Black No.1 / Blackbird (Extrait de Parfum) by House of Matriarch

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Black No.1
Blackbird
House of Matriarch 2012 Extrait de Parfum

8.1 / 10 87 Ratings

A popular perfume by House of Matriarch for women and men, released in 2012. The scent is leathery-resinous. The longevity is above-average. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Leathery

Resinous

Woody

Smoky

Spicy

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Coniferous woods

White sage Kelp

Kelp

Heart Notes

Amber

Cannabis

Oud

Base Notes

Black leather

Hyraceum

Ambergris

Perfumer

Christi Meshell

Videos

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Ratings

Scent

8.187 Ratings

Longevity

8.269 Ratings

Sillage

7.274 Ratings

Bottle

7.275 Ratings

Value for money

5.415 Ratings

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 08/19/2022.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Black No.1 Perfume Oil

Destrier

Black Afgano Extrait de Parfum

Reviews

6 in-depth fragrance descriptions

04/18/2014

10Scent 10Longevity 10Sillage

ScentFan
336 Reviews

ScentFan

Helpful Review 6

One of the Greats

Blackbird is one of the great incense perfumes and I sniffed more than 50 in search of the best. To my nose, it ranks with the unsurpassed Norma Kamali Incense, with Slumberhouse Norne and on the lighter side with beautiful La Liturgie des Heures and Bois d’Ascese. Apparently, I’m not by myself because it swept the fragrance awards in 2013. At one point the website said it contains, "hundreds of exotic natural aromas, NW conifers, Pugeot Sound seaweed, black leather, rare oud and cannabis.” I promise you, one of those aromas is somali frankincense, so beautiful compared to the starker omani version, that it hardly needs additives. I bought samples of both for my perfumery notes kit and now I’d recognize somali incense anywhere, but it alone can’t account for the depth and richness here. Blackbird is a sophisticated, involving, headily delicious and magical scent not to be missed by anyone who adores incense perfumes. It’s expensive, like most niche offerings, but it’s worth every single cent.

11/03/2017

9Scent 9Longevity 7Sillage

SuzanneS
40 Reviews

SuzanneS

Helpful Review 4

Black No1 by Matriarch (formerly blackbird)

Black No1 by Matriarch (15ml spray)

Black No.1 is a piney sea-green & leather scent that adheres to Matriarch's vision of natural perfumery. Prismatic, as many nuances of notes dance upon the Matriarch stage and as the embodiment of the Seattle, Oregon, No.Cal aesthetic. Natural, updated, luxurious, quirky, sexy-clean with a conscience. No1 morphs with your skin creating a custom scent that enhances you.

No1 is loaded with 33% essential oils. Id venture to call it a super extrait. Black No1 is as close to maximum quality you can infuse in a bottle, so its price/quality ratio makes this affordable. Its 33% essential oil formula is apparent when one goes to sniff No1. It can collect in the back of your mouth and eventually taste it. I wouldnt advise burying your nose in your arm with Black No.1.

Silage is only noticed when one is close to the body, about arms length maximum. Understated sexy in its presentation to others. Duration of the scent lasted about 6 hours.

Is it Masculine? Feminine? Unisex?

Its for urban male hipsters that like a fougere minus the floral notes. No.1 resonated better on male skin. Primarily because their inherent manly hormones lends to what Black No1 needs to be a sexy stunner. Musk, animalics or something dirty in the base to balance the cleanliness.

Females that love an overdose of leather & adventuresome green aspects would resonate with Black No1. It could be for the sophisticated artisan that dons her finest leather jacket and lives near the Puget Sound. Its forest notes are counterbalanced by the sea notes creating a neutral balance for both sexes to wear

12/15/2014

8Scent 10Longevity 5Sillage

Drseid
828 Reviews

Drseid

Helpful Review 5

Brilliant Blackbird...

Blackbird opens with a grassy green, relatively fresh cannabis accord before slowly transitioning to its early heart. As the composition enters its early heart the grassy green cannabis remains, now joining pine in support of an emerging coupling of burning coniferous fir and oud wood. During the late dry-down the pine takes on the starring role joining the remnants of the cannabis and the burning fir and Oud incense tandem now fading to the background through the finish. Projection is average but longevity outstanding at over 15 hours on skin.

Blackbird is a composition that has received excellent word of mouth and press alike. Its fan base, while maybe just a select few (due to the composition's lack of widespread distribution) is near rabid in its support. In the case of this reviewer, I went in with a blind buy, keeping my fingers crossed that the near-universal praise was warranted and having now worn it a few times on skin I can happily say it is. My favorite part of the composition is its fresh grassy green cannabis open that smells quite pleasant and wholly convincing. Unlike many opening notes that fade in a matter of seconds, this open lasts for quite some time before the burning fir and Oud wood driven incense accord takes control of the mid-section's development. I am not the biggest fan of burning Oud wood (preferring the oil) but can certainly appreciate a well-done implementation and Blackbird absolutely has it. The combination of the burning fir and Oud wood incense is somewhat reminiscent of a cross between bone-dry burning rubber and rugged leather. The grassy green cannabis hangs around in support to give the incense a sharp green facet, adding to its distinctiveness. The late dry-down is a gorgeous pairing of coniferous woody pine with the remnants of the stark incense and the cannabis. In the end, the composition is innovative and quite skillfully put together by the talented perfumer Christi Meshell. The bottom line is the $300 per 60ml bottle Blackbird is quite pricey in relative terms, but the composition is skillfully executed while distinctively innovative, earning it an "excellent" 4 stars out of 5 rating and a solid recommendation.

11/22/2014

9Scent

OGBuysblind
21 Reviews

OGBuysblind

Blackbird by House of Matriarch

When it first opens, Blackbird smells like chemically treated, oily leather. There's almost a searing quality to it, as if some kind of toxic chemical was used to tan the hide and it hasn't completely dried yet. It's odd, but it smells good, and is restrained enough as to avoid an overbearing presence. It's black, and hardcore, the color of crude oil. Then, this really peculiar, salty seaweed accord creeps in and blends with the leather. It's a kind of a cold, marine, coastal smell and you can almost feel the salty moisture in the air. This is a really cool phase of the fragrance, and I've never experienced, or expected to experience leather and seaweed together. But here they are, in a quirky, symbiotic relationship creating something new and previously unheard of. It's worth mentioning that this is also the most realistic 'sea salt' note I've encountered. The cannabis in Blackbird plays the edges, and gives a nice "Kinski-esque" accent to the composition. And there's a dark green, piney forest element that lives in Blackbird as well. It provides some familiarity in an otherwise strange and unusual scent. Finally, Blackbird settles into its base with a natural, high quality oud that is resinous, a bit animalic, and a little dirty. This is real oud, as it appears in expensive oud oils and attars, and its unmistakable. There is a similar oud in the base of Vikt (by Slumberhouse), but other than that, I've rarely experienced this in mainstream niche perfumery. Hats off to House of Matriarch for including real oud instead of the industry-standard synthetic, as there's an enormous difference between the two. With wear, other little facets of Blackbird blossom, appear, and disappear. While it maintains the basic structure described above, subtle shifts pop up throughout its duration.

I was surprised by how wearable and pleasant I find Blackbird. I was expecting something big, foreboding, and nuclear. But it's not. It's much more compressed than I had expected, less expansive, and not intrusive at all. It projects about a foot and leaves a light, though firmly present sillage. I like this about it, and it makes the wholly odd and interesting composition easier to digest and enjoy. And in some ways, without analyzing it up close and in depth and thinking about it so much, this is just a very enjoyable masculine leather fragrance. I received a few comments on it and basically they could be summed up as, "Oh, that smells nice." So it's not like you're going to go around freaking people out when you wear this. But it will maintain your interest, and you certainly don't own anything else like it. Longevity is very good.

On a spacial note, I don't feel like Blackbird totally envelopes me when I wear it. Because of its compressed structure, I almost feel as if I'm looking down on it, from some distance above. And below I can see a forest as it stands in the mist, all foggy greens looming over a sandy, beige coast, a little dark and gray, with some rain clouds opening over the sea. It's this detachment that allows me to wear Blackbird and admire it for what it is.

One of my favorite finds this year, I highly recommend sampling this even if you think it sounds like it's a little too much to handle or too heavy. It's really not, and you might just find the leather you've been looking for.

08/19/2022

9Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage

BobbyGee
230 Reviews

BobbyGee

House of Matriarch / Black No.1

“A living work of fluid art, the first iconic HoM classic was launched as BLACKBIRD in 2012. Named TOP MEN'S FRAGRANCE by Men's Journal Magazine and BEST OF THE WEST by Sunset Magazine, this worldwide and penetrating fragrance contains more than 300 exotic natural essences and your own living spirit.

“Black No1 has evolved in identity while maintaining its essential splendor. Only the name of this fragrance has changed, the composition is exactly the same. Standing to the test of time as it improves in the bottle, comparing the two vintages available draws the fragrance lover into Epicurean territory, illustrating the core philosophy of High Perfumery. '

Despite many natural ingredients (97.5%) - my nose and brain perceive it as the smell of thick skins lying in a coniferous forest full of pine needles, next to a dying out fire. Mainly pines and firs grow in this forest. Someone next to us is smoking something, taking a puff and enjoying it. So we can feel the smoke of the dying out fire (slightly incense) mixed with the smell of leather, conifers and …… marijuana, which I feel quite significantly here. Maybe it was after carrying those skins that this gentleman thought it was the right time to relax in the woods with a ganja in his mouth. That's possible. So we have an interesting and unique leather covered with green coniferous forest, light incense and marijuana.
I recommend to meet.

More reviews

Statements

18 short views on the fragrance

BoBoChamp

4 years ago

8Scent 7Longevity 7Sillage

A dry and smooth, slightly earthy, leathery-woody Fall fragrance, with a rather dark and pungent, animalic spicy-green opening. Masculine.

Gandix

5 years ago

8.5Scent 8Longevity 8Sillage

My pirate
In oil-stained leather gear
You stomp through weeds and roots
Exploring foreign woods
You're a gentleman
And you drape your jacket over me.

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Bastian

3 years ago

7.5Scent 8Longevity 7Sillage

Wants to be the villain
But is more like the nice robber Hotzenplotz
Hazily spicy scent
Leather and animal notes are quite subtle
It's pretty nice*

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Achilles

9 years ago

8.5Scent 10Longevity 10Sillage

The garage, oil level and brake fluid still need to be checked, instead everyone is wearing leather jackets and prefers to smoke a joint.

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NuiWhakakore

4 years ago

7.5Scent 8Longevity 7Sillage

wanna party in the woods?
white sage (g)oud?
wanna smoke the ganja?
my leather is your leather
sweet bro

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Violett

4 years ago

Starts very dark
strong-smoky-spicy
leather doesn't work for me - it's too smoky
soon drifts towards pleasant
sweet, warm, soft
with resin and amber

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Chizza

4 years ago

8Scent 7Longevity 7Sillage

Little leather, more of a very green, spicy touch. Sage is noticeably present, no animalic notes. Successful but different than expected. Becomes a bit sweet.

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