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01/10/2024
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Eau(x) Noire(s) - I was dreaming..
I would never have dreamed of writing a commentary on Eau Noire, a lot of informative things have been said about this Dior neo-classic, and on top of that Eau Noire had a real shadowy existence for years: at times only available in France (better centralized in Paris, more precisely Avenue Montaigne) on demand in the store, quasi under the counter, then at times only in the French online shop, etc., etc., etc., etc. Online store, etc. - in short, it was to be found, but not obviously. This was to change with the appointment of Francis Kurkdjian, the former creator of Eau Noire, as the new house perfumer chez Dior. Eau Noire is back, albeit more as a marketing strategy (it's LVMH), and this time also 'fully' in the program for the time being, en France and everywhere.
Eau Noire originally had an extremely original, even amusing raison d'être. Even before Dior went all-out with the Privée range and left no stone unturned on which Monsieur Dior had at some point sat, leaned or rested to dedicate a fragrance, three fragrances appeared with the hiring of fashion designer Hedi Slimane, at that time still quite Americanistically labeled as cologne, the most extraordinary of which was Eau Noire. Hedi, it was quoted, had already dreamed the fragrance in his youth, so the perfume happened to him in a dream, passively, like Karl Valentin or the many examples of artistic intuition via dream induction, the dream as a productive state of consciousness, from the earliest shamanistic rituals to the measurement of the senses and mapping of the subconscious in the 19th century, Hedi, yes, came up with the composition of Eau Noire in his sleep, Francis then had to realize the whole thing or better: interpret it.
Eau Noire was a fragrance with character, far more striking than the Cologne Blanche or the popular Bois d'Argent, which appeared at the same time, and it was above all the first designer fragrance since Goutal's Immortelle Ode Sables (1985) to be so bluntly dedicated to this ingredient. I also suspect that the latter had far more influence on Eau Noire than the reverie, the fragrances of such specialized author:interior perfume houses, such as Annick Goutal, were more highly regarded in the fashion industry with their appreciation of craftsmanship, savon-faire, etc., than fragrances of the designer competition. Yet Eau Noire has always been more of a multi-faceted darkened lavender with bouquet garni decor and licorice/immortelle framing than a pure-bred immortelle eau.
Nevertheless, when the French Nez magazine published a small booklet dedicated entirely to Immortelle in 2022, I was particularly curious about the 'Genealogy' section - a neatly researched chronological overview of an 'ingredient', depending on the author. For me, the Immortelle genealogy was rather patchy, almost sloppy. It was also surprising that Eau Noire of all fragrances was not included, but when I asked Kurkdjian and Dior, they allegedly denied any active involvement of Immortelle in Eau Noire. Yes, you read that right: Eau Noire, Immortelle, mais non! It can happen that fast.
Of course, there are ways to create an immortelle note without using natural immortelle extracts, but it seems to me that the narrative of a fragrance is (retrospectively?) polished by the manufacturer with supposed notes. Even though, under LVMH, even the former nonchalance house Givenchy briefly had an "Immortelle fragrance" in its program with Immortelle Tribal (2015) that was stripped down to insignificance - the idiosyncratic note probably fits so poorly into the Dior world at the moment that this neo lavender classic has to make do without it altogether.
A few months after the publication of the booklet, Eau Noire reappeared in the Dior portfolio, first in a set with Cologne Blanche and Bois d'Argent - quasi as a reminiscence of Kurkdjian's attitude. Even though the press release stated that Eau Noire was back in its original form, this is probably the version that is furthest removed from the original version.
Gone are the days of the added green colorant (cosmetic greenwashing?) that gave the fragrance a certain darkness, but also gone are the days of a clear immortelle note. This has been toned down here, shifted more in the direction of licorice or rather not fully processed licorice (Ellena's Brin de Réglisse (2007) sends its regards) and the fragrance appears more airy, more transparent, but also smoother, especially in the first few hours. An effective and slightly artificial note of dryness, which I also encountered more strongly in Le Couvent's Sperone (2023), or even more strongly in Ganymede Extrait (2023), noticeably clears up the formerly dark Eau Noire. Admittedly, Eau Noire by Dior is neither Couvent's landscape idyll nor Bisch's showmanship, fortunately this note fades and with time Eau Noire approaches the profile of earlier versions again, only smoother overall. But perhaps this is exactly what makes the greatness of mediocre reformulations: the fragrance is recognized in its entirety, which is also the case here, but the devil is in the details... Thanks to Dior's indication of the 'formulation number', these are also quite easy to recognize - in addition to the original 'Cologne', ironically the strongest version, I know at least two eau de parfum versions that differ slightly in color and smell, but were still closer to the first version than the 2023 vintage. For the time being, it seems, the shape of the old Eau Noire remains a dream.
Eau Noire originally had an extremely original, even amusing raison d'être. Even before Dior went all-out with the Privée range and left no stone unturned on which Monsieur Dior had at some point sat, leaned or rested to dedicate a fragrance, three fragrances appeared with the hiring of fashion designer Hedi Slimane, at that time still quite Americanistically labeled as cologne, the most extraordinary of which was Eau Noire. Hedi, it was quoted, had already dreamed the fragrance in his youth, so the perfume happened to him in a dream, passively, like Karl Valentin or the many examples of artistic intuition via dream induction, the dream as a productive state of consciousness, from the earliest shamanistic rituals to the measurement of the senses and mapping of the subconscious in the 19th century, Hedi, yes, came up with the composition of Eau Noire in his sleep, Francis then had to realize the whole thing or better: interpret it.
Eau Noire was a fragrance with character, far more striking than the Cologne Blanche or the popular Bois d'Argent, which appeared at the same time, and it was above all the first designer fragrance since Goutal's Immortelle Ode Sables (1985) to be so bluntly dedicated to this ingredient. I also suspect that the latter had far more influence on Eau Noire than the reverie, the fragrances of such specialized author:interior perfume houses, such as Annick Goutal, were more highly regarded in the fashion industry with their appreciation of craftsmanship, savon-faire, etc., than fragrances of the designer competition. Yet Eau Noire has always been more of a multi-faceted darkened lavender with bouquet garni decor and licorice/immortelle framing than a pure-bred immortelle eau.
Nevertheless, when the French Nez magazine published a small booklet dedicated entirely to Immortelle in 2022, I was particularly curious about the 'Genealogy' section - a neatly researched chronological overview of an 'ingredient', depending on the author. For me, the Immortelle genealogy was rather patchy, almost sloppy. It was also surprising that Eau Noire of all fragrances was not included, but when I asked Kurkdjian and Dior, they allegedly denied any active involvement of Immortelle in Eau Noire. Yes, you read that right: Eau Noire, Immortelle, mais non! It can happen that fast.
Of course, there are ways to create an immortelle note without using natural immortelle extracts, but it seems to me that the narrative of a fragrance is (retrospectively?) polished by the manufacturer with supposed notes. Even though, under LVMH, even the former nonchalance house Givenchy briefly had an "Immortelle fragrance" in its program with Immortelle Tribal (2015) that was stripped down to insignificance - the idiosyncratic note probably fits so poorly into the Dior world at the moment that this neo lavender classic has to make do without it altogether.
A few months after the publication of the booklet, Eau Noire reappeared in the Dior portfolio, first in a set with Cologne Blanche and Bois d'Argent - quasi as a reminiscence of Kurkdjian's attitude. Even though the press release stated that Eau Noire was back in its original form, this is probably the version that is furthest removed from the original version.
Gone are the days of the added green colorant (cosmetic greenwashing?) that gave the fragrance a certain darkness, but also gone are the days of a clear immortelle note. This has been toned down here, shifted more in the direction of licorice or rather not fully processed licorice (Ellena's Brin de Réglisse (2007) sends its regards) and the fragrance appears more airy, more transparent, but also smoother, especially in the first few hours. An effective and slightly artificial note of dryness, which I also encountered more strongly in Le Couvent's Sperone (2023), or even more strongly in Ganymede Extrait (2023), noticeably clears up the formerly dark Eau Noire. Admittedly, Eau Noire by Dior is neither Couvent's landscape idyll nor Bisch's showmanship, fortunately this note fades and with time Eau Noire approaches the profile of earlier versions again, only smoother overall. But perhaps this is exactly what makes the greatness of mediocre reformulations: the fragrance is recognized in its entirety, which is also the case here, but the devil is in the details... Thanks to Dior's indication of the 'formulation number', these are also quite easy to recognize - in addition to the original 'Cologne', ironically the strongest version, I know at least two eau de parfum versions that differ slightly in color and smell, but were still closer to the first version than the 2023 vintage. For the time being, it seems, the shape of the old Eau Noire remains a dream.
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