Black 
Puredistance (2013)

I have been within sniffing distance of the interior of a luxury car only twice in my life. The first was when a former colleague of my father’s, a rather sleazy guy called Alberto, would come and collect me from my job in Bergamo on a Friday night and whizz me down to Milan for the weekend in his Bugatti. Nothing terribly inappropriate happened in that car, but there was always the suggestion that something might. The second was a couple of years ago, in Rome, when a lovely salesman saw my son and me looking in the window of a Ferrari-Maserati showroom and invited us in so that my son could sit inside one. I am not into luxury anything, but the scent of inside a luxury car is intoxicating in a weirdly emotive way. You know instinctively that what you are smelling is privilege and, by corollary, exclusion, but the power you sense throbbing beneath the leather and the wood – even when the car is off – is enough to flood you with a weird sense of elation. Arousal, even.

Black by Puredistance smells like the pure, cushioned air of privilege. Though from the technical sense, it has much in common with other cardamom-saffron-leather orientals like Idole (Lubin), Black Cashmere (Donna Karan) and, more recently, the glorious Shaghaf by Anfas, the extreme refinement of Black makes them feel like they just stumbled in from the bog, muck caked on their clodhopper boots.

Black is so smooth you could almost call it boring. It is just a silky cardamom custard filtered through the air filtering system of a Maserati with creamy chamois seats and polished wood panels, with no real points of interest or anything whistling for your attention. normally lusty resins and spices have been triple-strained through a cheesecloth, appearing as smudged brushstrokes in the overall impressionistic swirl. Even the oud note is quiet, a faded sour-suedey tannin accent shading out the leather a little. As with anything Puredistance, Black is ostentatiously-priced, but then so is a Maserati. I may never get within sniffing distance of either ever again, but the memories are for free and remain lodged safely in the memory palace I have constructed in my brain (thanks for the tip, Hannibal).

This is an interesting scent. Bought on an odd whim, semi-blind buy.
I had sampled and found it lacking but over holidays last year thought I'd jump in anyway.

Glad I did. This one is really hard one to describe. That are a lot of familiar notes in this, but I'm hard pressed to classify it as a "leather scent" or and "incense scent," etc. A little bit of everything- and whatever notes are here are high quality for sure. A novice would know this is pricey.

Vaguely similar to M but much more discreet and overall warmer.
Wears much closer too.

Not for office...very much a date scent because whoever you're with will want to get closer. Catch a whiff of this one and you want more (maybe just to figure out what they are sensing...leather, resins, amber, spices?)

A devious scent I'd say. Nicely unisex...men and women can rock this equally in my view. (Jeez would this smell awesome on a swarthy dark haired woman. Borderline illegal).

This is quite interesting. I will do two reviews...one from me and one from my beloved husband :)

On me (female, dry skin, central heating environment) this opens with soft dry black pepper, ozone and cedar. After about 10 or 15 minutes I start smelling floral water, paper and maybe a hint of fresh leather; like a love note in a leather satchel. It's blended masterfully; the notes that are forward peep out rather than jump out. This also, however, makes this fragrance very soft. I'm sure it will stay quite a while given the concentration, it will just stay at a moderate whisper (skin scent). Overall, I like it. It makes me feel dreamy and nostalgic.

On my husband (male, normal to oily skin, central heating environment) this opens with pepper, vinyl, old leather (think classic car), metallic and ozonic (lightening). After 30 minutes it becomes a little sweet with a bit of powder (softening). He says (emphatically) that he had found no sweetness in the beginning. This fragrance makes him think of working on a classic car in a garage with a storm gusting just outside. In short, he loves it

I received a sample of this about a year ago, really enjoyed it, and thought "well, that was lovely, but can't afford it".

Thankfully, I was in a place recently where I could trade another high-end fragrance for it, and as I type this, I am wearing this very beautiful, but hard-to-describe scent.

My impression is of a darkened room, lined with old books, treasures, and other antiquities, and a worn velvet sofa where I sit curled reading a novel, while my beloved sips rum and smokes a pipe. There is a small incense burner, and the unknown substance is smoking gently, wafting seeking residence inside the pages of the old books and the leather that binds them. Roses placed in a tarnished silver vase sit in a corner on top of an old sandalwood box. I wear a touch of amber on my wrists and my husband is wearing a musky oud.

This impression lasts and lasts...I cannot say what others might smell, or what is actually in this tall black bottle, but I really love what my nose and brain receive!

First, this isn't a perfume containing notes that will be easily recognizable and won't be understood by a single wearing. So ignore the negative reviews, these folks just don't get it. Sorry, but there is no way this perfume deserves anything but a huge thumbs up.

It took me quite a while to figure out what Black is all about, it's a modern recreation of a Arabic Ghaliyah fragrance, which is very old but Black is very unique and modern smelling. Ghaliyah is translated as precious and generally contains oud, musk, sandalwood, ambergris and rose among other notes. Black has these notes and the musk used in Black is the closest synthetic recreation of deer musk I've ever experienced. Most other perfumes don't come nearly as close as this. The musk in Black envelops the entire composition in a warm blanket.

Also, there is a very high quality incense note in Black that is present for the duration, and it is possible to smell an accord that reminds one of a snuffed candle. Some other notes you might find resemble leather, patchouli, a touch of vetiver. The rose is joined by saffron and jasmine, but the perfume isn't floral in the traditional way, the florals lift and brighten the composition but aren't very prominent.

Black is a kaleidoscope of notes and the blending and composition are extraordinary. Whether you like it or not, this is an objectively excellent composition, unique and artistic, smells very natural and luxurious. This is a true work of art in perfumery.