Back to Black Kilian (2009)

Bottle Design Carré Basset

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7.9 / 10 660 Ratings

Back to Black is a popular perfume by Kilian for women and men and was released in 2009. The scent is sweet-gourmand. The longevity is above-average. It is still in production.

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Perfumer

Calice Becker

Fragrance Notes

Top Notes	Bergamot, Raspberry, Camomile, Cardamom, Coriander, Nutmeg
Heart Notes	Oakmoss, Honey, Patchouli, Vetiver, Frankincense, Cedarwood
Base Notes	Ambergris, Labdanum, Bourbon vanilla, Bitter almond

Ratings

Scent

7.9 (660 Ratings)

Longevity

8.8 (501 Ratings)

Sillage

7.8 (478 Ratings)

Bottle

8.7 (464 Ratings)

Submitted by DonVanVliet, last update on 24.05.2020.

Interesting Facts

Back to Black is part of the collection "L'Oeuvre Noire".

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Notes

Reviews

05/05/2020

8
Scent 8
Longevity 9
Sillage 8
Bottle

Insa

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Insa

Mhhh honey cookies

Not sticky, but warm and sweet, like an evening on the sofa with a blanket and honey cookies.
They taste so good, slightly spicy and above all sweet and you never get enough.

Just about to test all Kilian But with this one I had hesitated because of the honey note. Then I immediately remembered a bad smell, which was also rated well by others (Amouage Journey Woman).
Anyway, I have tested this Kilian now after all and I'm glad about it.
I knew it the first time I sprayed it on!
It has depth and is not only sweet (has many other notes as well).
In any case, it does not smell kitschy sweet, but noble sweet. Like a cookie not like a biscuit One with honey foam and delicately spiced.
Almond, vanilla are also included, but in good doses.
Tastes great in any case.
One should not stuff oneself with it, but let the work of art melt on the tongue.

But I am also a gourmet, because although I like to snack, I am fussy.
Here I am served a harmonious honey cookie. That's deliciously sweet, but not only.

1 Replies

02/26/2020

8
Scent 9
Longevity 8
Sillage 6
Bottle

Sia23

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Sia23

Honey let it Be(e)

A swarm of honeybees swarms out, and spreads its scent in its full range.

Definitely a fragrance for sunny winter months. The categorization as unisex is often referred to as "critical" in the forums. For me personally, unisex applies very well. The sweetness brings out the feminine and the tobacco note the masculine. A very beautiful and long lasting fragrance.

10/22/2019

9.5
Scent 10
Longevity 10
Sillage 9
Bottle

NEX5
8 Reviews

NEX5

Divine honey+ tea+ Tobacco.

Great perfume i do own vintage and reformulated bottles of it, i simply love it i use it for very special occassions only because kilian decide to up the price since it was bought by Estee Lauder , you must use and wear this scent for your self, its the best honey + tea + tobacco :)
for me!!!! :)
dont expect many compliments because most people will find it ordinary like a tea scent but some people will simply love it , performance projection vintage version on me around 24 hours
reformulated i have not tested yet because winter is not here yet.

Very high end niche quality , quality to the extreme vintage version, but i think even reformulated is still good since i have a spare bottle. You can smell every single ingredient .

10/06/2019

10
Scent 9
Longevity 8
Sillage 10
Bottle

TruuMax

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TruuMax

Helpful Review 14

Beloved tragedy

Wobbling cherries included of honey and light cigar smoke.

If a Lana Del Rey album were a fragrance, it would surely smell like this.

Lived and loved tragedy and melancholy. The fragrance makes me think of lost love, legendary evenings with friends and loved ones. The most wonderful girl I have ever met in my still young life, the mistakes I have made towards her, grief for people close to me and the happiest moments of my existence in one. I'm not just wearing this scent, no, I'm wearing a cloud of memories that won't go out until it disappears again.

Surely something that not everyone can wear. To be so sweet and gloomy in one is for many a toxic mixture, but it reminds me of... Me. Similar to Midnight in Paris, only that Midnight in Paris has a nice tongue and Back to Black is relentlessly honest.

I love the extremely feminine note in it, it makes it special and makes the whole construct seem so fragile but closed.

The Sillage is a good cloud that spreads strongly but not overwhelmingly. The shelf life is 8 hours+

I wish I could put into words what Back to Black is doing in me, but even the greatest poet wouldn't be able to do that.

4 Replies

10/05/2019

9.5
Scent 6
Longevity 6
Sillage 8
Bottle

Luxery66

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Luxery66

Helpful Review 7

My Winderdate

The Back to Black is my constant companion in winter every year. I like to wear it on weekends. Whenever you are together with family and friends on quiet evenings, warming up with a cup of tea and listening to each other's conversations
Exactly on such evenings, when I myself am a little reserved, rather listen than actively participate in the conversations and recover from the efforts of the working week, Kilian's Back to Black is always with me. He obviously shares my reserved nature, even if one clearly perceives his presence.

Evenly and consistently it radiates its light, honey-sweet scent, underpinned by woods and fragrant spices, and nestles close to me. The light honey and vanilla note lets me relax, while the woods and spices, especially the frankincense, warm and keep me warm.

He occasionally shows himself to his fellow men, but remains at my side. After a few hours he gets tired and slowly slips into a quiet, dreamless sleep, only to be woken up by me on another evening for a few hours of togetherness.

3 Replies

08/16/2019

8
Scent 7
Longevity 8
Sillage 9
Bottle

Rosie88

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Rosie88

Helpful Review 4

1:1 Comparison Back to Black with H-100 Anniversary

Well you know me slowly - I love scent comparisons ;-P
Back to Black and Jubilée are great for a comparison, because they are really very similar ;-)

....Let's go, left the anniversary and right the B2B:

--> Jubilée starts spicy and slightly resinous with "shy" honey - a short bitterness or a light scratching is noticeable - but that only takes a few seconds and I like that somehow very much, that's the character of Jubilée ;-P
After that the "shy" honey becomes really brave! The honey has the colleagues "caramel", which is absolutely fine and not sticky, the colleague saffron, which is slightly restrained and very filigree, the dear Tonka bean and the friend vanilla in tow...
A great troop, I think... they harmonize absolutely perfectly with each other.... Jubilée is "honeyy- sweet," yet absolutely non-sticky and not edible..... An absolutely round thing, very high-quality ingredients and wonderfully processed together......
The listed Oud is hardly recognizable for me, at most very fine to guess and with cedar together responsible for the great hold....
Fragrance: 9,5
Shelf life: 9,0
Sillage: 8,0
Flacon: 9,0 (for the limited collector's flacon ;-)

--> The B2B starts without scratching or biting... One immediately recognizes a tender sweet honey melt with strong character..... the honey is accompanied by a warm chamomile, tender fruity raspberry and some spices, which do not speil however all too long with the honey.....
....The honey moves on.... down the cellar, from there it takes some oakmoss, cedar and incense with it.... He has a lot of fun with them.... The honey becomes more interesting, a slightly earthy component brings the oak moss, the cedar provides a stable soil and incense envelops the quite round composition.... A little bit of vertiver can also be seen from time to time, but really very discreetly..... B2B is now a slightly earthy-smoky honey composition, very warm, tenderly melting, sweet and strong... I like that very much...
Later, warm golden amber and a fine portion of vanilla are added to this....
Compared to Jubilée it is a lot sweeter, earthier and for me a bit "artificial-synthetic"......
Fragrance: 8
Shelf life: 7.0 to 7.5 (at cold temperatures probably better than at heat)
Sillage: 8,0
Flacon: 9,0

In summary, both - if you like honey - are really dreamlike.... We personally like the anniversary better because it is a little more unconventional and edgier than the B2B.
B2B seems to me slightly synthetic to what means for me a point deduction.

Highly recommended for honey mouth :)

Well then.... happy licking ;-P

4 Replies

06/12/2019

8
Scent 9
Longevity 7
Sillage 10
Bottle

DerDefcon

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DerDefcon

Willi fell in the honey pot.

Maya the Bee should be something for everyone. She is the adventurous, friendly and above all diligent bee who always has her best friend in tow. This is called Willi and is rather the exact opposite, namely sleepy, lazy and above all addicted - addicted to honey.
As Obelix fell into a cauldron full of potions, so did Willi. However, this was not a pot with a magic potion that would have turned Willi into a fighting bee on steroids, but a pot full of honey that was always filled by our busy bees. However, this pot filled with honey is something very special. Our bee colony last received a delegation from the Orient, which was richly packed with spices. These spices included nutmeg, cardamom and coriander. All these components gave a portion of spice to the balsamic-sweet and especially soft honey, which ensured the supremacy of the bee colony in the regional honey trade.

As far as our greedy Willi is concerned, it can be said that even though he is used to a lot of honey quantitatively, the dive in the honey pot was not too good for him. Caused by a shock of sugar, even our lazy Willi couldn't just laze around anymore, couldn't lie around somewhere and relax. A tremendous urge to move spread through him, causing him to fly around like a bee on meth, completely disoriented and wild, crashing in the end due to sudden exhaustion. But our Willi should be lucky and crash over a terrace, where pensioners left the pack of vanilla ice cream open during their coffee klatsch. Since the majority had already melted here, our spicy honey bee landed softly in that ice. Since the sugar shock had long since subsided - after all, the crash had occurred - Willi was ready again for the further intake of sweet delicacies and he felt at home in the creamy-sweet vanilla ice cream. What could be better for him than sweet-spicy honey with delicious creamy vanilla ice cream?

Now, eat everything up before you get blown.
And now a little bit of pragmatism towards the end:

As far as the durability and charisma of the fragrance are concerned, it can be said that both points are not bad. The pleasant thing about such a balsamic honey sweetness is that it is not as extremely sticky as many other sweets found in sweet Gourmand scents. We have no sticky, penetrating sweet tonka bean, no exaggerated use of toffee or anything else, but a very natural and discreetly used honey, which dominates the whole fragrance process, despite the spices and vanilla. There should also be a good rating for this authenticity and high quality, but this is not a fragrance that I can imagine on myself. I would imagine him in a woman rather than in a man, but that is my personal opinion.
Finally, I must say a few words about the bottle. Although I have only purchased a 2 ml filling via the souk, I know one or the other bottle from Kilian. These are extremely high-quality and simply true art, if you take a closer look at the decorations. This may be something you can expect measured by the truly high price, but it should not be mandatory. Other brands are much more "spartan" on the way.

1 Replies

10/21/2018

9
Scent 10
Longevity 8
Sillage 8
Bottle

Basti87

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Basti87

Very helpful Review 7

Cuddly Honey-Smalliser

A small filling of this fragrance I have been lying here for quite some time and I have tested it several times. Now for the coming autumn and suitable for the dark season a few lines from me.
Kilian is an interesting brand, even if it is less my price range. Nevertheless, especially this Back to black I wanted to test. The name, the fragrance pyramid, the comments here. The price is the only deterrent. Even a small filling was not cheap.

The prices for 50ml are from 200 Euro upwards. Already very steep for 50ml. I haven't found a bigger size. There is a mini bottle with 3 small refills of 7.5ml each. But then you don't have this beautiful bottle.
The bottle is like all Kilian's very valuable. The processing, the label, the writing. Everything extremely chic and noble.

On the bottle there is aphrodisiac, which is true here. The fragrance is from the first moment on extremely high quality.
There's no sheet music here that's bare. The composition harmonizes from the first moment on and I don't find anything really disturbing here. The star of the composition is clearly honey. Not as sticky sweet as real ordinary honey, but very sweetish noble with a high cuddling factor. In addition there are spicy and gourmand notes. Beautiful nutmeg and cardamom are also present here and provide a great spice, which goes well with the honey and gourmand notes. Here the spices fit well and are not too killing. Just like the vanilla and the honey. Even if it is a heavy fragrance, it is not too heavy and too killing. There are many sweet and spicy bombs like Tobacco Vanilla, which are simply too much and rather cause headaches. Not here. The Sillage is also perfect and envelops the wearer well in the colder months of the year. As far as the performance is concerned it is top anyway. The durability is in the two-digit range, which one must expect with this price also.
All in all a fragrance that I can highly recommend. The unisex category is also totally justified. A fragrance that comes in handy at cold temperatures during leisure time, in the evening and for nocturnal activities. Since he is very cuddly and sensual is also a great date scent.
The only drawback is the price. But worth more money, especially since it is very unique and gives few comparable twins and similar scents. This investment would definitely not be money thrown out.

2 Replies

07/05/2018

9
Scent

Mustang69

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Mustang69

From you

I have
a picture of you
in front of your eyes,
but now,
as part of the whole
makes relief
itself broad
in me.
The past terror
melts into
Sweetness
and you're here
and yet
not
there.

7 Replies

02/10/2015

Platinum1
59 Reviews

Platinum1

~ Life is Like a Pipe ~

~ I have always admired a fellow gentleman who smokes a pipe especially one with the sillage of sophisticated cherry tobacco aroma in the air. As a nonsmoker my initial impression of BtB allows me to share that very same mental image in my mind and in reality on my wrist. I easily evoke myself in a high back chair in my own private library with it's well polished shelves and classic leather bound books. This is a fresh out of the pouch opening dab of raspberry and saffron followed by a long lasting perfectly sweet honey and smooth tobacco that I puff on for many enjoyable hours as I read chapters from Dickens or Hemingway. I find this more of a comfort scent than an aphrodisiac perhaps a seduction scent for the mind only? If this is genuinely inspired by or a tribute to the late Amy Winehouse song "Back to Black" then it is very fittingly so. "....And life is like a pipe. And I'm a tiny penny rolling up the walls inside"
Kind Regards, Plat ~

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