Café Noir (2003)
by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz

Top notes remind me of soft cinnamon stick, and black coffee. Warms quickly into a nice floral with a hint of vanilla sweetness. Reminds me a lot fo Serge Lutens Chergui, yet less sweet. Hints of warm herb, light wood and smoke. Mostly gone next day but has decent staying power. Low silage. I like this a lot and it is certainly not nearly as sweet as one might expect. Perfectly suitable for men.

It seems to be very hard to create a good coffee scent that doesn't turn stale, but the coffee in Café Noir is rich and warm, more like ground coffee beans. It's also quite subtle and blended with the other notes in such a way that it might be mistaken for a bitter cocoa note spicing up a gourmand. (A much better cocoa than in the sickening Piment et Chocolat!) Overall, the scent has a vintage feel to it - like one of those old-fashioned smooth, rich, warm, powdery orientals that instead of the strong synthetic sweetness so common today has a certain "bite" and restraint. I think the "bite" is the bitterness of the coffee note and the dry spices (pepper, cinnamon, pimento), which I sometimes have trouble with as they turn too dry and harsh and bitter on my skin, but here they're kept in check. Instead of doing funny Red Hot things the cinnamon actually smells like a cinnamon stick, an old one with a faint and slightly dusty scent. I can't really make out any of the other notes (resins, florals...) and I don't feel much sweetness from the tonka and vanilla. However, the scent does seem to turn sweeter as it develops on skin - a non-descript, almost white musk-like sweetness rather than a vanilla sweetness, which I guess is what'll linger in the end.
This might sound like a positive review, but actually I think the scent is just decent enough. It would be a star in DSH's cheaper line, but I set the expectations higher for Parfums des Beaux Art. It has a high comfort factor and I like the evocative, bittersweet vintage vibe, but it doesn't really stand out, except maybe as one of very few decent coffee scents. I do wonder if I might be anosmic to something in it though, or rather, if there's something in it I just feel briefly upon application and then quickly develops anosmia to, because it seems to have less throw and fade faster than one would expect from this type of scent in this concentration.

Very nice deep coffee, smoky scent. Its richness and warmth is perfect for a crisp, cold day.