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Japon Noir Tom Ford 2007

8.3 / 10 121 Ratings

A popular perfume by Tom Ford for women and men, released in 2007. The scent is spicy-woody. The longevity is above-average. It was last marketed by Estēe Lauder Companies.
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Main accords

Spicy

Woody

Oriental

Leathery

Earthy

Fragrance Notes

Port wine

Oakmoss

Amber

Leather

Night-blooming jasmine

Patchouli

Thyme

Coriander

Vetiver

Perfumer

Pierre Negrin

Ratings

Scent

8.3121 Ratings

Longevity

8.197 Ratings

Sillage

6.987 Ratings

Bottle

8.293 Ratings

Value for money

6.324 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro · last update on 11/15/2025.

Source-backed & verified

Interesting Facts

The photos for the advertising campaign were taken by photographer Guido Mocafico.

Smells similar

What the fragrance is similar to

Extreme Eau de Toilette

Bois Rouge

Plum Japonais

Burnt Amber

Héritage Eau de Parfum

Reviews

12 in-depth fragrance descriptions

01/07/2012

10Scent 10Longevity

Cooper20
19 Reviews

Cooper20

Very helpful Review 6

Illuminating Beauty

Japon Noir

I walked through the garden today, a cloudy cold rainy day...wearing Japon Noir makes me feel sad in a way, aside from its warmth, it comes off very hostile..almost abrupt..the leather squeezes hold of my neck, the patchouli runs its way down my lips leaving a dirty earthy after taste and the jasmine looks me in the eye...all the beauty in the world slowly tormented and destroied by the powerful leather.

I kept walking through the garden..fallen petals kissing my toes, grass caressing my ankles..my finger tips brushing against the flowers. I cant help but feel somewhat dangerous with Japon Noir on my skin, almost as if this were the scent of an assasinator. Dark, violent and so beautiful..so perfect. I think the sense of fear i get from this is that the leather note doesnt quit, it literally enevelopes my body as if i were in a bondage dungeon with an audience of beautiful angelic people, looking at me..looking at my destruction.

I dont think this represents the beauty and the heritage of Japanese culture, but it for me..represents the underground..the people beneath the streets and the sakura trees...filled with darkness..waiting hungrily to release themselves out onto the night. I love the spiciness of Japon Noir, its as if im sitting in an old Japanese tea house with steam bursting from the small tea pots and beautiful geishas fanning themselves in anticipation for what is to come. But once this settles and calms down..i find myself floating in water..confused but at peace with this fragrance and all its strange beauty

04/20/2012

7Scent 5Longevity 2.5Sillage

Awesomeness
247 Reviews

Awesomeness

Helpful Review 5

Smokey & Sweet

Overall, Japon Noir is a wonderfully smokey and sweet fragrance. It opens just a bit spicy & oriental on me, but quickly peels back to reveal it's smokey character which is maintained throughout the wear. As it dries, it becomes a bit sweet. The smokiness tames but still is present. JN has that tell-tale Tom Ford signature accord that's also in his Noir de Noir and Tobacco Vanille.

The fragrance is a bit low on sillage and doesn't have the greatest longevity considering the price point. Many people regard JN as the most masculine of the TF Private Blend line, and I usually don't care for masculines on my skin. However, JN strikes me as solidly unisex.

Japon Noir is quite unique, very wearable, and sadly discontinued. Highly recommend for sampling.

02/09/2013

8Scent 8Longevity 6Sillage

Yatagan
416 Reviews

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Yatagan

Top Review 27

My Summer in Japan

In the summer of 1989, I strolled through blooming Kyoto, the residence of the Japanese Emperor, the Tenno, for over 1000 years. I could hardly believe that I was here, washed ashore in distant Japan by chance and fate, with the time and leisure to explore the city and its surroundings for almost two months.

Besides the Imperial Palace and the beautiful gardens, it was primarily the Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines (the term for a temple of the Japanese national religion) that stayed in my memory.

While the shrines were often light and bright, dominated by the colors orange and white, the temples were generally dark, a bit gloomy, and occasionally mysterious, saturated with incense.

Japon Noir: Just the name triggered various associations in me, memories of my time in Japan came flooding back. I have now owned a sample for a few days, giving me the chance to test this rare fragrance.

What stands out to me initially is that the warm spicy note, which forms the opening, overshadows the patchouli note all the way to the base note. This is rather rare. Patchouli often has a strong presence and is, in my personal experience, too intrusive in many fragrances. I actually like it best when it remains subtly in the background and only casts its shadows, like a dark, softly burning candle. This is exactly how it appears in Japon Noir and provides a warm, soft foundation.

As noted multiple times in the instructive comments of my predecessors, the port wine note in the fragrance is clearly perceptible. Less in the sense of an alcoholic accent, more as if the port wine had been used as a fond for a roast dish and had left its scent lingering in the kitchen while cooking. This scent note is also known from spice cakes that have been refined with a splash of red wine. And yet, the combination of spices and wine in this fragrance is not intrusive and strong, as one might know from the penetrating aroma of mulled wine. Here it is subtle, almost sweet, as if the fragrance always wanted to remain a little in the shadows, reserved and considerate, like a Japanese geisha.

The fragrance components listed in the base note are, in my opinion, also well recognizable. The sour sharpness of the vetiver gently resonates for a while, a floral note (perhaps jasmine) remains perceptibly underlying, and after a longer time, one might even speak of a leather note.

Does this fragrance now match my experience with Japan? The parallel to plum wine, Umeshu, has been drawn several times and is certainly not to be dismissed. Perhaps that was also what Tom Ford wanted to remind us of with this fragrance.

Personally, the thought of the dark, mysterious Japanese temples does not leave me, even though it smelled quite different there: of incense and dark wood, masterfully captured, for example, in Comme des Garcons Kyoto. What I actually mean, however, is the impression of shadows, of cozy darkness, of the feeling of security that occasionally enveloped one in these temples, before a Japanese garden full of white flowers in the light. All these impressions and memories also arise with Japon Noir, so strongly that I have to apply the fragrance again and again to keep this beautiful feeling from leaving me. A fragrance that gently embraces the wearer.

Thus, for me, the name stands less for something concrete, but rather for an impression of shadows and candlelight in the darkness, of exoticism and foreign lands, which has been well captured here, and whose great harmony, while simultaneously having a dark allure, certainly suggested the name Japon Noir.

07/23/2013

9Scent 10Longevity 7.5Sillage

Ergoproxy
1130 Reviews

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Ergoproxy

Top Review 19

Japan from an American's Perspective, or Good, the Theme Missed.

After my praise for a fragrance from Japan, I found it exciting to engage with Japon Noir by Tom Ford.

However, as soon as I applied the fragrance, one thing became clear to me: this scent does not want to align with my (probably completely idealized) fragrant image of Japan.

I think Japon Noir presents a similar picture of the Land of the Rising Sun as the German village in Disneyland represents Germany, or in other words, the theme has been exaggerated to the point where Japon Noir skims dangerously close to being a caricature.

The top note indeed has something alcoholic, but it doesn't really smell like Asian plum wine to me. I find it smells like what it contains, port wine, because alongside the alcohol, Japon Noir has a distinctly woody character right from the start.

The spices that are supposed to be in the top note only come through for me with the heart note and add to the woody port wine. At the same time, Japon Noir also becomes sweeter and more opulent.

Only after hours can I recognize a shift towards the base.
Here, Japon Noir becomes distinctly balsamic sweet, and the spiciness takes a back seat.

The projection is very pronounced, and the longevity can easily compete with any 80s perfume.

Japon Noir is a great fragrance, and if it were still available, I would have eagerly purchased it.
However, regarding the thematic implementation, the name Kabuki Theater gives one the impression of something grand, while the fragrance offers something akin to Miss Saigon à la Las Vegas (the source material for the musical, like Puccini's opera, is a French novella called Madame Chrysanthème by Pierre Loti).

Conclusion: Here, the theme has been wonderfully missed for a change!

10/07/2014

8Scent 10Longevity 10Sillage

loewenherz
919 Reviews

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loewenherz

Top Review 13

'...is like the blood of the earth...'

it is famously said about Greek wine. I am not an outright connoisseur or lover of Greek winemaking, but the analogy seems fitting for this extraordinary fragrance.

More than most fragrances I know, even among the other not-so-lightweight TFs, Japon Noir is a grand, profound, and exceedingly serious scent. One that I never wear casually, where I must be sure whether I can endure it until the end of the day or night.

Japon Noir does not necessarily appear Eastern. It is black wood, it is great emptiness, and it is solemn silence. That may seem Eastern, may seem Japanese. But it is also dark ink, it is heavy sacramental wine, it is bitter smoke and cold ash and heavy cloth. It is profoundly erotic and sensual and not at all provocative, not sexy. It is of great wisdom and composure, like a gaze from infinite distance into infinite depth.

It is like a consecrated fire, a fragrance to be worn in enclosed spaces, in late autumn or winter. It is aloof, invites nothing, seduces to nothing. The alcoholic plum gives it a hovering, almost warning sweetness - like a premonition of danger. At first, it is leaden in weight, yet after four or five hours it rises hesitantly and staggering like a gigantic black bird and takes its wearer along.

Conclusion: a very special fragrance. I will use my remaining amount with caution.

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