By Andrew
Back to Black opens up all guns blazing, with patchouli, smoky leather, honeyed fruit, and booze in the top notes. It then morphs into a dark, fruity patchouli-tobacco accord, dusted with cocoa and anchored by a powdery amber. If the mention of chocolate and patchouli has you experiencing scary flashbacks to A*Men, be assured that Back to Black plays the gourmand patchouli hand with much more elegance and discretion than Thierry Mugler’s synthetic chocolate pudding bomb, which in any case does not feature a prominent tobacco note.
In fact, the quality of Back to Black’s tobacco note puts me in mind of Pascal Morabito’s grand but elusive Or Black. The two have tobacco, patchouli, and a bold, dark profile in common, but Back to Black is a softer, sweeter, and less confrontational composition. It smells decidedly gourmand next to the Morabito’s humidor. The resemblance diminishes as Back to Black’s base notes assert themselves, the amber growing ever sweeter, denser and more powdery. Think Borneo 1834 or Chanel Coromandel, add some more sugar, some smoky leather and a lot of tobacco, and you’ll get the picture. Both sillage and projection are emphatic, though not overwhelming, and the powdery-sweet labdanum and patchouli drydown runs on for several hours.
A woman wearing Back to Black may as well be wearing black leather and fishnet. On a man – just drop the fishnet. Like Guerlain’s Derby, Knize Ten, or Aramis Havana, this is not a scent for little boys (or girls). No, it won’t make you smell “like an old man,” but adults only need apply. For those who like tobacco, Back to Black is a fragrance worth sampling. It offers plenty of the distinctive fruity tang of pipe tobacco with fewer oriental trappings than Fumerie Turque or Chergui, and with less over-the-top bravado than Or Black. Gourmand aficionados will find something to like here, too, without risking the dessert tray crassness that so often afflicts the genre.
Year: 2009
Perfumer: Calice Becker
Notes: bergamot, raspberry, blue chamomile, cardamom, coriander, saffron, cedar, vanilla, almond, vetiver, labdanum, patchouli, oakmoss. (Tobacco is not listed, but clearly dominates the middle notes.)
3 comments: