La Petite Robe Noire Guerlain (2012) Eau de Parfum

Version from 2012

La Petite Robe Noire (2012) (Eau de Parfum) by Guerlain

Bottle Design: Kuntzel+Deygas

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La Petite Robe Noire (2012) (Eau de Parfum) (Guerlain)

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7.2 / 10 493 Ratings

La Petite Robe Noire (2012) (Eau de Parfum) is a perfume by Guerlain for women and was released in 2012. The scent is fruity-sweet. It is being marketed by LVMH.

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Perfumer

Thierry Wasser

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Fruits, Licorice, Lemon
Heart Notes	Cherry, Almond, Rose, Violet
Base Notes	Musk, Patchouli, Smoky tea, Vanilla

Ratings

Scent

7.2 (493 Ratings)

Longevity

7.9 (358 Ratings)

Sillage

6.9 (362 Ratings)

Bottle

8.3 (376 Ratings)

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Submitted by Kankuro, last update on 22.01.2019

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Reviews

01/06/2019

6.0/10

5.0/10

8.0/10

7.0/10

StellaDiverF

1

Cherry Tutu Skirt

The initial blast of La Petite Robe Noire is a very tart cherry scent, which distinguishes itself from other common sweet cherry fragrances. Licorice is also detectable at this very first stage of LPRN, which did make me think of Lolita Lempicka. However, while LL develops into a more powdery scent, LPRN evolves into another direction.

While the initial strong sour cherry mellows, red berries and almonds also come into the scene. Patchouli pops out here or there with a hint of earthiness, but in an understated way. Soon the scent transforms into a sort of candied rose, quite like LPRN EDT. While EDT is bright and sparkling with fresh crisp apple, EDP is just a little bit darker, richer, but nowhere near being gothic or femme fatale.

The final stage marks the return of cherry and its dance with vanilla, tonka and gentle licorice, smooth like a light cream, and slowly fades away.

The sillage is strong at first but soft during the drydown. The longevity is pretty good for around 10h. To me, LPRN is a playful and girly fragrance with good quality, not too complex to spoil the fun, but still with some depth preventing from being childish.

I like it, but still am skeptical for a full bottle purchase as personally I don't see myself wearing it too often. The price tag certainly doesn't help. I think it might sit on my 'want list' for quite a while.

06/22/2018

MasterLi

Helpful Review 2

A dark licorice and cherry syrup masterpiece...

Make no mistake, this is not for everyone. La Petite Robe Noire is a dark, syrupy but grown-up perfume from the house of Guerlain. It is a cherry and licorice scent with a rose and patchouli mid and base. It has a darkness which stops it being a standard, run-of-the-mill fruity floral patchouli fragrance. I can imagine that Guerlain here were targeting the younger crowd with this one, but that doesn't make it necessarily bad in any shape or form.

Personally speaking, I have tried this on my skin (male skin)... and honestly, it's not too far from Tom Ford - Black Orchid, which works beautifully on male skin also. So on that basis the juice itself is unisex, dark and unisex (not the bottle or marketing but the smell is definitely unisex).

That being said, I think this absolutely fits the marketing of "Little Black Dress" etc. and I would say that this would be suitable for so many people. Definitely a night perfume and would do great in cold weather. It's a good fragrance and out of all the fruity-patchouli fragrances I've tried, this is the most sophisticated (well, what do you expect? It's a Guerlain). Really good beginners fragrance for those looking for something more sophisticated but wearable.

05/16/2014

7.5/10

5.0/10

8.0/10

Jbells

Very helpful Review 5

Lovely gourmand!

Let's get this out of the way: I love this. So very much. It's one of the few fragrances that made me want more of it after the first try. Wearing this conjures images of young ladies in tulle twirling around. Gorgeous.

Like some of the other reviewers, I agree that this isn't a perfume wholly reflecting mature womanhood. It's reminiscent of youth, sliding on the girly side; an embodiment of confident young ladies who have the world at their feet.

Now moving on to the scent itself. In the bottle, it seems rather "deep". I'm not quite sure how else to describe it. It reminds me of a pitch black night that goes on and on. I think this comes from the liquorice and patchouli? A little sweet, but not at all unpleasant.

Upon spraying, I get a blast of cherries and liquorice with some tea playing in the background, but not much of anything else. It's a little candy-like, even - a sour tinge also comes into the mix.

Over the next hour, it somehow succeeds in becoming just a tad sweeter. The tonka note begins to peak through along with something like a spice, and there's a faintly discernible floral presence.

It stays like this for a while, then gently turns the bend towards deeper zones. The tea is now a lovely black, the cherries aren't as sweet anymore. Vanilla comes up a little more, while the liquorice is just hanging around the way it has been since the beginning. All the flowers become deeper, too, thanks in part to the patchouli, IMHO. This goes on right up to the end of its presence on my skin, a total of 3.5 hours.

I find myself wishing that the roses were more prominent, and that it had better longevity on me. Sillage was just right - it projected a little, but not too much. Again, I love this a lot.

Note: I have a sample of the LPRN EDT, and to me, it is similar, but does not develop into a deeper scent the way the EDP does. The EDT is a lot more girly, a little more fun, but unfortunately lacking in the longevity and sillage departments.

09/06/2012

7.5/10

6.0/10

Sherapop

Helpful Review 7

Guerlain does a Lolita Lempicka Flanker?

Well, my enchantment with the house of Guerlain fizzled out some time ago, and by the time INSOLENCE arrived on the scene, I had completely lost all faith. No more blind buys, I vowed, although I continue to test when presented with a vial, as I was recently by Sephora of LA PETITE ROBE NOIRE (2012).

The most obvious thing to say would be that this perfume is decidedly un-Guerlain, but perhaps it would be better by now to renounce the use of the word 'Guerlainesque' altogether. Guerlain is not Guerlain anymore. Nothing could be clearer to me. The bottle strikes me as a sort of cruel joke. So what is this perfume, if not what Guerlain used to be?

It seems to me that it would fit right in with the Lolita Lempicka range. I'd place LA PETITE ROBE NOIRE (2012) about midway between LE PREMIER PARFUM and FLEUR DEFENDUE with perhaps a bit of Jesus del Pozo IN BLACK thrown in for good measure. Licorice, cherry, patchouli, almonds, tonka bean, vanilla. Yes.

Upon initial application I was struggling to see the difference between the demeanor of this composition and that of a celebrity scent. However, I do own that the quality is higher than those sweet fruity patchouli perfumes. I am not convinced, however, that this is any better than the Lolita Lempicka launches on this very same theme. I do not put a lot of stake in originality in perfumes, so the question for me becomes: does this smell any better than its already available close olfactory neighbors?

The answer is: No.

1 Replies

08/25/2012

6.0/10

Awesomeness

Helpful Review 6

Berry-chouli

Upon application, I'm hit with ripe berry juice that has been sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. To a certain extent, the berries remind me of the berry accord in Estee Lauder's Wood Mystique and in the original Hot Couture No 1 by Givenchy. The only difference is that Givenchy does this accord better - the Givenchy leaves a darker and more natural impression of berries, whereas the EL leaves a berry impression that's got the Lauder vibe. LPRN leaves a bright, sweetened impression of berries than these other two, although they are all on the same playground.

As La Petite Robe Noire dries, the berries subside and there's a muddled phase in which the rose seems to emerge but never really presents itself with any force. At this point, I really don't know what the scent is other than some potluck melange of drying berries, weak roses, and patchouli. When dry, the fragrance is a bouyant base of musked, vanillic patchouli - nice but neither spectacular nor unique.

I think La Petite Robe Noire could be fantastic if it was truly Noire, but it's not - it's a daytime scent for soccer moms that's on the edge of having baby's juicy juice from the sippy cup spilt down the front of your blouse. If you like this style but want something deeper & darker & more mature, give the original Hot Couture No 1 a try.

La Petite Robe Noire is good, respectable, and better than most scents on the market. However, it's not up to the usual Guerlain standard. A bit of a disappointment.