M2 Black March (2006)
by CB I Hate Perfume

As someone relatively new to perfume, perhaps I find 'Black March' easier to like that those with more settled tastes. And as a confirmed horticulturalist, I'm more than willing to wear it both for my own delight and in public as well.

As others have said, quite an accomplishment, and whether you decide you like it or not, well worth testing for those who love working in the soil, or anyone else with a general interest in the possibilities of fragrance.

3rd October, 2011. (Last Edited: 9th October, 2011.)

Got a nice "absolute" sample. 2ml for about ten bucks. Like the other CB scents, it's nice and sort of a soliflor. I get the mission statement or what have you, but really all this seems to translate as is that there aren't traditional top, middle, base notes in the scents.

Anyway! This one is a nice smell of dirty leaves on the wet forest floor. Smells like dirt and leavs. Just like dirt and leaves. How? I don't know. Oakmoss, vetiver, violet leaf... I'm not sure what else. It's so interesting and dead on that you want to smell it over and over.

Here's the thing: Do I want to smell like dirty leaves? Not really. The scent is nice but I don't really want to smell like that.

Fun but sort of useless. Nice scent, anyway.

3rd October, 2011.

Really like this one, and husband (yes, a perfume-hater) does, too. Starts out as startlingly realistic black dirt. Becomes a subtle, watery, rainy but somehow warm floral. Husband opines that it doesn't give him a headache, is somehow appetizing, and sexy. Haven't heard that last about a perfume from him hardly ever.

10th May, 2010.

The smell of black earth being turned over in a moist spring, complete with earthworms and rotten leaves. An incredibly evocative fragrance, and perfect for me today; I have been dying to garden, to get my hands in the dark earth, but alas, we live in a condo now, and gone are the glorious days of gardening for hours and hours while avoiding my teaching responsibilities and my dissertation.

I wonder what my mother would think of this perfume. I must save up and buy her a bottle. She grew up on a wheat farm, and she tells me that one of her favorite things to do as a little girl was to fill up an empty glass Coke bottle with dirt and then drink it. She laughs about it now, joking that she must have had some sort of vitamin deficiency that was righted by consuming that rich farm dirt, but I know it is because she just deeply and truly loves dirt. SHe loves its smell, appearance, and even its taste. I am glad I have inherited my mother's palate. I too love the bitter, earthy, dark flavors and smells, and I am grateful to have been given this innate appreciation for the complex.

Alas, the full impact of the glorious dirt smell fades in the first 2 minutes of wear, but what remains is decidedly pleasant in its own right. it is certainly a thin, watery 'rainy' smell, nothing special, but nothing I want to scrub off either. It is an intriguingly unidentifiable accord of watery floral notes, with just a tiny lingering hint of that fabulous dirt smell. Ok, now I have been wearing it for over an hour, and the dirt smell is back, but changed and blended with the green floral. SO INTERESTING. I would happily wear this all the time.

8th April, 2010.

Oh my god. Amazing. The reality of it blew my mind. Soil, leaves, fresh air.

It is understandable that people question why you would want to smell like this. It is startlingly realistic. I was shocked. But it also smells extremely pleasant. As long as you don't have an extremely dirty appearance, I would think that this would gain compliments. Even if they aren't used to smelling them on people, everyone loves the scents of this fragrance.

Five-stars. No question.

16th November, 2009.

I love how it smells from the vial and the first 30 seconds on skin. It is an amazingly natural, and immediately recognizable scent of wet leaves and black dirt. In less than a minute it turns sweet, synthetic and flat. I would wear the opening happily in any season but the rest is a mystery to me, it's quite nasty to my nose.

1st October, 2009.