Do colors in the names of fragrance (Black, Blue, Red, etc) have consistent pattern?

Well, I'll weigh in on my favorite topic -- GREEN!
I think green scents should have herbal, leafy, forest-y notes. This is my favorite type of scent, and it is quite self-evident as a descriptor. Other colours may be more open to debate.
Black, for instance. What does 'black' smell like?? Interesting question.

Great topic. I do like several "black" scents. I think people use it several ways. For Bulgari Black, I think it goes to the rubber note, and is also stressing the "modern" aspects (I think of a guy in a black turtleneck, or an emo chick, which I'm sure pains Luca Turin, who loves that fragrance and rolled his literary eyes at guys so dressed! )

For Tom Ford Black Orchid, I think it refers to the very opaque "wall" of dark, rich scents that open the fragrance, before the floral notes emerge. To me, the name is absolutely spot on, because I see "black" in a scent as the opposite of transparency. I see it as complexity so extreme that it blocks out every solo voice.

C.O. Bigelow has 4 colognes - Black, Blue, Red, and Green. The colors absolutely match the images of the scents. Blue is aquatic, green is piney, green and herbal, red is spicy, and black is deep and "other". I favor black and green versions, myself. Black has not been easy to find.

Very interesting question! I often associate colours with fragrance notes, and I have thought about this, if I'm affected by name and packaging or if this comes from my imagination.

Back to your question, I guess "white" must be attached to notes of white flowers, and "pink" probably to powder notes. "Red" to me must be spicy - as Redneck Perfumisto mentioned - but I also think of fruity notes.

Blue was mentioned - but to me this is not always combined with an aquatic note. What notes would you say are dark blue or "midnight blue"(one of my favourite colours!)?

Yeah same with Black Jaens by Versace.
The colour is spot on: like Bulgari it has that burned rubber note, combined with tar and other weird things and it all combines to a dark, mystic scent that (at least for me) is seldomly easy to wear.

The odd thing is this: my favorite colour is a deep royal blue. I find that to be a wonderful, calming, soothing colour. But a blue scent, even one in a bottle of that colour, probably won't appeal to me. (I don't care for aquatic scents.)
Whereas green is a pleasant colour but not particularly appealing to me. But any scent in a green bottle or with a green name gets my attention and I feel compelled to check it out. I don't like some green scents, but I sure like a lot of them!
Food for thought here!
How about others? Does your favorite colour match your favorite type of scent?

Interesting topic. I love color! Now that I think about it, favorite colors do match many of my favorite scents:

Yellow-Orange (my top favorite color): I like its bright & sunny quality, and I like that quality in a fragrance, too. I like lots of fragrances that contain bergamot, mandarin, saffron, ginger, amber, and other things in this color group. An inconsistency: I don't care for most straight citrus fragrances. Oh, and a fragrance with marigold would be just wonderful!

Deep Pinks and Reds: My fondness for rosy colors seems consistent with my love for rose, rose geranium, and carnation fragrances.

Indigo and Deep Purple: I love rich violet and iris fragrances. And plum holds an appeal, too!

Dark, Rich Brown: Think warm woods, nutmeg, cardamom. And fresh mud!

I guess I'm lucky to have lots of favorites.

Absolutely not!!!

Colors in fragrance names are there because someone in a marketing department thought they'd sell more fragrance. More often than not, labels like "red" or "black" are laughably inappropriate.

There is at least one major exception: the vast majority of scents labeled "blue" are trite aquatic "sports fragrances," most of which smell identical and are completely interchangeable. (This holds especially true if the bottle and/or the scent are also blue.) A very few perfumers do try use color descriptively when labeling their scents. Pierre Montale comes to mind - his Black Aoud really is a dark composition. But by and large, colors in perfume product names can be ignored.

On the whole, Vibert is sadly right. For example, the new Bvlgari scent, "Jasmin Noir, could just as easily be named "Jasmin Rouge".
Savvy marketing gurus use color associations to evoke (and to capitalise on) contemporaneous success stories in other fashion venues, and emergent trends in other genres, e.g. interior design.

Beyond that, Blue is code for aquatic.
And green is code for unisex,citrus or planty "freshness".
More marketing tools, to assist us in our quick recognition of the trends we personally associate with, and always Zeitgeits entirely.

However, I would propose, that in the experience of fragrance, there is a common synesthetic experience of certain scents. And "experiencing" colors while smelling perfumes is very, very common.

Luca Turin refers to dark and light aspects of fragrances .. even "brightness". (Ferre by Ferre is 'bright', Coco is 'dark' , and Jean Patou's Sublime is an unusual instance of the successful emergence of both light and dark associations in one fragrance. Certainly we understand universally, it seems, which fragrances are "wet" and which are "dry". (Allure is wet, Chanel 19 is dry.)

That said, I believe that the commonality of more complex color associations is a very very interesting topic. And I would be very very curious to see what basenoters associate color-wise with some famous scents, presented with the project of putting colors to scents. This would make a thrilling thread, maybe?

I think that, with the presence of mind not to make dull associations such as orange to orange notes, many impressions of fragrance effects as a whole would be real similar.

Bvlgari "Black" is one of my favorites, and the name, although a clear reference to the tire effect (just like its bottle) smells pewter to me, with a fine dust of sparkling opalescence in a lonely urban night night.






However

As an artist I tend to think in terms of SHADES of colors. Which complicates perception even further. Think of all the types of greens (scents & colors) from grass to pine. Texture and layers, how they relate to the other scents alongside & overlapping. I do think it starts as advertising but it's based on a well researched tendency to react to colors in typical ways with common associations: spices=warm colors, water, sky=cool colors, etc. Anyway, I do think it would be a fun way to discuss some of our well-known scents. A good Thread!

I think it would be VERY interesting to have a thread about abstract color-fragrance associations! It would be fun to see how much similarity our impressions have. Hillaire, why don't you start the thread with your perception of Bulgari Black as opalescent pewter?

It is interesting to imagine my Cool Water in a red, round plastic bottle...

I think the Blues are the most deceptive. They are often much stronger than I would expect.
I sampled Mediterranean (Arden, in the very blue bottle) yesterday and thought that if i had not seen the bottle I would have though it very red. Very warm, big , sweet flowers.

In fact, it would be fun to do a blind color sniff with some mentioned in the previous posts (such as Bulgari Jasmin Noir).

I think that generally, yes, you can count on the color code for blue and black. With exceptions (the aforementioned Mediterranean--heavy, heavy scent).