragrance until it's recent reformulation, which left it bereft of anything but 'sweaty' cumin top notes.
I was absolutely thrilled to receive a sample of d'un Soir in a gift package (thanks L) and upon trying it have had the same reaction that I had to the original so many years ago ... it's simply FABULOUS! The spices up top are very subtle and beautifully blended, lending the star ingredient of this fragrance, Rose, a superb platform and leverage. In fact, one almost feels as if this fragrance could be a Rose soliflore, were it not for the delicious 'woodsiness' it contains. Being the Rose fanatic that I am, this one is definitely full bottle worthy for me.
The lush, plump, velvety flowers here bloom darkly, almost endlessly on my skin which surprised me as this is an Eau de Toilette. It feels very much as if one is sitting in a bower surrounded by climbing Roses, giving up their swansong of fragrance in the sultry twilight air ... definitely a fragrance that inspires the romantic. I am reminded of Anne Rice's erotically beautiful vampires by Déclaration d'un Soir.

Contrary to others I get a decent 5 to 7 hours of life from this fragrance with a comfortable sillage. This is easily one of my favorite releases of late 2012.

11/10/2012

7.5
Bottle 5
Sillage 10
Longevity 3
Scent

Apicius
224 Reviews

Apicius

Helpful Review 7

Let's get naked...

...for Cartier's new Déclaration d'un Soir! This outsandingly well done fragrance is so paradisical beautiful that you only should enjoy it in the state of innocence.

The perfumer demonstrates a high level of ability: a wonderful rosy note is so skillfully staged that the question if men should wear rose or not does not even come up. Of course they should, and to ensure that, a spicy note, dominated by nutmeg, but also some ethereal notes are set against the rose. From the base, a tart sandalwood-like note shines through which contributes its part to the masculinisation of this perfume. The balance is perfect – this cannot be done any better!

Not knowing the scent pyramid these surroundings alienated the rose so much that at first she wasn't detectable as such – which made me even more curious. Only during the further progression of the fragrance the rose materializes herself more distinctly, and most of all, I believed to smell a peach or apricot-like hint. Insofar, this rose has a resemblance to the grand Rose Barbare by the house of Guerlain.

The rose of Déclaration d'un Soir is so beautiful that she must have come down to us from the Garden of Eden, and so it dawned on me that she hardly could have grown on a common rose bush somewhere on earth. And that's the point: this rose does not droop! All her companions – the spices, the ethereal notes and the woods – resign one by one at some point of the development. In the end, this rose stands completely alone before us, naked and fat.

As if this wasn't worse enough, she digs her thorns deep into textiles. At least, when after two days the sleeves and collar of your jacket are still smelly with this stuff, there will only be disgust. I tried it twice – not believing my senses – but now I've had enough. For this last test, Déclaration d' un Soir will only be allowed a paper strip, and I will throw it away tomorrow.

Déclaration d'un Soir is another example of near-sighted and downright devastating product policy. This perfume will sell well during Christmas trade. The ladies will love it, but many of their husbands will feel sick by this gift a few days after. They will secretly dispose of their clothes and decline with thanks any visit to a perfume shop in the near future.

The immense beauty of this perfume and high skill level that it was composed with are extremely contradictory to the fact that the perfumer made use of an ingredient that obviously is not suitable for perfumes, at least not in this concentration. As is generally known, art is free, but how free was the perfumer?

For me, such a characteristic is a no-go. Déclaration d'un Soir is too beautiful and too sophisticated not to be tested. But don't forget to take your clothes off!

11/30/2012

5
Bottle 2.5
Sillage 5
Longevity 8
Scent

Ysbrand
84 Reviews

Ysbrand

Helpful Review 6

Twilight rose

Dèclaration d´un soir is marketed as a spicy woody fragance, leaving out its more important floral character. On one hand, this is kind of sad, to see how the very perfume houses perpetuate on paper the gender game instead of pushing the envelope. On the other hand, i praise Cartier for going mainstream with a male floral.

I find this fragance Beautiful with a capital B. I always loved the raunchy sexiness of the classic Dèclaration, and while they have things in common, i mean, they both belong to the same box (wood, spices) they have different spirits. IMHO when the classic is sweaty and sexy, the Soir version is fresh and romantic.

Dèclaration d´un soir´s opening is dominated by black pepper and to a lesser extent by the other spices and cedar-like woody notes...this spicy fluid has never touched the sunlight: it smells dusty, invigorating and a bit musty, like cold stone or fresh virgin air captive in the darkness of a cave or a castle´s cellar. This duskiness in the opening, reminds me in spirit to the gothic-dark Encre Noire, although they probably smell nothing like each other.

But after a while, the rose, the main protagonist in this soiree, starts to peek from behind the sober, cool spices. Light, fresh, cristalline rose, more like blush-tinged rosewater in the beginning but unapologetically floral, which work really well in this blend of ingredients. A luminous, iridiscent ,clean rose, with the sweetish warm accents of nutmeg and woods that i only identify as sandalwood after all the spices are almost vanished. The interaction of the spices and the rose is dazzling and masculine.

But it is not all so great news: I love the scent, although I have worn fuller roses than this. I don´t know if i get anosmic to Déclaration d´un soir after 3 hours, which is very frustrating, or it turns into an extremely close to the skin fragance, but I had to keep reapplying. Even so, this is my favourite mainstream release this year.

11/11/2013

10
Bottle 5
Sillage 10
Longevity 6
Scent

JManDave
10 Reviews

JManDave

Helpful Review 5

Purity of Purpose with Some Cautions

Bottom Line -
Declaration d'un Soir is a real break from the original Declaration, featuring an almost Rose soliflore structure this time around. A dark, silky Rose dominates the scent from top to bottom. The masculine categorization is just wrong, honestly; it's at a minimum unisex - and I'd argue feminine-leaning. It's beautiful taken in the right context, but has limited wearability for men. Buyer beware, and test before purchasing.

It earns moderately-high marks for purity of purpose, but comes with some cautions.

Scent -
The opening has a strong, dark Rose with a bit of generic spice as window-dressing. Within the first few minutes, the super-robust Rose all but pushes every other note aside to assert itself. The mids are essentially the same, all Rose. I know there's supposed to be pepper and nutmeg along the way, but I can't uniquely identify those notes under the heavy Rose blanket. The base introduces a meek sandalwood, which seems creamy and nice but very understated.

If you love your Rose dark, strong and in a featured position, Declaration d'un Soir is a worthy candidate. If you are looking for a more complex or balanced Rose-centric frag, this may not meet your requirements. See Other Notes below for potential alternatives.

Wear Performance -
The top notes are a bit strong, but not quite off-putting, just don't spray immediately before walking into the office. The combination of STRONG and ROSE might make you the talk of the office over lunch, but maybe not in the best way. After 10 minutes to settle though, projection and sillage are moderate to strong for a couple of hours, pulling back to a skin scent for the rest of the ride. Total longevity seems to be in the 8+hr range. It's a realistic all-day or all-night option. There's not much development, to my nose, until the very end when the basenotes make a vague appearance.

Wear Scenarios -
This is where this frag becomes tricky, and "personal satisfaction" becomes a very central measure. As usual, if you just love it, then figure out a way to wear it. However, short of that I would recommend cool days, cool nights, for up-scale dress occasions and pretty much no other times.

As this scent comes across as a bit strong and formal, I'd prefer to dress it up, rather than wearing this over jeans & t-shirt for the movies. I would both caution and encourage this one as a date fragrance. To elaborate:

From the man's perspective, I could see certain women really appreciating this as a nice Rose and lapping this up; maybe asking to borrow it. The moderate projection also works well for close-quarters enjoyment.

There's a very real possibility though that other ladies may find this a little less than masculine (not unfairly so), and discourage it's wear on future dates.

From the ladies' perspective, this should wear beautifully on feminine skin, as it really is a nice Rose and I know that I personally am looking forward to asking the GF to try it soon.

I am actually wearing this at work today, and while I'm totally enjoying the aroma in my office, I'm having second thoughts about wearing this in any closed-door meetings. Possibly an unpopular choice for conservative workplaces.

This cologne is in my opinion, as a man, more for personal enjoyment and was obviously not conceived as a general-purpose crowd-pleaser, so I think the key phrase here is "pick your spots". Maybe not to the extreme of Black Afgano, but approaching that.

Other Notes -
From the reviews I'd read, and the note breakdown, I would've expected this to be much closer to Le Labo Rose 31 - a spicy Rose. But to my nose, this is much closer to a pure Rose scent. It's a bit pricey at rack prices for a pretty common designer fragrance: $80 for 50ml or $105 for 100ml.

Other worthy competitors in this space that I've smelled, and do this at least as well, would include: Rose 31, Rose Anonyme, Lumiere Noire, Noire de Noire.

03/11/2013

7.5
Bottle 5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 7
Scent

Miaw2
339 Reviews

Miaw2

Helpful Review 4

Powdery and spicy roses

Sweet, spicy and powdery rose over a light sandal base.

A wonderful blend of ingrediends that turns it into one of the best releases of Cartier Declaration line.

Very balanced, it can be used in all seasons.

For me, it's unisex.

Sillage, lasting power and projection are medium-high.
Definetely a must buy!

Updated January 2014

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