Film Noir (2007)
by Ayala Moriel

I love this scent!! It is earthy and delicious. It is deep and dark and mysterious. It lasts forever. It is everything I want to be and when I wear it, it gives me a confident beauty.

18th May, 2009.

A sweet, creamy and thick oriental that could be sickening. Smells like a porter with some myrrh. Unfortunately, not very pleasing to my nose.

28th June, 2008.

i'd been searching far and wide for a cold-weather chocolate that would work with me. borneo 134's camphor and angel men's tar notes gave these a pizzazz and personality too robust to fit in the same room with me. cannabis santal's chocolate-patchouli was nice, but its cannabis too earthy for the dead cold, too terrestrial for my personality.

i simply had no idea what i was getting myself into in ordering ayala's "film noir." it opens with a--oh wait, it doesn't "open," for it has no top or heart notes. but its all-base composition nevertheless develops. it begins with the bitter-sweet holy mystery of myrhh (i was once an altar boy in a cathedral fragranced with myrhh, so there's something here, to me, as mysterious as the sacraments, witholding a perfect secret). glowing from behind this myrhh is a sensual beautiful chocolate, a cacao just dry enough so as not to cloy with the myrhh. patchouli inconspicuously grounds these two notes into the earth. on my skin, the chococolate welds somewhat into the myrhh, which predominates without losing its chocolatey sensual energy. to me, this fragrance doesn't come across as simply "dark": it's mysterious, sensual, something unexpected and perfect....my little secret.

ayala moriel's labors of love seem to be composed of materials among the most precieux. "film noir," specifically, emanates from my skin softly, suggestively. as for longevity--it remained on my skin well after a full shower.

18th February, 2007. (Last Edited: 8th October, 2010.)

Wonderful! Ayala Moriel has got the most superb nose and her versatility means that she has something for everyone. Really, many things for everyone. I agree with purplebird's reviw: the chocolate here is the real thing; the dark, European stuff that does not condescend to the palette or the nose. It's for sensual, sulty women. This scent is for Barbara Stanwyck or Joan Crawford; for Maria Callas or Teresa Stratas, for Anna Magnani--for the intensely Romantic yet somewhat jaded woman of mystery and discrimination. A wonderful pleasure to wear on this snowy day.

7th February, 2007.

This is the Dark Sister of Tabu. And I like them both for the same reason--they are comforting to me. Warm, deep, and sweet, and vaguely about something delicious cooking. Can't stop sniffing my arm. This is a chocolate scent that appeals even to a non-gourmand person like myself. I never jumped on the Angel bandwagon; I didn't like it at all. (Which is odd because I love chocolate, the darker the better. Those 85% cocoa Lindt bars are my favorites.) Film Noir is more to my liking because it smells like chocolate---and earth. Every spring I have a ritual, mulching my rose garden with cocoa shells, the by-product of the chocolate industry from big bags marked "Hershey's." Then I go inside my house and forget about it. Later, through the window, I smell something wonderful. "What's that? Oh yes..." That is how Film Noir is for me.

18th January, 2007.