Black – rubber and wood and leather

Perfumes have always been in my life, but when I discovered niche scents in the early 2000s, everything changed, and perfumes became a part of my life. Now, I not only wear perfumes, but I also collect them and write about them.
 
One of the first niche fragrances I discovered was Black from Bulgari, the Italian luxury brand known for its fine jewellery, fragrances, and leather goods. In 1998, Bulgari hired brilliant Annick Ménardo to create a fragrance designed for the urban man, which is to say, a man’s fragrance that smells of the city as opposed to the country, the sea or a barbershop. Ménardo delivered and created a masterpiece that has become a classic of modern perfumery.
 
Ménardo constructed Black without top notes or dry down, which some people interpret as linear. I am not among them.
 
On me, Black opens with a hint of fresh bergamot and the smell of rubber. To my mind, it’s not the smell of a hockey puck or a rubber suit – it’s the smell of new car tires. I can’t think of a better note that defines the sophisticated man about town than this one. The rubber smell comes from Lapsang Souchong tea, which gives Black a soft, seductive, smokiness. This smokiness is steeped through the entire fragrance. Jasmine links to the tea. Here it’s green and gently floral, its opulence holds the rubber smell in check so that it never becomes harsh or overbearing. Woody notes - cedarwood and sandalwood - usher in a note of sensuous, supple leather. I smell musk, which heightens the animalic aspect of the leather just as sweet, creamy vanilla shows up. To me, the vanilla ties it all together by adding something familiar and comforting to offset the smell of rubber. Amber keeps the sweetness going while resins extend the smokiness for hours.
 
When Black first came out, reviews described it as unconventional, avant-garde, edgy, and Goth with a fetishistic/rubber smell. A lot has changed since 1998. Nowadays, the smell of rubber in fragrances is not uncommon - think Eau du Fier from Annick Goutal or Tom of Finland from Etat Libre d'Orange. And while Black was designed as a fragrance for men, it’s now considered unisex.
 
Our perceptions of Black may have changed, but the fragrance remains the same: a rather delicate fragrance with no edginess, sharpness or harshness. It is still one of the most elegant, exquisite fragrances ever made and every time I wear it, I fall deeper in love with its timeless beauty.
 
Black is listed in our Decant Store. Decants are $8.00 for 1 ml.
 
Eau de Claudie – fresh and spicy and woody

The warm weather seems to be here to stay, so it's time to bring out the colognes. That's how I rediscovered Eau de Claudie from French design house Claudie Pierlot.
Years ago, while in Paris, I came across Claudie Pierlot's clothing shop. This French stylist was known for creating clothes for the real women of Paris, and over time, the brand became known for its feminine yet urban vibe.
 
Soon, I was shopping at the Claudie Pierlot store on rue Montmartre, just behind St. Eustache, every time I visited Paris.
 
Ahh, those were the days! Those clothes gave this Toronto girl an air of Parisienne chic. Time and gravity have pushed me out of the designer’s demographic, but I was drawn back to rue Montmartre in 2007, when I’d heard that Claudie Pierlot had launched three colognes: Eau de Claudie, Eau de Cloclo and Eau de Pierlot.
 
I love her aesthetic and her clothes, but would I like her fragrances? I crack myself up sometimes.
 
Of the three colognes, Eau de Claudie was a standout for me. Smelling it on my skin brought back my younger self, and soon, I was walking out the door with a bottle.
 
Back at home, a little research revealed that Nathalie Gracia-Cetto was the nose who signed Eau de Claudie. Ms. Gracia-Cetto is with Givaudan and has created fragrances for the likes of Comme des Garcons, Dior, Tom Ford, Six Scents and many others, and one of my very favourite fragrances, Sweet Morphine for Ex Nihilo.
 
Colognes follow a very simple formula: alcohol that contains a mixture of citrus oils, herbs and flowers, with a light base of woods or musk. It’s how a perfumer plays with the ingredients in the formula that makes their colognes distinctive.
 
Eau de Claudie opens with a whoosh of fresh juicy citrus framed with green herbaceous notes. As it blooms, it gets spicy. I smell cinnamon and cardamom. As they soften, black pepper boosts them by adding warmth to the composition. On me, I smell incense, soft and vaporous, it’s like a hidden gem in the mix, which rests on a dry, soft, base of sandalwood. It’s the spicy warmth that makes this cologne so unique.
 
Eau de Claudie is a graceful, haunting scent that dries down to a soft, warm skin scent that’s light as a summer veil. And so smooth, there just aren’t enough ‘o’s in the word to describe Eau de Claudie.
 
While most of the clothes at Claudie Pierlot don’t suit me anymore, Eau de Claudie cologne does.
 
Eau de Claudie is listed in our Decant Store. Decants are $6.00 for 1 ml.
 

Welcome to perfumeniche.com

"She smelled the way the Taj Mahal looks by moonlight."

                                                                       Raymond Chandler

We are Gwen and Kay, two perfumistas making our scent journey in the cool, clear North.  We are also BFFs - we hang out together a lot, travel together - so we try, buy and share fragrances.

What started out as a shared interest grew into a hobby, and has now become our obsession.

We’ve spent many evenings with a glass of prosecco, a little cool jazz playing in the background, spritzing, sniffing - “How does this smell on you?” and, sadly, sometimes scrubbing.

We’ve tested and tried hundreds of samples over the years, and when we deemed a fragrance ”full bottle worthy” (FBW), one of us has tracked it down and bought it. We now own a lot of really great perfumes, and we continue to buy bottles of what we think is the best of "niche" as new scents are launched.

Also, we include many perfume "classics" that are the foundations of modern perfumery - like Shalimar, Chanel No.5, Eau Sauvage - plus other perfume "gems" that have been discontinued, or were ahead of their time when launched but now fit perfectly in the Niche category. 

With so many exciting discoveries, we can’t help but talk about our passion with other friends. Wherever we go, people ask “What is that perfume you’re wearing? Where can I get that?” So we end up sharing a bit of our “juice” with friends. But the circle has grown, so we've started this website to let others buy and try samples from our collections and experience the fragrant beauty we write about.

WHAT WE DO

We blog

We write a story about a scent from our collections, and add it to our Decant Store. We're not scent critics, so these aren't negative reviews. We love all our fragrances  - that’s why we bought them! But we describe how we think they smell, and share our stories about why we love them - maybe you’ll rediscover an old flame, or fall in love with a new scent.

We sell

We sell 1 ml. decants. That's .7 ml volume once you allow for the stopper in the vial - filled from our own bottles in our collection because the only way to experience a fragrance is to try it on your own skin. We take the fragrance from its original bottle and decant it into a smaller brand-new, 1 ml sterilized glass vials so that you can try it on your skin to see if you like it.

Through our Decant Store you'll have access to some of the world’s greatest niche scents, hard-to-find fragrances, and classic favourites. 

When you click on the Decant Store tab you’ll find our personal descriptions of each of the fragrances we currently offer from our collection, then you can add them to your Shopping Cart.

Let's be clear (this is a disclaimer!!)

  • We don’t sell full bottles of any fragrance - just .7ml decants. We only sell decants  from the perfumes we've bought.... because we love them.
  • We don't re-sell manufacturers samples.
  • We don’t represent any perfumers or distributors, so we don’t have every scent from a whole line of perfume.
  • We aren’t being paid to promote any product or scent.

If, after sampling a fragrance, you decide that you must have it, i.e. it is FBW (full bottle worthy), and you can’t find it, e-mail us and we will direct you to the best source we know – retail store or online source.

We provide

A place for you to learn about scent, and to share your fragrance experience with others. Click on the section called Resources, under My Perfume Notes (see top right), where  you'll find a Glossary, and fragrance FAQs. You'll also find two great tools we've created - Handmaps and My Sample Perfume Notes - so you can keep track of, and record your own scent experiences.
 
We hope you enjoy perfumeniche.com, and visit us often. Leave your preconceptions behind, look around, see what’s on offer, read the Blog, share your experiences and discoveries, and join the circle.