Chocolat Amère – smooth and woody and a little dirty

I can’t recall what possessed me to sniff a fragrance called Chocolate Amère, but when I did, I was quite surprised at how quickly and deeply I fell in love with it.

Chocolate Amère is from Il Profvmo, the Italian niche perfume house founded by aroma therapist Silvana Casoli. Being an aroma therapist or aromatologist can give a perfumer a deeper understanding of the effect of scent on mood or cognitive processes when creating a perfume. I certainly get that feeling with Chocolate Amère since Casoli has forty-six fragrances in her line, and four are based on dark chocolate.

Dark chocolate is good for your heart, reduces your blood pressure, and boosts cognitive abilities and serotonin levels – no wonder I feel good when I eat it. But it's also rich, deep and sensuous, so it's no wonder I get attention when I wear perfumes featuring it.

Chocolat Amère is part of Il Profvmo’s Classic collection and is one of the most evocative scents I have ever smelled – not because it smells like the chocolate I’ve been eating in some form my whole life, but because it doesn’t. You might expect a fragrance with ‘chocolate’ in its name to be a gourmand, but Chocolat Amère is an amber woody. That’s because the chocolate note in perfume comes from patchouli essence, so it doesn’t smell chocolate-candy sweet but rich, deep, dark and bitter with a dusty feel.

Chocolat Amère opens with a note of dark chocolate, its bitterness heightened by bitter, earthy, green galbanum. There is no chocolate sweetness here. The opening is pungent, venal and carnal. The first time I smelled it, blood rushed to my cheeks. As the galbanum recedes, Chocolat Amère gets spicy and earthy from nutmeg and warm from ginger. I get whiffs of the patchouli that the chocolate note is derived from, here and there. I also smell flowers softly fluttering in the background. They temper and balance the darkness by adding a gentle floral dimension. As it evolves, the bitterness stays, developing a dustiness I love. Sandalwood makes it dry and woody, while a note of smoky incense weaves through it.

The drydown is smooth, dry, woody and a little dirty. The chocolate, nutmeg, and ginger are still there, but Chocolat Amère is so beautifully crafted that no one note dominates.

Chocolat Amère is a masculine fragrance, for sure, and it’s irresistible.

Check out Chocolat Amère in our Shop.