Mercedes-Benz Club Black
Mercedes-Benz (2017)

I am in love! If you don’t like this I will gladly take/buy your bottle. This has a beautiful tea quality from the bergamot and a gorgeous, sweet smoky and fuzziness from the benzoin. So I get a very resinous vanilla with a earl grey edge and a very Smokey- incense dry down. I’m a woman and I can’t get enough! I wish it performed a bit better but I am testing this in summer and I live in Texas. Seriously, I need back up bottles.

'Dark Vanilla' is the easy descriptor for Mercedes-Benz Club Black. Vanilla as a note in masculine perfumery is generally less sweet, elegant and easy to wear. The dark vanilla in MBCB is rich, creamy, and deep. There isn't much more of a descriptor for it. I don't pick up wood notes and this is very linear on me. I think the benzoin and incense act as thickeners for the vanilla and provide some of the 'darkness'. Club Black makes a solid choice for colder season office wear as it isn't too overpowering or spicy and just exudes class and simple elegance.

Mercedes-Benz Club Black does carry the 'hyped' label from many online reviewers and caught my attention as a hard to find and soon to be discontinued gem which would send prices up. It hadn't been available for awhile from the discounters I buy from and when I heard it was in stock but soon to run out I took the chance to purchase. Thumbs up.

If you are sensitive to the modern woody aroma chemicals, this is not your friend. I can detect the ambery dark vanilla others report, but overall I smell a loud harsh wood alcohol/rubbing alcohol scent that never fades and in fact gets stronger the longer the fragrance dries on my skin. If you AREN'T sensitive to those chemicals, you will probably get the lovely spiced vanilla ice-cream richness that I can smell underneath that screaming harsh wood note. A good candidate for sampling first.

The first sniff reminded me of 24 Gold, for some reason. However, upon further exploration, it reminded me of other vanilla scents such as Spiriteuse Double Vanille. It lacks the vibrant extract vanilla smell that I get from SDV and takes a slightly boozier route. If money were not an issue, I would opt for SDV because it replicates the smell of vanilla extract so well. However, the price of Club Black makes it an impressive cheapie. It's not groundbreaking or memorable, but the vanilla with a slight hint of synthetic benzoin makes for a pleasant gourmand.

Longevity and sillage are pretty good, so there are no concerns in that area. It's perfect for winter and fall, and maybe spring evenings. If it is discontinued, I think it is better to pay for SDV instead of the inflated prices for this fragrance.

Early testing on this one, but very nice. The vanilla reminds me of Spice Bomb Extreme. This has the incense whereas that has the spice. I bought this because of the hype and because I love vanilla.

Edit: my sprayer is a squirter and it’s really annoying. I thought after a few sprays it would settle down, but no. 3 foot stream of liquid before the juice spreads out at all. Problem is my arms aren’t 3 feet long! Contact me with any recos on repairing.

EDIT #2: 2/27/22 rating change to neutral. I just don’t want to wear it that often. The vanilla seems a little thin and synthetic. It’s ok, but…eh. Wish I hadn’t bought into the hype.

Mercedes Benz Club Black opens with a warm blast of benzoin along with vanilla. The opening is interesting and it reminds me of the reception/waiting area of a prestige car auto-shop. I'm not sure if that is what the creators of this fragrance were aiming for and I'm also not sure if I really want to smell like the waiting room of a prestige car mechanic. As the fragrance dries down on the skin the warmth of the benzoin is still there but not as prominent. The prominent accord in the dry-down is a slightly sweet vanilla, from here the fragrance remains fairly linear to my nose. This is not very exciting as vanilla seems to have been used and overused in so many mens fragrances over the last 20 years, and it doesn't seem to make Mercedes Benz Club Black stand out in any special way for me. What you end up with is an ok, run of the mill, easy reach scent, that is nicely packaged with a good atomiser, and at a reasonable price. I find the bottle design more appealing than the actual fragrance. The performance is good. Mercedes Benz Club Black seems to project well for the first hour, it then stays closer to the skin, it lasts about 5 hours on my skin. It's a reasonable fragrance but not spectacular.