New Fragrance Review: Giorgio Armani Prive Cuir Noir + 1001 Arabian Nights Draw

 

 

This season, the team at CafleureBon has written about their favorite  winter warmers and comforting fragrances for this cold and dark time of year. It is certainly true that many of these fragrances have helped me through a wintry January in Denmark  (among those a fair few vanilla, leather and tobacco fragrances). Now a  new release  from Giorgio Armani's Prive line has captivated me.

 

Being an admirer of the Armani Privé line, I was naturally very curious about their newest addition to the Arabian nights’ collection; ‘La Collection des Mille et une Nuits’, Cuir Noir. I have always enjoyed the perfect simplicity of the private line, (Bois d’Encens to me is a reference incense,)  its opposite lush oriental tales of 1001 nights, as well as the utterly gorgeous limited edition La Femme Bleue, which have made me come to expect great things from the Privés. This time, according to the ad copy, the inspiration came from the art of leather tanning, a craft which has its home from the Spanish city of Cordoba, and all the way down past the city of Marrakesh to the Atlas mountains. Cordoba- although today a Spanish city- was ruled by Muslims between 711 and 1236 and is heavily influenced by Arab culture and a world heritage site, hence it fits in nicely with the oriental themed perfume.

 

From the name I was expecting a leathery vanilla, but this Arabian tale opens with a genie out of the bottle; Oud. Supported by creamy honey-like sandalwood, the oud mixed with delicate rose unfolds proud like the tower of a minaret. Perhaps because of the very subdued spices of nutmeg and coriander, there is a medicinal tinge to the opening oud very akin to that of saffron, and it gives that same shimmering aura off as well as making me associating a golden radiance to this stage. Although I must ruefully confess to not being a keen admirer of oud, I absolutely adore the opening of Cuir Noir, and could keep applying this all day just to get the kick of this particular blend of stunning top notes.  Who knows maybe this will be the open-sesame moment in terms of me actually coming to love agarwood?  In those first moments of the fragrance one is truly transported to a land of Sheherazade, minarets and golden sunsets fading into dark nights with a crescent moon.

 

From my infatuation with the oud-opener, the fragrance develops into a soft tobacco leather scent, the leather here being very smooth and suede like, a subtle whisper of an oriental leather, not a fetish outcry of saddle and tar. You feel the smokiness and a slight hint at booze of the vanilla, with the woods and resins highlighting the dry tobacco effect. As the resins start to dominate, it all adds to that dusty dry feeling of sun-heated palace walls.

 

I love the way that the perfumer manages to make the last stage of the fragrance quite sleek and not turning it into an opulent  amber, this is very much in keeping with the line and with the flowing fabric quality of the Armani couture I find, and the way the perfume stays close to your skin in the latter stages of its aromatic life feels hushed sexy. It’s all resiny, the benzion leaning in the vanilla direction, and still a tiny bit woody, with just the slightest bit of a leathery touch left from the oud.

 

This smoky leather-vanilla fragrance holds its own on a market which has already seen its fair share of this kind of scents. Although not exactly reinventing the wheel, it’s a truly beautiful rendition of this theme and a fragrance of highest quality. It’s a luxuriously well blended and golden leathery fragrance, which is both rounder and warmer than the sombre name suggest, and, with a little help from genies, I think it will soon find its way to my perfume cupboard.

 

Let me end this post with a little quote for perfume lovers from One Thousand and One Nights:

I found the floor overspread with saffron, and the place illuminated by golden lamps and by candles, which diffused the odours of musk and ambergris; and two large perfuming-vessels filled with aloes-wood and ambergris, and a perfume compounded with honey, spread fragrance through the whole place.

I saw also a black horse, of the hue of the darkest night, before which was a manger of white crystal filled with cleansed sesame, and another, similar to it, containing rose-water infused with musk; he was saddled and bridled, and his saddle was of red gold".

Jasia Julia Nielson, Contributor

Art direction: Michelyn Camen E-I-C

We will be offering  a draw of 1ml of Cuir Noir. In order to be eligible, please leave your comment about your love/hate relationship with oud and why you would like to try Cuir Noir by February 6, 2012.

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like Cafleurebon and use our RSS option… or your dream prize will be just spilt perfume

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32 comments

  • Most Ouds are definitely scrubbers on me therefor i hate many of them. Montale Red and White Aoud are amazing on me, so i love those. I also tried the Kilian Ouds and find the very wearable so i would definitely love to try this one. Thanks for the opportunity.

  • hmmm….well, after smelling real quality oud, so many commercial fragrances that are “oud intepretations” can be rather disappointing. However there are still some really excellent ones available, and I would like to try the Armani Prive. I am also a fan of the line, particularly Bois d’encens. I am always eager to try anything new that is added to Armani’s prive offerings.

  • Tom Ford’s Oud and Montale are stuff that I can’t stand, don’t know why, but Mona di Orio’s Oud works simply wonderful on me so…I don’t love or hate oud.
    I never sniffed anything from Armani’s prive line and this oud sounds great as “first fragance”!

  • I have not tried any oud perfumes or any of the Armani Prive line, from your description it sounds like something I would like.

  • When I first read about oud I thought I would love it, well I don’t. Or at least should say I haven’t found one that likes me. Maybe this one?! I’ve tried Creed, So Oud, Montale, By Killian so far, but not yet the Mona di Orio oud or the many, many others these days. Cuir Noir does sound fantastic with the smokey leather saffron vanilla notes, so maybe since you’re not oud crazy either this might be an oud I can adore.

  • Lovely review, Jasia! Nice quotation, too.
    I have never smelled a single one of the Armani Prives – not quite sure how that happened!

  • I am one of those strange people who instinctively loves oud, especially when it’s the real thing. I would love to try yet another variation on oud! Dump me on the oud bandwagon and enter me in the drawing!

  • I have used agarwood essential oil in some of my experimental blends and I love the smell straight from the vial. I have also sampled many of the ouds (Tom Ford, Montale, Killian, etc) and I love the way they smell. But when I wear oud people complain that it is too strong and they don’t like it on me. This oud sounds fantastic as I love the supporting notes 🙂

  • I have some chips of real oud wood. I burn very small quantities from time to time. The scent release is almost magical. It fills the room in an instance and lingers for many hours, even days. It is hard to describe but to me it smells like honey that bees would only produce after feeding on nectar from some really strange herbs. If anyone has tried chestnut or manuka honey maybe you can detect some very characteristic notes there, only in oud they are amplified a thousand times. I have not yet experienced that in any oud perfume I’ve tested but there is always hope the next one will cut it for me.

  • I hate oud because it’s so fashionable these days. I love it when it’s at its best, sacred and hot.
    I’m curious to see if Armani’s Private Line perfumes are up to my expectations.

  • Enjoyed your writing Jasia and nice pics Michelyn. I always wonder how anyone cannot love Oud, simply because of the contradictions it presents, the real thing that is, the one that makes you want to drench yourself in it. I feel for Oud the way my dog does when she finds a lovely smell on the grass and rubs herself over it. Yep, that was a moment of truth! So, wonder how Armani has done with this? Very very curious indeed?

  • Tama, thank you- and I’m glad you enjoyed the quotation, I felt it was too good to be left out 🙂
    Francesca, I’m very glad of it. And thanks for the Moment of Truth, giggles!

  • My first experience with oud was smelling it on a co worker who was wearing an attar from Saudi Arabia. The scent was mesmerizing. I have tried other commercially available ouds but have not yet found one to keep. I enjoyed your beautiful review and pictures.

  • John Reasinger says:

    From my first sniff of real oud chips (apprenticing a Master Herbalist) I was in love. I don’t think I can honestly say I EVR “hated” oudh! *giggles*

    When I “fall” I fall hard and fall for life! 😉 Oud…AND leather?! DROOLING HERE

    Lovely review Jasia! Please enter me in the draw. Thank you

  • So far the oud’s I have smelled are the type that get you noticed in a bad way “What are you wearing?” I love leather notes so this might be one to try.

  • I have time and again tried aoud, in pure form, or in fragrances. My nose is not initiated to it. But, I would like to be entered into the draw, and try out CUIR NOIR.

  • Reading this after having just bought an oud earlier today…I am once again panting.
    I love oud. Not all of them. Montale and Tom Ford have worked very well for me. I have also smelled an excellent oud concocted by a dear friend in a private custom made blend;) I was afraid it would not work for me…now I have a new addiction.
    I have heard support for and against using real oud due to its scarcity. I need a side by side comparison of real and synthetic to determine my true feelings on that topic.
    I want to rub that lamp and make a few wishes…just two I would give the third one away.
    The black ball gown in the picture thats some gorgeousness right there!
    “hushed sexy”…thats it thats oud in a nutshell. It would be a pg 17 rating not X but also not G if it were a movie.
    TFPBO will be the first scent in my home to be used by myself and my husband. Thats epic people he has never ever done that before and after ten years with him, I am not sure it will happen again lol.
    Thanks for the draw Cafleurebon you are awesome!!

  • I LOVE oud since I tryed it I love it.It’s not the pritty element of the perfume conainig it but it’s the most addictive.I love many comos with oud but I started to go deeper and I have some pure oils.
    I’m not a fan of most of the designer brands including Armai.I have never tryed any of the Prive line and oud would be enough reason to try some.

  • Jasia, no need to include me in the draw, as I plan on sniffing this one in person soon, with you and another genie at my side. 😉 But I wanted to tell you how lovely your review is! You’ve really piqued my curiosity, as you make me picture this fragrance as a story about leather embroidered on an old silk tapestry (in gold thread!). 🙂 And the quote you provided at the end nicely underscores everything you wrote about this perfume. Well chosen!

  • Thanks rosiegreen and John, oh dear, hope you won’t get disappointed, the leather here really is of the cozy type:-)
    Feliciag; I hope you get that dress some day!
    Thank you, Suzanne, you’re absolutely right; ‘leather embroidered on an old silk tapestry’. I can’t wait to go a-sniffin’…

  • Anna in Edinburgh says:

    No-one with a nose couldn’t want to try “Cuir Noir” after reading that description! It must be glorious so I’d definitely like to try it too.

  • I’d like to try Cuir Noir because I haven’t tried it yet and I’d like to (as simple as that) My acquaintance with oud started with Montale and By Kilian – the Western interpretations of the Arabic ouds. Later, somebody sent me several oud perfume samples from Saudi Arabia, and those turned out to be way more crazy and distinct than their Western counterparts. It did not turn me off, on contrary, I am now even more fascinated. thanks!

  • I would like to try this one because your description really put my curiosity on fire.

    Thanks, Jasia

  • I have no relationship to speak of with oud as of yet, but it sounds RIGHT up my alley and would kill for some to sniff right now! Please enter me in the draw so I can change my “oud newbie” status! 🙂

  • roselavenderoud says:

    I ADORE OUD. It’s my favorite note of all time, and I’m fascinated not only by how it smells on me, but also by the history and culture around it. Each time I wear something with oud in it, I feel transported to a different time and place, full of magic and mystery. This is what perfume should do for us–shake us out of our everyday reverie and inject our experience of the world with pleasure.

  • My experience with oud is limited to a sample of Mona di Orio’s Les Nombres d’Or Oud. I do have a love relationship with that particular fragrance. I have tried another Armani Prive perfume and it is exquisite, so I am sure this Oud is beautifully done as well.

    Excellent essay!

  • TimeaZsofia says:

    My first niche scent which I smelled were Black Aoud, so you can imagine, the strong aoud opening! But I adore it from the first smell, I do not know why. It was 3 months ago, and till now I tried a lot of fragrance with oud, but my favorite still the Black Aoud. I am really curious about Cuir Noir, becasue I really like leather in other case. (My favorites: Cuir Ottoman) It would be great together leather and aoud!

    Thank you for the possibility to win 🙂

  • Smoke, leather, tobacco…sign me up. I love oud when it is blended well with the supporting notes. 10 Corso Como is a favorite as the oud doesn’t dominate. Jasia, your description is fantastic. I would love to try this.

  • Anna, I’m blushing- and I missed your cheerio, lass;-)
    Laurentiu; you’re welcome:-)
    TaffyJ; yes Mona’s Oud is wonderful, and if you like the elegance of AP, then this should be worth testing for you.
    Brooke; thank you so much, yes, 10 Corso Como, I think you should really like this then, with is soft elegant blend.
    Good luck to everybody who commented 🙂

  • Not a Botanist says:

    I have not tried any of the scents Armani’s private line, but the more accessable fragrances have always stricked me as interesting. I’ would jump at the chance to try this.