Manhattan Bond No. 9 2012

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7.1 / 10 54 Ratings

Manhattan is a perfume by Bond No. 9 for women and men and was released in 2012. The scent is sweet-fruity. It is still in production.
Pronunciation

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Main accords

Sweet

Fruity

Floral

Gourmand

Spicy

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Coriander

Nutmeg

Saffron

Italian bergamot

Heart Notes

Corsican immortelle

Cistus

Cashmere wood

Provençal star jasmine

French broom

Gingerbread

Red plum

French honey

Base Notes

Oud

Sandalwood

Suede

Musk

Perfumer

Claude Dir

Ratings

Scent

7.154 Ratings

Longevity

7.544 Ratings

Sillage

6.946 Ratings

Bottle

8.259 Ratings

Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 16.01.2024.

Reviews

5 in-depth fragrance descriptions

08/22/2014

2.5
Bottle 5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 6
Scent

GothicHeart
86 Reviews

GothicHeart

Very helpful Review 6

First we shun Manhattan...

Nopes... This is generic, gutless and, above all, pretentious. The inevitable nowadays oud, combined with the seemingly inescapable chocolate chip cookies and sweet whatnot, because, you know, the market's desires, blah blah blah... Another Bond No.9's trick based on public relations and hype. Catchy names, tacky bottles, a fake Andy Warhol "trendy" vibe, and there you are! Oh, and also suing everyone weaker than their "Majesties", especially small perfume companies, on outrageous claims about perfume names, instead of simply trying to make their perfumes stand out for their quality. Liz Zorn and Anya McCoy from Soivohle and Anya's Garden respectively, could surely share a word or two about it... Now, back to Manhattan and hoping that I shall not receive any court notification for using the name.

Is it a nice scent?

-Yes madam, I'll take this, since my 15 year old niece seemed to like it a lot.

Is it worth buying?

HOW MUCH??? Come on, you're kidding me, right? No fear! If she wants to smell like a bombed-oud (not a typo) pastry shop, I think I'll buy her three bottles of Angel instead, to last her through college...

12/14/2012

7.5
Longevity 8
Scent

Digindirt
47 Reviews

Digindirt

Very helpful Review 6

All Night Long

This is Niche quality Dior Addict. I'm not into the girly girl sweet, sugary fragrances but this one in quite pleasantly sweet. Not over the top, not sugar in a bottle, just smooth richness with a cherry on top!

Bond 9 Manhattan is the first fragrance I have worn for two days in a row in many many months and I can honestly say that I was not bored by it. There is a nice bite to it's quiet elegance and just enough warmness to create an aura of serenity.

I can pull this one off because it separates me from Candy Girl bandwagon and puts me in the "I'm cool like that" groupies status. I can be a grown up and party like a rock star at the same time. I 'll have to find myself some glad rags and hooker heels because in Manhattan, rumor has it, these people Never Sleep!

02/01/2013

10
Bottle 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 8
Scent

Sherapop
1239 Reviews

Sherapop

Helpful Review 6

A Complex Flurry of Oriental Notes

I reviewed Harrods OUD PATCHOULI a while ago, and I had worn the Bond no 9 perfume launched around the same time, MANHATTAN, but it was not until today that I noticed how much they overlap. Or should I say how my direct experience of MANHATTAN overlaps with my memory of HARRODS OUD PATCHOULI? Here are the notes of that perfume, which seem rather pared down, next to this one:

Amber, Davana, Leather, Musk, Myrrh, Oud, Patchouli, Saffron, Sandalwood

The similarity between the two lies evidently in the intersection of a good portion of what should be their base notes:

Saffron, Oud, Patchouli, Sandalwood, and then leather or suede? What's your pleasure? The former is listed for HARRODS OUD PATCHOULI while the latter is listed for MANHATTAN. I apparently prefer suede to leather, but there's more to the story than that.

Why else do I prefer MANHATTAN? It must be because of all of the weird foody notes which end up imparting a personality not at all unlike the strangely foody chypre of Hermès ELIXIR DES MERVEILLES. Don't get me wrong: these two perfumes smell nothing alike. But they convey the same general spirit, it seems to me.

The foody notes abound in MANHATTAN: chocolate, coriander, nutmeg, peach, plum, gingerbread, honeycomb, vanilla and, of course, saffron.

It sounds like a chaotic mess, but somehow the proportions work together to produce a quite likeable oriental perfume.

So why do I like MANHATTAN, when I do not really like HARRODS OUD PATCHOULI? I find the blend complex and appealing, and I do not find it too sweet. In fact, in wafts it reminds me of cigarette smoke! This is an original oriental perfume, like none of the others out there, and I do believe that Claude Dir has created something wonderful in MANHATTAN. The foody notes do a good job of tempering the suede note, where I found the leather in HARRODS OUD PATCHOULI a bit too dark and strong. In fact, I would recommend that perfume for testing by people who love heavy leather.

Given the panoply of potentially problematic notes in MANHATTAN, this one really needs to be worn a few times to have an idea of whether it will work or not. Fortunately, I have a purse spray, so this was possible in my case. I've seen a wide range of reactions from reviewers, which no doubt reflects our variable sensitivities to all of the various components. I do not personally see much similarity between MANHATTAN and Dior ADDICT, but everything will turn on one's peculiar sensibilities.

HARRODS OUD PATCHOULI did not work very well for me, but MANHATTAN works quite well, despite the apparent contradiction that I was reminded of the former while wearing the latter!

06/19/2014

jtd
484 Reviews

jtd

Helpful Review 7

oh, bond

Bond # 9 have set of ‘bad penny’ notes. They are identifiers and if they were pleasant, they’d be considered signature notes, like Guerlinade. But this set of ‘house notes’ is unpleasant They seem to fall within a gourmand, oriental, woody ambery range. They have an unsettling quality of hitting a point in your head, toward the back of your sinuses, that feels like a crossroads of the central nervous system. This tone, this confluence of notes manages to assault your physical senses, your mind and your soul simultaneously. To borrow very loosely from ayurveda, it's an affront aimed at your higher chakras.

I won’t entirely rule out preference in this case. I do dislike this particular range of neo-gourmandery, but the problem runs deeper. Reliance on the same set of aromachemicals that have a broad common denominator of volume, pervasiveness, legibility/recognition, and force starts to look lazy. As if someone stumbled on a quick fix and is now using it in every situation possible for maximum profit. This tone is less a signature or an olfactory emblem and more of a tendency run amuck, a habit that’s both unrecognized and unbroken. Bond may just have run into a problem that I imagine afflicts many of the bourgeois customers they court: they haven’t ever heard the criticism they need. Nobody ever tells them no.

OK. I’ve read Bond and their customers. Easy shot, easy target. Ridiculously so, actually. Makes picking on Creed seem the work of a trained assassin.

But the perfume, Manhattan, and the others that fall into this range (Coney Island, New York Musk, Sag Harbor, Nuits de Noho) are flawed. Reliance on this tone and range of notes, let’s call it Bond-ade, or Band-aid if you prefer, has lead to a line of perfumes that all smell the same in the way that all muzak sounds the same. Manhattan has the impenetrable sweetness of a combined musk/fruit/amber/oiliness that, when combined with “spicy notes” (ie a chemo tuning fork held to your head)drive the chakra spear home.

The dull, lingering sweetness of the drydown comes as a reprieve after the direct attack of the topnotes.

07/10/2013

7.5
Bottle 7.5
Sillage 7.5
Longevity 5
Scent

Pipette
63 Reviews

Pipette

Helpful Review 4

I smell chocolate ...

Not a big deal, not a skyscraper of a perfume ... but that is what makes it a wearable perfume.

It is soft, sweet and has a dainty chocolate note. Those who are not accustomed to oud, will not be offended by the oud note which is also part of this scent. The oud holds the perfume together and provides depth. I cannot recognize any major pyramid development, it is rather a smooth blend of various delectable components. Durability is average if you spray little, spraying more would add to the longevity, but then the scent might become bothersome because of the oud.

The price tag is - as for all Bonds No. 9 - much too high for this one also. The bottle is interesting and probably makes a nice souvenir for the tourists.

The blue color may indicate New York at night - maybe with some stretch of imagination - although my impression of New York is more of a town with a beat, vivid and electrifying, and that feeling is not present with this gentle and smooth scent of "Manhattan".

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