1881 Black (2006)
by Cerruti

Upon application Cerruti Black immediately reminded me of the original Burberry (the one with the silver cap, formerly known as London). And they certainly share a sticky, synthetic, sweet vibe and an intense mossy feel. I kind of enjoy it in the Burberry but it gets out of hand in this one. Especially that artificial marzipan note goes haywire on me. I did however notice that it works extremely well on some guys, making it one of those "chameleon" colognes that are impossible to judge without trying it on your on skin. On my friend it just smelled warm, clean and projected very strongly. In other words worth a try - results may vary...

I agree with Ken_Russell. The black is a misnomer in this case. It smells like a blend of JOOP or dunhill DESIRE mixed with CREED SMW or Sean John UNFORGIVEABLE. Sweet like candy with a pepper (read Unforgiveable or SMW) showing up gradually thru the dry down. Very nice scent, wrong name.

Masculine scent with unisex quality, because even if some notes are powerfully spicy, energetic and masculine, the combination as whole lacks a certain masculinity. Androgynous, warm and extremely powdery during its drydown. Interesting marzipan note, a certain shower gel style cleanliness. It eventually developes in something far to floral, sweat, creamy to be masculine, overdone aldehyde( or similarly smelling notes), musky and winter spices ( the ones found in candy, pastries, cookies) notes. Besides, it smells quite different from the original 1881- but most "eau", "light", summer, winter versions of famous scents are, if not failures, still just usual, unimpressive reinterpretation, of course, with some exceptions when the revisited creation may be significantly better than the first one.
However, the name black is fully mismatched, Cerutti 1881 Amber should have been called "black" as it has a certain rough, power-house, lavishly sensual, magnetic and "dark", mysterious side, due to animalic, leathery and almost fleshy, carnal note. This is one too sweet, floral to be "dark", definately not a "black"
scent, but good if aimed at a younger generation due to both light and heavy floral notes, a slightly synthetic( but not necessarily cheap or trivial, just experimental) edge and edible notes- nut just marzipan or pepper, i also smelled, even if more restrained, the sweetness, almost woody and fatty
consistence of nut and almond oil. Tough very recent and futuristic, it also has( lietarly) a certain flower power quality- floral, hallucinogenic, musky and exotic, but minus the more macho-oriented quality of that age's male scents, with a metrosexual, sweeter and a more unisex twist, especially in its playfully sweet drydown.