Les Volutes Fumées

Dark Lord Ex Tenebris Lux Kilian 2018

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7.6 / 10 198 Ratings

Dark Lord Ex Tenebris Lux is a popular perfume by Kilian for men and was released in 2018. The scent is leathery-spicy. The longevity is above-average. It is being marketed by Estēe Lauder Companies.
Pronunciation

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Main accords

Leathery

Spicy

Smoky

Woody

Earthy

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Madagascar pepper

Sichuan pepper

Bergamot

Heart Notes

Indian jasmine sambac absolute

Rum

Davana

Base Notes

Atlas cedar

Nagarmotha

Haitian vetiver

Indonesian patchouli

Perfumer

Alberto Morillas

Ratings

Scent

7.6198 Ratings

Longevity

8.3172 Ratings

Sillage

7.8172 Ratings

Bottle

8.5188 Ratings

Value for money

6.383 Ratings

Submitted by Cincy, last update on 10.04.2024.

Interesting Facts

The fragrance is part of the "Les Volutes Fumées" collection.

Reviews

9 in-depth fragrance descriptions

09/07/2018

8
Bottle 7
Sillage 8
Longevity 7.5
Scent

Taurus
309 Reviews

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Taurus

Top Review 16

In the dark is good rumor

With Dark Lord Kilian offers a kind of counterpart to the rather well-behaved sensual-gourmand Black Phantom in the best Fifty Shades of Grey manner. And this counterpart is not only dark and dominant in name, but makes the nine-tailed cat swing olfactorically neatly, so that you can see all black in front of leather and latex. That's a hell of an announcement!

However, you only get them peppered around your nose in the top note, which causes a mixture of amazement and an inner grin. If you are close to BDSM, you might experience some flashbacks, others might turn away irritated, because this scent not only wants to provoke, but will also definitely polarize. One reason for this is that this dark gentleman not only exudes a slightly wicked but also unnatural aura, despite a subliminal animal bitchiness.

Jasmine can't get through, the actually sweet and warm mango-like Davana goes down completely and the rum... well, forget wir´s!

Until then, it's still interesting. But in the further decaying course Dark Lord becomes rather "Lord Helmchen" (outsiders are then allowed to google), because the only thing that asserts itself from the base note is the cedar, which unfortunately seems as funky as a badly copied TdH including the addition of moist modelling clay. Schaaadeee!

Yes, if Dark Lord consisted only of the top note with leather and latex cover, it would be a real hit in the truest sense. Could be a perfume by ELdO, but out of the back everything that was so beautifully built up in front is torn down again with the butt, as long as there was not such an Ambroxan- or Iso-E-Super mixture processed, which I can not perceive.

Nevertheless, I believe that Kilian will find friends and enemies. And since I have my very generous and patronizing day today, I score 7.5 points (but only because of the exorbitant start).

12/02/2018

8
Bottle 7
Sillage 8
Longevity 10
Scent

DuftDoktor
1 Review

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DuftDoktor

Top Review 13

The perfect leather fragrance

Well, what's perfect?! Everything is at least partly a matter of taste. And yes, the ingenious leather opening doesn't last forever.

Maybe that's a good thing, because otherwise it's easy to get satirized. A danger that we perfume fans are always in for anyway. That's why we spare our favourite fragrances to avoid getting tired of them.
Leather is an exciting fragrance theme. First, because of the associations. Much more than any other fragrance theme, leather is charged with thought images and promises - from masculine Lonesome Rider attitude to passionate sex. Here, therefore, strong affection and vehement rejection lie close together, not only due to the physiological scent impression. There are so many conflict issues that access to leather fragrances is almost always biased.

Second, because of the scent itself. In general, all of them polarize fragrances that are considered great by some people. There are fragrances that everyone finds nice, but there are no undisputed great fragrances. This applies particularly to leather. Because a leather fragrance is obviously very difficult to produce without suffocating on disadvantages.

There are beautiful scents with leather. Either the leather is hardly noticeable there (and one can guess how one often smells anyway what one thinks to know about the scent) or is overlaid by other scents. Fragrances with leather in second or third place can be very nice (see e.g. "Aoud Night" by Montale), but then it is simply not a real leather fragrance. - So for my taste many would-be leather scents slip into sweetness or iris-heavy (which is then talked about more beautifully as suede). Also the sweet leather can be nice, for instance with rum like in "Bentley for Men Intense".

So far I thought it was impossible to make a good real leather fragrance (i.e. a good leather fragrance with leather as the dominant fragrance). This was not a rejection in principle, but a thesis based on many experiences with leather fragrances.

Examples: Guerlain's Derby is my carnation. It's bugging me. With "Knize Ten" the Bibergeil portion is too high for me (which is a cool scent, but rarely wearable). At "Bel Ami" I don't like the pungent bitterness.

Now Alberto Morillas has proven with "Dark Lord" that a beautiful, even very beautiful real leather scent is possible!

So far I have not thought him to be one of the great perfumers, as he has already committed many scent crimes. But now he has received absolution and ascended to perfumers' olympus.

In his Opus Magnus he did not succumb to many temptations. So the dark lord does not drift off into the sweet, bacony, dirty or (all too) synthetic. That the fragrance ends with an impression of shoe polish and woodiness is acceptable to me. All other leather fragrances have other disadvantages. You always have to swallow a toad, because there is nothing perfect in every respect, as I mentioned at the beginning.

Darth Vader's signature fragrance has a perfect leather note in its head and heart. It smells of leather jacket, leather school satchel and does without a second violin. Only in third place a noble, spicy fragrance bed appears. Davana and Rum are the most likely to be mentioned here.

The best way to imagine the scent impression is to imagine "Epic Man" by Amouage without the oriental fuss (myrrh, frankincense, spices). "("Epic Man" still has its justification as a spice-leather Oriental, only it is not a real leather fragrance.)

A work of art in leather is this dark lord, which can be worn from autumn to spring.
However, its scope is much wider. Because finally there is a "pure" leather fragrance with which you can spice up other fragrances. In the meantime I have become a great friend of layering fragrances, because almost all fragrances do not seem to me to be optimally balanced or incomplete. The little man's perfume smithy is the layering. So you can make your own settings on the fragrance controls, so to speak as a perfume DJ!

Full of excitement I expect my upcoming layering experiments. In perfumery I was already thrilled how "Dark Lord" can add an evil side to Etro's (cypress)woody-herbaceous "Patchouly". Actually, the perfume seller and I were just looking for a perfume that the Lord would NOT go with. Because even with fresh (citric and green) scents the leather school bag harmonizes. That sounds implausible, I know.

His combination strength lies in the fact that the Lord is still restraining his power. Through this countenance, he does not flatten other actors, but lets them stand and come to the fore. He knows he's the coolest, but he doesn't have to show it all the time. "Dark Lord" is not a boastful bawler, but an elegant, dignified gentleman.

01/31/2021

8
Pricing 9
Bottle 8
Sillage 8
Longevity 9
Scent

Schellack
3 Reviews

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Schellack

Top Review 12

Grandseigneur old and a little dark school

We have purchased the perfume "on suspicion" and only on the basis of the description in the webshop at the discount action of a Viennese perfumery chain - something that you should not do GAR, but what remains to one already in the lock-down??
In short: neither I as a wearer nor my wife as (on miss and flat synthetic tones quite sensitive) Schnüfflerin were disappointed.
We tried it right on the skin.
At the beginning of tar notes, of course heavy leather, but then also the scent of high-quality cigar tobacco, dark chocolate, old rum, the sweetness of Kentucky Bourbon Reserve; even some port wine creeps in.
Later tonka beans, also cautious floral notes (minimally even violets??) and sweetly underpinned rubber, perhaps a slight reminder of Etro's "Gomma".
Overall warm, powerful, without being intrusive or even slaying.
On the one hand, association to classic gentlemen's evening, not in a tuxedo, but in any case in a blazer, with ripe Cabernets, then cognac or port wine (this perfume would probably not even bother when trying such drinks, which is otherwise very critical!), but on the other hand, a nice evening at home for two, with classical music.

02/17/2019

8
Pricing 10
Bottle 9
Sillage 9
Longevity 8.5
Scent

DarkWinterCS
136 Reviews

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DarkWinterCS

Helpful Review 9

The playroom of Christian Grey to the power of 10

Who doesn't know them, the women who have devoured the "Shades of Grey" trilogy full of enthusiasm. Many men are probably waved off there and did not understand the hype. Who then, like me, was compelled to have a look at the films will perhaps understand this even less.

But enough for that, because the combination of Shades of Grey and this fragrance is often said to be very effective when you think about it. Because who had this smell once in the nose, feels reminded of the film / of the book. If this fragrance smells of something, then it is an extremely dark, deep leather note, which also radiates a roughness that reminds us of the playroom of C. Grey.
In the whole development one perceives the leather notes to 80 %. Depending on the wearing time, rum, pepper, patchouli and a delicate rubber note, which does not take too much overhand, are added
Like many scents that hit an extreme note, this one is also a hate-or-love scent. He is definitely different in his composition and very polarizing. If you like the kind of scent you will find something special here. For me, this fragrance has to be evaluated differently every day. But in the end he won't find a permanent place in the collection, because he is a bit "over the top". Its durability is really very good. The holds gladly times over 8h on my skin and is nevertheless still noticeable afterwards. My better half, the Shades of Grey total celebrates is this kind and amount of leather but then also a bit too much. ;-)

09/16/2020

9
Bottle 8
Sillage 8
Longevity 8.5
Scent

Veritas23
1 Review

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Veritas23

Darth Vader to spray on

The name Dark Lord is really well chosen for this perfume. There's definitely something dark and mysterious about it The opening is strongly reminiscent of the Gucci Guilty Absolute, both are also by Morillas. However, the Gucci stays the same most of the time, while the Dark Lord slowly reveals more notes. Most of all, of course, black fresh leather like when car seats are covered. Vetiver is also very noticeable. Also pepper where the more in the beginning and then slowly recedes. In the background a light sweetness of the rum flickers through. The rum reminds me a bit of Black Phatom.
The Sillage is clearly noticeable with 2 sprayers, but it is better not to overdo it, because otherwise the scent might be exhausting. The shelf life of more than 8 hours is very good, which is rarely a problem with Kilian fragrances.
For everyday work, the fragrance is rather suboptimal for my taste, as it is very opulent.
For going out but top especially in winter and in the evening. I can imagine it even better on cold days.

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