Narcisse Noir (1911)
by Caron

If i would meet a fragrance having orange blossom note in, i would really appreciate. Because orange blossoms really smell misty and charming.
Narcisse noir is a multifaceted neroli fragrance. Neroli; though it is made from water distillation of bitter orange blossoms, do not represent scent of orange blossoms well . Neroli is a spicy bitter orange peel smelling scent with very little orange blossom in it. After exposure to a billion good and bad neroli fragrances which produced in last century, i can rarely endure to smell neroli.
Narcisse noir has a well spiced up interesting opening which deserves a special place between billions of congeners. After the first half hour comes the tedious sour neroli. Here ends my pessimism. Goodbye another legend.

Always thumbs up!!! I agree it is a - Floriental. What they call a "dark" fragrance. On the opening however, honestly, I can smell a soft tender banana pulp. A kind of green banana rather than a ripe one. Could it be daffodils ? I don't know . A sort of hay-like or dry grass hint orange flowers but at the same time very rich and very round scent. I intentionally bought EDT but now thinking of getting in again in pure perfume for even stronger power and round-ness ! It is very erotic I must admit. I smelled undiluted civet ( it smells like urine ) so I can detect civet in NN . It seems to me that animalic notes make perfumes warmer or something.

If by definition " A good perfume is one that you want to inhale again and again " is right, then NN is a very good perfume !!! The sillage is just beyond words!!!( Requires an expensive dress , though )

Narcisse Noir in edt or parfum up until the late 90's was one of the darkest, most dramatic, sensual and enigmatic perfume I ever smelled anywhere. Its animalic orange blossom supported by incensy dark base made it a perfume of the film noir genre. Unfortunately since 2000 it 's gone through horrible reformulations by current Caron in-house perfumer Richard Fraysse, Narcisse Noir has now become an insipid sweet soapy floral with little character compared to the original.

Narcisse Noir is a warm, spicy, heady floral that I think could be filed in the floriental category. In the EDP, it is very strong and long lasting. It has a major citrus component, but in a warmed way, sort of like you would find in mulled cider, not orangade. I have one bottle open and two backups. If you like this, you might also like Bourbon French Narcisse.

If I liked orange blossom, this would be lovely. I don't like orange blossom at all, and that's all I get; powdery soft floral and nothing else. I was hoping for more guts and incense, but I get orange blossom. Definitely try the sample size of this one before buying the whole bottle.

I smelled this when shopping with my sister. I recognized the Caron house name and had heard great things. My sister hated it but I, on the other hand, love it. It smells exactly like opium (the drug) in the drydown. Very musky, vulgar, delicious scent that makes you want to close your eyes and let "the lady" hold you close.