SvenScent

Black Orchid by Tom Ford is simply an event, overwhelming! There's no perfume that has ever hit me as hard as this. I can neither put this fragrance into words nor break it down into its components as I usually like to do. That's why I don't even try it here. It's a prime example of what you can do with fragrance ingredients and how you can create a whole work of art from them. I put it on, I am speechless about this fullness of scent, which fascinates me in no time. This fragrance is so deep, so opulent, so sensual, yes, literally breathtaking

It lasts almost forever and its sillage is enormous. I can smell it for miles. And it's completely incomprehensible to me why here at Parfumo some of the more disdainful 08/15 fragrances easily take the 8 mark, but not this one. Probably it polarizes too much ...!?

There are perhaps one or two fragrances that, if I had to choose, I would rather choose when it comes to choosing the fragrance for the (rest of) my life, because they are more versatile and undogmatic, but there is only this one fragrance whose fragrance experience I will never forget and which I would take with me to my grave.


Song: The Mission - 'Love me to death (my flower)' [1986]

I can only agree with my precommentator: This fragrance is warm, it's sensual, it's beautiful, no, it's beautiful, yes, it's dreamy!

It is very difficult - as is always the case with Tom Ford perfumes - to break the fragrance down into its individual components because they are so well-blended, as is the case here.

Even the fruity and spicy opening is hardly to be surpassed in sensuality. A true explosion of impressions and spicy aromas. Here, the sandalwood already comes to the fore, giving the entire fragrance a certain creaminess and stability.

And then this heart!?! I don't know if anyone has ever smelled this Kulfi. For uninitiated people like me, a new fragrance simply emerges here in the heart, an entirely new chord. I could not even say what it reminds me of, because I know nothing like it. It's sweet, but not too sweet, it's fruity but only very light, and together with the floral notes it seems fresh and elegant.

After some time the vanilla becomes more dominant in the base. But even this is not a despicable vanilla, like in the very close drydowns of some other perfumes, but is slightly ambered, wonderfully creamy and still carries all the spice of the previous course well-bedded in itself.

I would characterize the fragrance as spicy-oriental rather than gourmand, but it's up to the individual to decide what to eat... But what sets it apart from many other orientals is that it always retains a certain transparency and never appears sweet, overblown or overcharged. I also think it's a perfume that can be worn all the time: in the morning, at noon, in the evening, at night, in spring, summer, autumn and winter. For this type of perfume, it's quite unusual

The only thing that could be criticized would have been the performance, because it could have been improved. Noir Extreme starts very strong, but at some point it also decreases very much. In my opinion, it's a bit too fast for a perfume of this kind.

And last but not least: I actually caught myself putting on this wonderful fragrance just for sleeping. Decadent, I know... but gorgeous!

The opening of the fragrance consists of a somewhat pungent coniferous forest mix as well as a very restrained and barely noticeable citric. The whole thing is underlaid by a medical artemisian note that I find really unpleasant. The cumin, on the other hand, whose fan I usually am, I unfortunately perceive much too little or not at all.

In the middle there is a slight flurry, but then it goes almost seamlessly into the drydown, which is clearly dominated by slightly smoky moss. Oldschool, but quite good this part! Unfortunately, it quickly faded away, so that I wouldn't dare to speak of an (eighties) 'powerhouse' with this perfume, because there's really not much power there. By the way, I can't smell anything of leather - after all, the fragrance is classified as "spicy leathery" here - at all

And otherwise?
The flacon is rather unattractive, though appropriate, and the sprayer a single disaster, because it atomizes the aerosol far too finely while spraying only a few centimeters. So always spray close to your body!

If you are not one of those who collect everything, or those who are especially classics oriented, I think there are much better scents, even from that time...!

One thing first: I had expected an old-school barbershop scent, but I got a very modern looking perfume. Astonishing, especially considering the year of release. Because this fragrance is a child of the 90s!

The perfume opens - very different from what I expected - very fresh, fruity and floral, but also a little synthetic. My first associations were more 'Invictus Acqua' or 'Legend Spirit' than an aramis fragrance
After being surprised by this opening, however, I asked myself: where is the tobacco, where is the Havana feeling? Because this was a long time coming. When you think that's it, the chord finally kicks in and a wonderfully authentic tobacco scent slowly unfolds. It's not extremely smoky (and in that case even uncomfortable for me), as in his younger brother 'Tobacco Reserve', or overly sweet, as in so many other tobacco scents, but it's very real
The other day it happened that I put on the scent at home and went to a large inland reservoir in a North German city with over a million inhabitants. There I sat on a bench and thought to myself: Who is going to fill his pipe here? Until I noticed, oh, this is my Havana. On the one hand, this was proof that you have to be patient for a while before the tobacco dares to do so, but on the other hand it also showed how natural this tobacco smells. You just have to wait
And the floral notes of carnation and geranium, which some here at Parfumo find annoying, I find quite pleasant on the way to the tobacco, because they give the fragrance freshness and lightness, and they also vanish as the fragrance progresses. The fragrance then fades away in a pleasant woody way...

The only thing to add is that the bottle is not worth mentioning and the shelf life is in the upper average range.

After a very dear perfumer has "bequeathed" me 'Kapsule Woody' by Karl Lagerfeld, I feel compelled, due to the very different comments and statements, to give my own assessment of the fragrance here.
The opinions expressed so far read so heterogeneously that one might think that these are not one and the same perfume. But if you take a closer look at the comments, they all carry a piece of truth within them. Nevertheless, none of the evaluations hits the whole thing in my eyes and describes the fragrance with all its facets.

But what one can say at the beginning: The perfume bears his name rightly!
Because, after it starts fruity for a few seconds at the beginning, it is very, very woody at first with a little smoky moss in the background. Both makes it very masculine, although I think the perfume is declared unisex. I've already had associations with Dior Homme here, especially with the Intense version. The cedar gives it a very similar smell, but only in Drydown.
In the beginning of Kapsule Woody of plum is hardly a trace, but the scent soon turns itself upside down. The "wooden capsule" from the beginning releases the plum only after some time. This is underlaid with sweetness and the scent suddenly appears powdery and somewhat vanilla. That's when it becomes feminine. And I think the scent here smells like the opening of DHI, only here, with Woody, the plum plays the leading role, while with Homme it's more peary. And I would almost swear that in the Kapsule, although not performed, Iris is also at work.
So you could say that the Kapsule Woody is an upside down Dior Homme Intense. Not 1:1, but still very similar.

All in all, we have a somewhat unbalanced fragrance with an interesting progression and satisfying durability. Its structure of notes and its radiance make it ideal for autumn! And - and this also needs to be mentioned - the simple cubistic bottle is in my eyes extremely aesthetic.