Les Nuits d'Hadrien
Goutal (2003)

On me, this smells like a standard citrus Eau, but with extra herbs and greens. I don't smell 80% of the listed notes - mostly just citrus and basil.

I always enjoy a nice old-fashioned Eau like this, so I'm voting thumbs up, but I can't help but feel that this is a little bit unremarkable.

EDIT: A few wears later, I feel bad for calling this "unremarkable". I guess it is, in that there are a lot of colognes that follow a similar recipe, but I have to add that, as I've worn this, I've repeatedly caught little whiffs of it and thought "what's that fantastic smell??" before realizing it was Les Nuits d'Hadrien wafting up in the warm summer. So I'm changing my rating from a regular "thumbs-up" to a much more enthusiastic "thumbs up"!

Sweet patchouli flanker of Eau d'Hadrien. Clever. Not sure it works though.

***

Cardless vial, part used

The opening is mostly a bergamot blast, with lots of mandarins and a bit of lemon, but it is less fresh than this citrus bash would make one expect: this is more a dark-ish nocturnal (the name!) glowing and smoldering citrus opening - reminding me a bit of Versace' Versus.

Soon a sandal tone develops, but at times it is not a very specific sandalwood. A sweeter development sets in, with touches of juniper and whiffs of redcurrant present at times. This combines with a light ylang-ylang that is in the brighter sind's and lacks any creamy characteristics.

The next important step is a turn into a spicier direction, which is almost singlehandedly achieved by a powerful cumin note. Reaching the base, a soft and ambery patchouli stays more in the background, as does an gentle tonka that is equally unobtrusive. What does not remain in the background is a strong lashing of white musks, which rises to become the dominant component towards the end.

I get moderate sillage, adequate projection and eight hours of longevity on my skin.

A scent for cooler summer days or evenings and somewhat different for Eau d'Hadrian, it is not exactly a fount of originality, and it is crafted skillfully. The base is a bit too generic, but there is a lot of development longitudinally. Overall still quite a good composition. 3.25/5.

Old-school, mature scent with a creamy lemon opening. Leans feminine to me.

I get good longevity but below average projection.

As with the original Eau d'Hadrien, 22 years earlier than Nuits, this is a citrus based on orange and tangerine, with lemon supporting. This is for me an equally well done "evening" version, with sweet support from amber and musk, and grounding with patchouli and cumin. The other notes listed do not reach my nose.

The original Eau has been one of my five favorite citrus scents for many years now. The Nuits joins it as a darker, quieter version. Very well done.

Turin calls it "orange fennel" (reminded of a salad he constructs) and gives it only three stars. I would say it deserves at least four.

I have tried the EdT in what is supposedly the feminine bottle. I tried it twice, the first time applying 3 sprays. I found it interesting enough to give it another go. The second time I sprayed 5 times! My verdict is this: fantastic opening with citrus, florals and herbs with an exciting accord. This phase of excellence lasts maybe 20 to 30 minutes. Then the fragrance although still enchanting just dies a fast death. The silage is pathetic after the 30 first minutes and after an hour is almost non existent; it becomes a skin scent that first it is enveloping but soon it becomes very quite. This skin scent phase lasts at best 4-5 hours (with the 5 sprays). For such an interesting fragrance to have so poor performance it makes it even more disappointing. Pity!

Too feminine very sweet lemon drops and floral amber, smells like an old school woman's 'dinner party' perfume like 1881 or something like that, would definitely be more of a night time fragrance. Pleasant smell but not for mePros: rich scentCons: feminine, sweet"

This begins life as an unusual floral lemon--unusual in that the lemon is relegated to the back seat even during the top notes. I also detect what might be a very heady spice component if it were stronger, but again restrained to blend with the lemon and florals. It has a bit of mapley, anisy thickness that makes me suspect some immortelle, though not nearly as much as in their Sables, which nearly drowned me in pancake syrup. I don't find it particularly masculine, though the only feminine scents it actually reminds me of might be a few very old, very heavy ones. While the best comparison I can think of is to Boucheron, a very heavy lemon from my distant past, then I'd say Les Nuits would be a feminine analog to that; they share the same stodgy, dated stuffiness. Like Eau d'Hadrien, the lemon here hangs on for a remarkably long time, and with remarkably true lemoniness, but if I want that I would just reach for Eau. Overall it's not bad, but I'm not sure what niche of scent space it's trying to carve out for itself, and coupled with the gender neutrality it paints a very ambiguous picture. Lots of frankincense and sandalwood at the end brings us over to oriental territory. It's not for me, but still worth a sniff. Quite a chameleon.

This is supposed to be a unisex fragrance but it leans so far to the masculine that it would smell a bit strange on a woman. Despite the fine ingredients and deft use of citrus, this smells like Right Guard and testosterone. A high school locker room comes to mind--not in a bad way, just in a way that is jarring on a woman. On a man, this is a musky citrus with an herbal underpinning. There are spices in the basenotes--I smell cardamom and spices associated with Indian food. Imagine the captain of the football team, a fellow who eats a lot of curry, after a fierce workout in the heat. He is in the locker room, takes a shower, sprays on antiperspirant and heads out to class. But his shower was too short--his core body temperature is too high and he keeps pumping out a manly funk with a Tikka Masala twist to it. Then, as his body cools in the airconditioning of his next class, the scent soon fades away (this is a Goutal, after all). Not my cup of chai.

real citrus, not the synthetic kind - its an okay scent probably for early autumn or early spring, nothing extraordinary here, but the dry down is admirable, however the longevity and projection of this is pathetic, as it the price.

This is a very classic composition in the vein of traditional eaux de Cologne, such as 4711 Kölnischwasser. To my nose, the citrus smells like lemon verbena's punch of straight citral. After the first half hour or so, it calmed down into a mellow citrus Cologne for a few hours. The sillage, while barely there, is a soft, sweet musk, still present about 12 hours after application.

Seems perfect for someone who "doesn't wear perfume," so I have passed the sample to my fiance. After years of Burt's Bees Natural cologne (which he wears very well), I think this might be a nice bit of variety -- and I look forward to hugging him at the end of the day and smelling that sillage.

I first smelt this fragrance almost two years ago, and I vividly remember cringing as I found the citrus too acidic and strange. These days my nose is much better trained and I have learnt to appreciate such scents.

Le Nuits d'Hadrien is not all citrus, in fact the citrus notes are shadowed by the herbaceous qualities. I own Eau d'Hadrien which I find too lemony, however this version is much more rounded.

The lemon, although present, doesn't play a huge part in this composition. The mandarin orange stands out the most, especially with the aromatic herbs surrounding it.

Because of the green herbs, which are at times a tad too spicy, Le Nuits d'Hadrien has a dark aura of citrusy warmth and exotic cooking spices. I made a pork roast once which I seasoned with bay leaves, orange pulp and rosemary. This fragrance reminds me of that beautiful Winter dish.

Over the course of this fragrance's drydown, Le Nuits d'Hadrien does take on a rather soapy quality, however the earthy patchouli, citrus and herbs can still be recognised.

Unfortunately the lasting power of this fragrance is not great, nor is the sillage which is pretty weak. I hate when some Annick Goutal fragrances fade quickly because it gives people the impression that all her scents do this, which is not true. I have only tested the EDT version, however with my experience with this fragrance house, the EDP's usually last a lot longer.

Either way, this fragrance is still worth checking out, especially if citrus aromatics are your thing.