My review of Eau Noire

Yesterday I was getting ready for a big date, and I was going to wear Hanae Mori, but I got a package from Slim (Thanks! I'll be sending you samples of Dry Clean and Skai). Inside the package were samples of the "Dior Three"-Eau Noire, Cologne Blanche, and Bois D'Argent.

I decided to take a risk and wear Eau Noire on my date. I had made reservations at a really swank French/Asian restaurant and since I had heard the Eau Noire has alot of "culinary notes", I decided to go for it.

The desciptions I've read are pretty accurate. It opens with a green "parsley sprig" kind of herbal bite. Very weird opening. Total spice rack. Then shortly after, you get a syrupy sweetness that's like a liquer-between Drambuie and Green Chartreuse. Then a burnt butterscotch note. This fragrance is very full and sweet. I kind of wish it were a tad less sweet and a bit more herbal, but I really enjoyed wearing it.

The date went very well, one of the nicer girls I've met lately. It have a feeling this might become serious (although the thought of commitment scares me) Its always fun to wear a brand new fragrance on a first date, because it always makes you feel like a new person. So I'm glad I wore Eau Noire. It was a success. In a nice restaurant with lots of spice and aromas flying around, the Eau Noire fit right in.

I don't know if I'll buy a bottle though, because it's so sweet and a tad heavy -I could see it becoming cloying if worn enough. Something nice for a special occasion. I tried the other two of the trio, but they're alot lighter and it may take me some time to formulate an opinion. Thanks again for the samples, Slim!

Good question. Â*I'll put it like this; Alot of people find HM to be a sweet fragrance, and while there's no argument that it isn't... I do find it to be a very different kind of sweetness than most others. Â*To me, HM's sweetness is kind of an "up top" sweetness, with a base of bitterness. Â*The sweetness in HM dovetails into a dark chocolate lower register. Â*Its almost like the "dark" without the "chocolate" if that makes any sense. Â*And HM always manages to fly brightly at the same altitude- it doesn't, like alot of sweeter scents, slowly as time goes on, drag lower like a sagging helium balloon into a vanillic/ambery wasteland... which I must say Eau Noire DOES.

That is my one quibble with Eau Noire. Â*It turns into one of the most sugary drydowns I've ever experienced. Â*Imagine Willy Wonka remade as a gangster film. Â*Its like being forced by an Oompah Loompah at gunpoint to wear concrete boots and take a "dip" in a river of butterscotch syrup. Â*You sink to a sweet death. The intriguing topnotes flee so quickly and it gets so sweet and gourmand, that it leaves no room for dessert! Â*Extremely decadent. Â*This baby has back.

So Â*to compare HM to Eau Noire. Â*HM will always be in my top three favorite scents of all time- I never get tired of it. Â*Everytime I wear it, it dances. Â*It's romantic, intellectual, bittersweet, ethereal, complex, and gorgeous. Â*Eau Noire is interesting. Â*I like it and intend to wear it several more times; but its like an odd mix of parsley, Aunt Jemima's syrup, butterscotch candies, and Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough Ice Cream. Â*It's like the perfumer that created Eau Noire was either "snowed in" or was locked in his mother's pantry, and had to summon MacGuyver-like abilities to create something out of what he had to work with.

If I ever become an expectant father, maybe this would be a nice scent to wear as it's like a pregnant woman's food cravings bottled.