Black Cashmere DKNY / Donna Karan (2002)

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8.2 / 10 169 Ratings

Black Cashmere is a popular perfume by DKNY / Donna Karan for women and was released in 2002. The scent is spicy-oriental. The longevity is above-average. It was last marketed by Estēe Lauder Companies.

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Perfumer

Rodrigo Flores-Roux

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Nutmeg, Saffron, Frankincense
Heart Notes	Clove, Rose, White pepper
Base Notes	Amber, Africa wenge wood, Patchouli, Vanilla, Ethiopian frankincense

Ratings

Scent

8.2 (169 Ratings)

Longevity

8.3 (135 Ratings)

Sillage

7.3 (125 Ratings)

Bottle

7.1 (121 Ratings)

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 10.11.2019

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Reviews

11/03/2019

10.0 8.0 9.0 10.0/10

Can777
6 Reviews

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Can777

Greatly helpful Review 43

The Void/Nothing

The void! It occurred to me as soon as I held the bottle of Black Cashmere in my hands. What simple and impressive aesthetics the design already shows. Soft, round, flattering, organic and deep black. Donna Karan has always had the talent to reduce things to the essential and bring calm into the chaos. Many of her early perfumes seem decelerated and almost meditative. That's what happened to Black Cashmere. Which, apart from its highly aesthetic appearance, is probably only surpassed by its content or better said fragrance.

Black Cashmere
Black Cashmere is more a feeling or a beautiful state you're in than a perfume for me, or rather, it puts you in some kind of state. Black Cashmere is not a playful or youthful fragrance. He is serious, very sublime and radiates an almost disturbing, calm serenity and posture. The perfume contains one of the most beautiful notes of saffron I have ever had the pleasure to taste. It also opens with this. At the beginning it smells incredibly bitter and dull with slightly sour chords of olibanum. Dry pepper and dusty-powdery spices seem to mix as if carried by desert winds with the previous one, giving Black Cashmere a dry-spicy warmth. Long remains Black Cashmere in this stage in which he can be compared with a gong stroke that echoes like a soft echo. It is like a sound of peace and concentration. The perfume is very complex in its style and you might think on the surface that the perfume is monotonous and doesn't change. It's not like that! Towards the end, Black Cashmere gently swings out with dry woods and delicately smoky amber and dusty-ashy nuances of an incredibly beautiful and soft incense. If this should be the Somali incense, then this has set the bar very high for others of his kind, because he is without exception reverent and thoughtful!

Conclusion
Black Cashmere is The Void... the nothing and the emptiness. What's the matter with you? Because nothing bad can happen to you in nowhere! Black Cashmere is like a talisman that gives strength and comfort. He is like a guardian spirit and a soul guardian who wraps himself around you like a black shadow like a hug. Nothing he seems to let in and nothing he doesn't let out. His aura is charismatic, unbelievably controlled and sublime of all things that come there. Black Cashmere also has a subtle eroticism, but it is of a very different kind. The eroticism that Black Cashmere embodies is the eroticism of aloofness. For me the most attractive and aesthetic form! The shelf life is very good and goes over hours. On clothes even for days. The Sillage, on the other hand, is very fine and unobtrusive. It is very good to wear in autumn/winter when you are looking for more protection, peace and harmony with yourself. Black Cashmere is still, although rarely to be found and the price is also mostly very high, which I can fully understand to my present knowledge.

Because "the void" is a lot more here!

36 Replies

03/26/2015

10.0 7.5 10.0 10.0/10

Briarthorn
91 Reviews

Briarthorn

My Beloved

This if for the Original formula in the oval bottle.

We all have that scent that strikes something deep inside of us and is our most beloved. It takes us places we want to go and for the time we wear it, makes us feel like the person we want to be. For me this is Black Cashmere by Donna Karan. I have a 30ml mouse bottle that I stash away in my perfume cupboard, like a dragon protecting it's most precious treasures. Definitely one of my most prized perfumes. The mouse bottle used to be rather affordable but the prices have spiked in the past year to ridiculous amounts. I really regret not getting a larger bottle when prices were better. I would love to wear this scent much more than I do, but I also know I will be heartbroken the day I spray it's last drop. I'm not sure about getting the re-released bottle. It's such an emotionally loaded scent for me I am not sure I want to risk the disappointment of a reformulation.

Now, how she wears:
It opens with a heady and heavy veil of charred wood. Peeking shyly from behind the veil are spices (clove, nutmeg). I believe this charred wood smell comes from the perfect blending of a deep, rich wood with a luxurious frankincense. For the first twenty or thirty minutes this scent is intensely heavy. It masterfully walks a fine line between being divinely heavy and cloying.

After the scent settles the saffron, and to a smaller extent, nutmeg come into their own. They are supported by a nice base of cloves that blend magically with the charred wood note. There is also a hint of a sweetish floral (rose perhaps?). The real star of this composition is still that wood and frankincense blend. It really sings with the saffron, and it's a completely wonderful song.

The dry down is the sweetest stage and the floral is strongest here (saffron touched by rose). There is also the interplay of spices (still mainly clove and nutmeg). Perhaps the Amber and Vanilla offer this sweetness we see here, though these do not show up as notes on their own but add a beautiful sweet edge to the notes that are more discernible. The charred wood / frankincense are now just snatches of memories that play around the outside of the composition. Just enough to remind you of their presence but not enough to draw attention away from the spiced and sweetened florals.

This scent is one of the most unique scents I own. I have never found anything else like it. It always takes me places I want to be whenever I wear it. The longevity is about 7-10 hours, becoming a skin scent at around 5-7 hours. This silage and projection are rather large and heavy in the beginning but settle down to more reasonable and personal levels in the heart and dry down.

She is special and I adore her.

06/05/2013

9.0/10

BronxBeauty
58 Reviews

BronxBeauty

Helpful Review 3

Highly Original for a Mainstream Designer

Trust Donna Karan to make something so wearable as Black Cashmere with such artistry: That's what she does with her clothes. This cuddly aroma is one of my go-to scents for cold weather. Like the other reviewers say, it's an amalgam of incense and cloves, a cafe scent that's elegant enough to be worn on an evening out. I find it a bit linear on my skin but so well put together that I enjoy the fragrance for hours. Longevity is good and sillage is better than average.

03/23/2012

5.0 5.0 7.0/10

Missk
1165 Reviews

Missk

Helpful Review 3

More like black, satin sheets

Black Cashmere, is rich, sultry and dark. I liken it more to black, shiny silk rather than cashmere.

There is something oddly sexual about this fragrance, perhaps it is its slightly masculine smokiness and bold spiciness. I'm surprised that this wasn't so popular when it was first released, however the amount of followers it has gained since the re-release has been huge.

In a sense this fragrance is quite complex, with an array of spicy notes, woods and earthy vanilla. I expected this fragrance to be much stronger, sillage-wise than it was. Black Cashmere is surprisingly quite intimate, soft almost.

The scent is bewitchingly beautiful, a definite must-try for incense lovers like myself. I sprayed Black Cashmere all over myself prior to going out in the city, I did however have Myrrhe Ardente by Annick Goutal sprayed lightly on my right wrist. While I enjoyed both scents, Black Cashmere unfortunately didn't last the distance, the long seven hours, drunken, in a pair of heels was too long for this fragrance to last.

I do believe that with the re-issue the scent has been watered-down, made much softer, because from what I've heard, Black Cashmere in its original formulation was heavy and cloying.

This fragrance is still delightful, don't get me wrong, however I'm a woman that loves her incense-based fragrances heavy and lasting. Black Cashmere, in my opinion, is better suited to intimate occasions, like romantic dates or cold nights lying in front of a nice, warm fire.

01/31/2012

2.5 7.5 7.5 7.0/10

Lola82
362 Reviews

Lola82

Helpful Review 2

Black Cashmere

Don't be fooled by reviews that this is a dark scent ok it has good amount of incense but i'ved smelled perfumes that
are darker then this like Habanita and amouage Lyric Woman but it promises to offer coziness and warmness those are the
ones i agree with, Black Cashmere has the same dominant note of Saffron as of Chaos
but not as overpowering then chaos

it does give you to cozy feel of a cashmere sweater i also love the nutmeg
note it reminiscent to the scent of hot espresso on a cold winters day curled up
with a good book,

the spices are suble and yet noticible
and with carnation to warm the senses
and powdery rose to dry the middle for
the more woodsy touches of Sandalwood
pure and uncut warm amber and vanilla

I wouldn't called it Opulent dark mysterious I think it's a little to
shy for that and a bit modest but
Cozy warm and Soothing.