Reviews of La Nuit (1985)
by Paco Rabanne

If you like Bal a Versailles you'll like La Nuit. They have a lot in common in the beginning and in the middle. La Nuit is definitely a leather scent, but it's not as hardcore as, say, Montale's Cuir d'Arabie, which has become my reference leather. The leather comes early in the drydown and this is when it reminds me most of Bal a Versailles. That stage lasts for a while, but then something strange happens. With La Nuit, it's all about the drydown. That's where the scent's real personality emerges and sets it apart from everything else. It seems to develop into something from another era. It starts to smell more animalic and "vintage" in a way that's hard to put your finger on. Perfumes of today smell nothing like this in the drydown. At this point on, it is nothing like Bal a Versailles, but is it's own undefinable thing. In my opinion, it's not quite as raw, "filthy" or "vulgar" as some reviewers have described (I wish it was), but it's definitely provoking and sensual.

Yup. definetely filthy. I was about 14 when this came out. My mother had gotten a tiny card vial as a sample and left it aside, uninterested. I sniffed it once, blushed up over my ears and slunk away, as if I had been caught reading a dirty book. Oh my virgin senses. Careful where you wear it.

OK, I bought this basically only for the reason that Luca Turin said so delicious things about it in his blog, which is sadly now closed.
As you may know, his thoughts were like "this is probably the most animalic parfum ever made..." and "there is something so wrong with this frag that it`s truly amazing" etc.

Got to have it, indeed.

So, I sprayed it on my hand, and guess what happend??
Exactly: I was disapointed again, like I have been before with these high expectations. (especially with Dzing!)
I thought "what is this..?" "This, the most animalic scent..?" "This, something so wrong..?"
To me only wrongness seemed to be that it smelled like some usual, even cheap women`s perfume. Flowery, feminine, not that complex at all. I wanted to cry - this had to be my holy grail of getting dirty, getting really weird. I wanted to shock some people with some style wearing this, not with this plain women`s cocktail.


Then I fell asleep. (Zzzzz...2hours)

I woke up from my nap, and I have hardly dried my tears of disapointment, as I smell my upper palm...
What happens??
I start to grin, I start to roll my eyes and mumble to myself..."Mmmm...so this is what the man was talking about...So it`s all about the drydown, all about letting it develope and heat up on the skin...WOW!!"

But hey, leather??!! Are you serious??? What kind of leder hosen have you`ve been smelling then???

Nichts leather for me, but...how shall I put it...lovely crotch???

Vulgar, direct, provoking, alluring leather. And it is ludicrously cheap. Buy it!

The english translation of "La Nuit" is "The Night". I suppose the brief for this fragrance could have read, "It will smell like a NIGHT at the Karl Lagerfeld Bondage rooms at Club 54". And I suspect it does. This is leather, leather, and some more leather...but not the sweet suede of a Hush Puppy or the polished leather of an Aigner purse. Nope. This is sweaty, hot leather. To quote the Scissor Sisters, "It's filthy and gorgeous"! There may be a rose or two trying to break through here and there but it doesn't succeed. The only other scent I am able to discern is perhaps the Rabanne "House Note", but that just adds to this amazing concoction.
Luckily I am a fan of leather scents so all of this makes it heaven sent. Of course with the sublime we have to take the ridiculous, and it is absolutely ridiculous that this was #1-released as a female scent and #2- that it has long since been discontinued. Perhaps the third ridiculous thing might be that if you do find it, chances are it is so discounted at this point that it is dirt cheap. If you are the slightest bit interested in leather scents, you'd better get some now before it is gone forever.

WOW! This is one of the most ravishing leather scents. Why this was released as a women's scent...well, it WAS 1985...Could easily be re-launched as a men's scent. Notes include: Citrus, Basil, Rose, Oakmoss, Honeyed Woods, Leather, Patchouli.