Cruel Intentions Tempt Me Kilian 2007 Perfume

I love dark fragrances, but only when they truly come across as bitter, smoky, and cool. Cruel Intentions starts off beautifully for me. Up until the heart note, I really like the scent and I was already ready to pull the trigger to add it to my wish list. Oud is - very pleasantly for me - only very subtly present, and I can understand Egoproxy's comparison to M7 well. The Kilian scent is even more elegant. However, as the fragrance develops, Cruel Intentions takes on a creamy, almost greasy animalistic note that ruins the mood for me again. It somehow doesn’t fit together. The character of the fragrance changes so much for my nose that I no longer want it. I also don’t really know what Castoreum truly smells like. Perhaps, unlike musk and especially civet, I am overly sensitive here, but this note is extremely unpleasant for me.

For a creamy fragrance, Cruel Intentions is too dark and too bitter, and for a dark bitter fragrance, the animalistic note is too soft and sticky. There’s also nothing that softens the transition, giving the fragrance a framework. I find Cruel Intentions unharmonious, and that’s very unfortunate because I had high expectations for it.