Aoud Black Candy
Mancera (2013)

The first thing I got out of ABC was licorice. The mint is the co-star in this one. The Mancera trademark musk is in here also. Too sweet for my taste, but with a name like Aoud Black Candy, what should I have expected? 6.5/10

Aoud Black Candy opens with a sharp yet sweet Licorice with a hint of Mint. I get the Amber as the Rose falls behind allowing the Rose to take first place; there is White musk that lingers but really doesn't take over, shows up every now and again.

The verdict is still out about this one as I am still trying to wrap my mind around it. I like it and will give it a full wearing. I was a little taken back by the fingernail polish remover/varnish smell on the opening spray (don't let this disturb you), this does indeed vanish VERY quickly. Has an airy fleeting vibe that hangs in the air...

As an initial dry down, you walk away with this sweet Aoud, slightly medicinal, yet dry minty Licorice aroma that's really nice!!

Black licorice and Maple syrup at opening. VERY gourmand. Smells a bit like pancake syrup. Too sweet to wear anytime but winter. If the mint was more pronounced it might have saved it.

Not nearly as over-the-top or saccharine as I had warily expected. Aoud Black Candy is sort of the snappier, watery counterpart to Au Masculin. It's crisp--a bright woody licorice note with a candied flavor and some very mild tones of rose floating in the background. Performance is solid, and I was surprised by its polite, relatively restrained level of projection. Other people will certainly smell it, but Aoud Black Candy is in no way an obnoxious attention-whore. It's not an Oud fragrance either, so you can forget about that. If anything, this release by Mancera reminds me of an updated, sharper and more sophisticated version of Body Kouros. The bottle is much prettier as well. Altogether an enjoyable, easy wear and worth checking out for fans of licorice notes and fragrances with a sweet side. Thumbs up.

Since the beginning this weird creation features a sheer and characteristic note of aromatic bitter licorice which is dominant throughout also when a final silkier, resinous, "candishy" (but boise and moderately mild) and "edible" muskiness gets dominating the dry down. The initial bitter/minty feel, after a strong initial performance, is followed by a rose/amber evident vibe which is the second main trait of the composition providing to the final muskiness a sort of (traditionally english) victorian cosmetic rosey vibe. A touch of cedary minty woodiness (a la Ted Lapidus) flanks the final rosey muskiness and this woody resinous feel is smooth and silky (vaguely a la Aoud Damascus's or better Deeply Maria Lux's dry down but with a stout licorice accord , dark, aromatic and cedary). The black licorice/woods/oud accord is stark and spicy, being able to enchant just the lovers of these weird chords but we must add that the listed "edible notes" imprint a more easily likeable tasty vibe in the background. A must try from a really "conceptually arabesque" interesting brand. Stout on the skin. Experimental.

Should have been called ROSE Candy. I am wearing Aoud Black Candy right now, and I have to admit it opens with a very nice, true, black licorice note. I think blending rose and licorice together is an interesting idea, and the rose is quite prominent, all the way through the drydown. I don't know about “edible notes”, but I think that awful amber is finally beginning to fade. The top notes are wonderful, the base notes are tolerable, but the heart of it, that rose-amber accord, is a deal-breaker. I don't care too much for rose, but I really hate amber! Replacing the amber with cocoa (not chocolate, but cocoa, as in the original Dior Homme), might have saved this fragrance, enhancing both the rose and the licorice. But as it is, thumbs down.