L'Artisan Parfumeur - Noir Exquis

Picture: Terrace of the café on the Place du Forum in Arles
in the evening,ca 16 September 1888
Painting by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Wikimedia commons

Noir Exquis is a fragrance in the gourmand style created by Bertrand Duchaufour, as most of the latest fragrances of L'Artisan Parfumeur.

Noir Exquis starts with dark vanillic, nutty slight flowery and soft spicy notes enlighted by a green, fizzy spicyness. The first section of the accord described reminds me of a paler version of the almond-vanilla bomb Montale Amandes Orientales. The second spicy part with soft spices brightened by the fizzy, a bit sharp green, spicyness reminds me of two fragrances from Carner Barcelona, most of Rima XI, the soft spices and comfortaura and Palo Santo especially when it comes to the green, spicy notes. As Noir Exquis dries down the pleasant, comforting spiciness remian as also the green fizzy vibe as a balance. The vanilla is pleasant and not too sweet, it's a fizzy vanilla in the style of Annick Goutal Vanille Exquise, maybe the Noir Exquis name isn't a coincident. Noir Exquis is overall quite linear in style, even if it also becomes woodier in the basenotes with a warm sandalwoodnote of the australian type, a bit herbal, not as smooth as the indian. Heliotrope also adds a cozy, familliar, very pleasant flowery, sweetness in the second part of the fragrance.

Picture: Noir Exquis
Photo: PR L'Artisan Parfumeur (c)

Noir Exquis is a moderate sweet gourmand in the contemporary caféstyle as Rima XI mentioned above and also Frederic Malle Dries van Noten, Noir Exquis just seems to be some years delayed. Just as the other Dries van Noten and Rima XI it is somehow light in texture despite it's gourmand character, the gourmands of later years are not as heavy and dense as the gourmands of the 90s-00s. Noir Exquis is a unisex comfortfragrance, easy to wear and appropriate for autumn, winter and early spring. Sillage is medium and longevity for more than a day.

Rating: 4
Update January 2018: Rating 5 This is a really good gourmand fragrance, the more I'm wearing it, the more I'm appreciating it.

Notes: Chestnut, orange, orange blossom, coffee, maple sap, ebony, heliotrope, vanilla, tonka bean, sandalwood

Thanks to Fragrance & Art for the sample to test

Annick Goutal - Les Absolus Vanille Charnelle

Picture: Le Bain
Painting by Alfred Stevens (1823-1906)

Vanille Charnelle is the first one I test from the 2015 introduced Annick Goutal sub-line: Les Absolus. In Les Absolus house perfumer Isabelle Doyen and Camille Goutal "listen to the whispers of their rawmaterials" and creating exclusive fragrances of the best ingredients which are highligthing one rawmaterial at a time. In this case: Vanilla. In coming reviws amber and oud are featured.

Vanille Charnelle starts with a clean, vanillapod note combined with a milky impression, the marketing buzz says: "Imagine a bath of almond milk laced with vanilla beans in which you want to immerse yourself before meeting your lover". There is no chemical-sweet vanilla like in some cheaper fragrances, this smells like high quality stuff. A hint of a well intergrated pepper soon appears and also a soft, very light hint of flowers. The flowery element is just perceptible, it is not as pronounced as in another clean and bright vanilla also from 2015, Eau d'Italie Morn to Dusk. Just as in the latter, there is no boozy, tobbacco or spicy notes in Vanille Charnelle even if it in the next step of its developement becomes gourmand in its character.  Vanille Charnelle than smells like a fine, delicious, glazed vanilla cake, and just as in the earlier stage without smudgy or cloying elements.Just as Morn to Dusk, Vanille Charnelle is a fragrance in the higher octaves of the olfactory notescale. Even in the basenotes Vanille Charnelle retains its sort of light impression, still gourmand and with a musky touch cleaverly counterbalanced by an almost undetectable vetiver, it's just discerned.

Picture: Les Absolus Vanille Charnelle
Photo: PR Annick Goutal (c)

It seems as there  currently is a trend with a sort of fluffy, clean and pristine vanillas which are very comfortable to wear, so far I have tested Vanille Charnelle and Morn to Dusk and I am convinced there already are or will be more fragrances released in this style.Vanille Charnelle has very little in common with the earlier Annick Goutal vanilla Vanille Exquise which is (as I remember it) sharper, greener, fizzy and more distinctive compared to Vanille Charnelle.

Vanille Charnelle is cozy and comforting to wear in the dark seasons and could also be appropriate for cold and rainy summerdays. Labeled as unisex but I find it more feminine. The silage is close, a skinscent, with longevity for a day. Summed up Vanille Charnelle is a very well balanced, skillful crafted fragrance which, not surprisingly, is also priced thereafter. 

Rating: 4

Notes: Ylang-ylang, mandel, pepper, vanilla, tonka bean, white musk, vetiver