Black Vetyver Café (2003)
by Jo Malone

I find this overly smokey - I've actually been asked if I've been smoking when wearing it, not exactly a compliment. Sort of ok though I certainly wint be purchasing again

1st December, 2011.

Looked very much forward to trying this fragrance after reading about it here on Basenotes and hearing some positive thoughts about it. Additionally, I bought some pretty nice body sugar scrub and shea-cocoa body butter creram in a (dupe) scent of BVC. So, I thought, "Why not...while waiting for my scrub 'n cream, I'll get a sample of the fragrance from The Perfumed Court to try in the meantime...just to see."

Well, perhaps in a (dupe) fragranced sugar scrub and/or cream this scent will be pleasant enough. As a cologne or EDT, it is just alright but nothing special. Certainly not a fragrance I would ever purchase or wear on a regular basis, if at all.

The notes??? Well to my nose-smile-BVC's initial opening is a very pleasant and rather fragrant note of a medium roast coffee...pretty interesting actually. What immediately follows (and I mean IMMEDIATELY) is a moderate middle note of, well vetyver and then...pretty much more of the same and a lot of nothing...at least that is how it landed on my skin.

Vetyver and coffee...that's it...in that order...on and on MOstly vetyver and little coffee, if any. I was actually hoping for a unique roastier, toastier, nuttier fragrance with less green (vetyver). But...nothing unique here, nothing particularly fragrant. All in all, I found it somewhat bland and boring. But again, I'm the type of gal who likes to smell unique and who likes to know that I am wearing perfume. Subtle, linear-type fragrances aren't my forte; complex ones are.

Having said that, I think the scrub and cream are gonna be great because I will be able to "layer" other like notes & scents...well, any scent actually. This fragrance is okay but not something I would ever purchase, wear or even recommend to anyone...except for someone looking for a neutral, clean, very linear, barely there fragrance.

24th October, 2011.

Not an unpleasant smell, and does not feel cheap, but boring. A pale, earthy vetiver combined with an even paler coffee bean. Poor longevity on my skin, reaches the drydown quickly and without fanfare. Unobtrusive and at least not likely to be offensive.

19th October, 2011.

Vetiver and coffee, the latter with some interesting turns of toffee, liquorice, and roasted nuts, recalling not L’Eau du Navigateur (1982) – the original coffee scent – as much as Méchant Loup (1997), also from L’Artisan Parfumeur. The woody drydown arrives quickly, this being a cologne, and while Black Vetyver Café isn’t gonna change the world, it is nonetheless serviceable, if dull.

27th June, 2011.

The smell is solid, but the longevity is weak. If either of these aspects were better I would not hesitate with a thumbs up, but alas, it is an "almost."

This is a sort of post-modern creation that needs to be explored more often, despite my moderate feelings about it. The vetiver n' friends form a solidly fresh base that could be considered ethereal and cloud-like. The coffee is dark, bitter, and resinous. The combination of the two make for a fluffy, refreshing coffee mist.

And I can't shake the feeling that this would be what people might be wearing on Coruscant, The Citadel, Deep Space Nine, and in Apple Stores.

16th June, 2011.

A light and vaguely woody cloud of alcohol right out of the vial. I waited patiently for quite a while for the pure ethanol fumes to go away, and I'm left with just the barest hint of spice and wood with light coffee. What little wood there is is dry and smooth (interesting, because I often find sweet wood to be smooth, and dry wood to be grating). It has a graininess that I like, such as that from brown rice or pasta cooking, wheat bread, or certain cereals, but this is temporarily marred by a sourness that reminds me too much of cigarette smoke. Still, it's so ridiculously weak that I couldn't possibly give it anything but a thumbs down. I don't know if the rest of the Jo Malone line is so weak, but smelling this one certainly doesn't encourage me to try any of the others! By the end (15 mins?) only the vaguest wood aura remains, but there is so little left that I almost wouldn't know I had applied any fragrance at all.

24th April, 2011.