Carbon [6C]
One of Those (2012)

Airy sugar on top. It's almost like a cloud of powdered sugar but a little darker in its character. This may be from the pepper and cardamom. This isn't truly spicy per se - just a little dark bits of spice. As the sugar haze subsides the baked-goods accord moves in. The heart remains sweet with only a hint of herb - still a little spice.

Base is sweet too, with its blend of resins and musk. Whole thing is a fairly linear sweet, not overly remarkable fragrance.

What a surprise! The last Nu_be fragrance I tested – Nu_be Mercury – made me nauseous. This one, Nu_be Carbon, is not only tolerable, it's quite desirable. It opens spicy and bright – ginger, cardamom, chili pepper, iris and resins. They are all there in an effervescent, wearable accord. It is a seriously spicy-resinous accord, and yet it is not over-the-top… and it is beautifully refined. This first accord lasts about an hour with ebbing sillage, and then continues on as a heart and base with an iris / sandalwood texture backgrounded by a soft ginger / cardamom. This subtle, elegant textured aspect lasts for another two or three hours on the skin (longer on clothing). It eventually tapers to a dry sandalwood / maybe-floral conclusion – I love the smell. I've smelled the heart / drydown before – it was a local product – it was my favorite body wash when I lived in Taiwan – it was called… “Carbon.”

C as in cardamom, or in cookies or in caramel or in caries…. Rather sickly sweet, spicy, somewhat dense and flat fragrance on the gourmand side of the spectrum. A variation on the oriental- spicy- woody- ambery, as smelt in thousands of fragrances- Malle's Dries Van Noten, just to name one, caramelized sandalwood included. Rather boring and conventional and, once again, with very little relevance to the concept of the brand and the spirit of the element that stands at the roots of every form of life, at least according to my own personal view of it!

Carbon's good, but it's not great. It opens with a fresh dose of cardamom that smells spicy and a little sweet, but soon after it hits a sweaty note that smells like too much cumin or coriander was added to the mix. The pencil shaving/cedar stage then settles in and though it smells nice, it's nothing remarkable or something you haven't already smelled in Gucci Pour Homme, Carbone de Balmain, or the original Tommy Bahama. Carbon's greatest assets comes in the dry down, as a creamy, smooth sandalwood emerges and blends immaculately with a rich, rooty iris note. This is my favorite aspect of Carbon and I only wish it was preceded by a better middle stage. Thumbs up for what is probably nu_be's best offering, but I'm not totally enthusiastic about Carbon. It's not different enough to maintain my interest, or good enough to make me disregard its familiarity.

Carbon opens with a cinnamon-like ginger tandem before quickly transitioning to its early heart. As the composition enters its early heart phase the ginger remains, joining a starring fiery red and black pepper tandem with dirty cumin-like cardamom spice, supported by dry sandalwood rising from the base. During the late dry-down the ginger and black pepper fade as remnants of the red pepper remain through the finish with the dry sandalwood base note now taking center stage. Projection is average to slightly above average and longevity average at 8 hours on skin.

Carbon is a bit of an enigma. The composition (that never resembles carbon in any way) starts off nicely with its fresh ginger but goes south quickly with its prominent use of cardamom in an implementation that reminds one of curry powder. When the cardamom couples with the fiery pepper and ginger its dirty aspects are somewhat overwhelming and less pleasant than one would expect though not wholly without merit. One really needs to wait for the late dry-down though to get Carbon's payoff, as the composition improves significantly when the dry sandalwood that peeped into the background earlier takes over as star now unchained from the dirty spice assault. The late dry-down may be a bit simplistic but it does indeed smell quite good. The bottom line is the $150 per 100ml bottle Carbon is far from the success I had hoped and expected, but it does smell good with an even better late payoff earning a "good" to "very good" 3 to 3.5 star out of 5 rating and a modest recommendation to spicy woody fans in particular.

This is a fantastic fragrance, with standout middle notes.

Crystallised ginger punches me in the face on initial application, with notes of cardamom and black pepper. After a few minutes, a creamy, pleasant wax polish sandalwood diffuses the ginger sharpness. A dusty, dry iris adds balance. The ginger, sandalwood and iris move to the forefront in phases, which is amazing. This is definitely the best bit about Carbon.

After an hour, the smoothness becomes greener and cleaner as cedar arrives. This is less plasticiney than other cedar-based fragrances I have tried.

The base remains for another couple of hours, as a pleasant melange of cedar, sandalwood and iris.

This is an absolute must-try. You won't be disappointed.