Eau De Citron Noir

Picked this up with a travel set of four. I'm drawn to most of Hermes citrus-orange scents. Their fresh and spicy while remaining cool and sophisticated, just which they were a little bit deeper and last longer. With this one I feel it is great for a summer night out and has a hint of romance in it, the citrus goes back and forth between lime and lemon with me, others can't decide. The smoke is not really apparent, it just gives the fresh citrus a hint of depth and moodiness, but remains a largely safe fragrance to wear anywhere, very office friendly (as is the whole line). I'd be curious to see what this would be like kicked up a few notches, still retaining is key characteristics but a little bigger, deeper, and luxury - but possibly that is not the intention. I feel to get a few of these from this line to last more than 6 hours I have to really lay it on, and even then it remains an intimate skin scent, which is fine. I fun, fresh, mature enough fragrance that is a hint moody but easy to wear, a good travel companion, but maybe that's about it.

This stuff is fantastic! Ironically, I first heard of Eau de Citron Noir from a negative review. It piqued my interest so I looked up the note breakdown and thought it sounded like something that I would enjoy. I blind bought it and I couldn't be happier. It starts with a realistic zesty citrus smell. Underlying the citrus is a herbaceous smokey accord which carries it though to the end. It isn't extremely powerful in terms of sillage which I find to be a good thing for a citrus scent. The biggest downside to it is the longevity. It’s doesn’t last more than a few hours—it is an eau de cologne after all. This has a masculine smell to it even though it is advertised as being a unisex fragrance. I’m glad that it's finally starting to warm up so I can start putting this to use!

To me, this is a perfect summer scent and everything I wanted Terre d'Hermes to be but wasn't. I get the bright, almost under-ripe lemon and citron off the top, and they last pretty well throughout though tail off a bit near the end. This is a hard yellow citrus, in contrast to the over-ripe almost rotting orange of TdH. I get the bit of smoke as well, though it is an exceedingly clean and dry smoke. It becomes *ever so slightly* sweet and woody on the drydown. This is very unisex, perhaps leaning an almost imperceptible touch male. Lasts for around 5 hours for me even in warm weather. This is a completely inoffensive and simple fragarance, would be perfect for the office or anywhere else you want to smell nice/fresh but not loud.

I have skipped this perfume as it is rated below 4.20 which is the rating I use for blind buying and I heard that this line of perfumes lacks longevity. I came across this dark bottle of Hermes perfume in a perfume store next to Terre D'Hermes Eau de Givree. I gave it a whiff to see how horrible it was, but to my surprise, the top notes were complex and beautiful. It was not any average citrus scent, but more of beautifully crafted, unique, elegant citrus notes that exude confidence, luxury, and refinement. It was far from boring, and from my experience coming across a not boring citrus perfume can be quite challenging.

Incoming sacrilege: I prefer this to Terre d'Hermes. The two are similarly citruisy, spicy, and performatively classy, but this pares back the "masculine board-room gravitas" of Terre into something smoother, darker, a little more organic. Citron Noir is ultimately less complex and lasting but sits more subtly on your skin. Chameleonlike ability to serve as a freshy after exercise, an office scent, or a night at the symphony scent. That comes at the expense of memorability and character.