I would like to introduce my femme fatale to you today. I must confess, love at first sight certainly wasn't this! A few times, before I smelled it for the first time, I had already heard of this seemingly very polarizing scent. One winter evening, while browsing for a fragrance for my girlfriend, I stumbled upon the rather meager Tom Ford department in a large perfumery chain. At that time I hadn't smelled any Tom Ford scent yet. TF - for me at that time an intangible topic, highly praised, glorified and far from any imagination how such a scent could smell. Then the first glance, the first interest in the shiny black bottle, the fine grooves running evenly from the lid along the entire bottle. The golden metal plaque, in which the promising letters "TOM FORD" are embedded, and the golden band under the bottle cap. A bottle design that has extraterrestrial features and is somewhat reminiscent of a vial from the alien universe. Timidly, but with burning desire, I took the bottle from the shelf, opened the cap and let the spray sink once, twice, three times onto the test strip. Even before I could get my nose close to the strip, a smell rose into my nose, which made me frown. "Please what" I thought. "Is this it?!". I now moved the test strip towards my nose and inhaled. To be honest, the first time I noticed the smell, it startled me. The first adjectives that came to my mind were repulsive, foul, heavy, morbid and disgusting. Qualities that you don't necessarily want to ascribe to a fragrance that you want to wear on a date or at a dinner party. Full of disappointment and disillusionment, I put the bottle back on the shelf and turned back to designer fragrances that were, in my opinion, more wearable.
It should now take quite a while until we meet again.
2 years later, high summer, 37 degrees Celsius in a gothic and brick paved small town in northern Germany. We just came from a wonderful holiday on the Danish coast and made a short stopover of a few days in the small town. After a relaxed breakfast, which was almost in the second half of the day, we strolled through the enchanting alleys and after a visit to the bookstore we went to the perfumery on the opposite side of the street. On a "I just want to test one or two fragrances" we went into the holy halls and after not too long it stood in front of me again, this bottle, which had stayed in my memory so much. What exactly was the impulse that made me reach for the bottle, I can't say anymore, but I was already about to grab a test strip and watch the spray mist sink onto the slightly rough paper surface. Again I led the test strip to my nose. But what follows now is absolutely inexplicable to me and in no way resembles what I smelled a good two years earlier. I closed my eyes and breathed in:
It started fresh, tangy bergamot and a few nuances of black sour berries. But the prelude only lasts a fraction of a second. Then something creeps up from underneath, from very far down. Opulent, heavy and dark. It doesn't want to reveal itself right away, but it makes it unmistakably clear that it is there, lurking among subtropical plants. But the black truffle is not the only thing that appears before you. On closer inspection, you now take in a whole bouquet of tropical, beautiful plants, of which it cannot be said beyond a doubt that their beauty and seductive smell do not want to conceal their toxic nature. And then it shows itself, the Poison Ivy in this beautiful, but also deadly greenhouse. The single black orchid, which claims the centre for itself with its presence. At her feet and somewhere in the dark, a heavy, sweet and balsamic breeze with a characteristic of incense makes itself felt, which unmistakably underlines the presence of the orchid and leaves no doubt about its sublimity. After some time, a slight hint of a soft, almost Bourbon-like vanilla can still be perceived, which must grow in the immediate vicinity.
I opened my eyes again, but by then it had already happened to me. Poison Ivy had managed to lure me into her garden and let me fall for her. Since then, Tom Ford's Black Orchid has been a very favourite part of my collection
Here in the following a short description without prose. ?
A very expressive floral fragrance, with a fresh, slightly citrusy and berry-sour start, which quickly expresses its heavy and floral opulence, through the black truffle and black orchid. As it progresses and dries, it becomes sweetish, balsamic with a hint of soft natural vanilla and a hint of incense. The shelf life is sensational and can be perceived on clothes well into the next day. The sillage is also very strong and you will definitely be noticed. The bottle is, in my opinion, a work of art that attracts all eyes without screaming "Here, here, look at me! Only the spray head could create a slightly larger spray mist. Like all TF scents, this one is unisex. However, I perceive this one more as a masculine scent with feminine characteristics than the other way around. However, I definitely recommend to test the scent before and maybe more than once. ?