Chocolat
Il Profumo (1997)

I first came across this on a visit to a perfumery where the owner regards me as a kindred spirit. She indulges me by spraying all the new releases on blotters and then we chat about them – it feels like going to a perfume event catering just for me. In between, other shoppers come and go – they are usually after something specific, and while the owner deals with them, I tend to browse further. So, in walks this couple, and the woman was craving her Il Profvmo Chocolat which she had once bought on holiday and which had become her signature ever since. A blotter was sprayed just to relive the ‘ooh ahh' of her fondness and to my surprise, standing a few feet away, this wave of dark and enticing chocolate of undeniable quality curled up to my nostrils.
What wasn't evident then was that this chocolate was a bonbon, containing a soft centre full of plummy fruit, delicate spice (nutmeg) and jammy florals – sheer indulgence. People have spoken of this perfume as Angel plus chocolate – possibly, but without the obnoxious pushiness that such a thing may have. The other perfume it vaguely recalls is the delicately erotic Missoni which is, alas, no more, in which a bone dry cocoa note is played off against gorgeous orange and a feather-light woodsy backdrop. Again, apart from differences in the scent profile, there is also a difference in degree here – Missoni is a marvel of dynamism, of playing off dark against light; Chocolat, on the other hand, seems to gather all its treats into the same comfortable mid-range.
Nonetheless, it is pure pleasure, and when in the later stages the cocoa fades a bit, the underlying fulsome fruity floral comes into view but with the compensation of dusky woody and vanilla notes preventing the whole thing from doing a Disney. Then there is a further surprise in the late drydown which reveals a sophisticated and gauzy mixed floral – it is as if with each layer that falls from this offering, it remains fully realized and beautiful, with comfortable projection.

I was really excited to try this, but I don't get much chocolate from it at all. I get a soft, lightly spicy fruity vanilla blend, which pretty much disappeared after a couple of hours. However! I'm going to ask my husband to play scent guinea-pig (again – he's such a love that way! :))) – there's something about the spiciness in this that I suspect would rock on the blokes. If you're a fan of Amour de Cacao, Chocolate Greedy, Serendipitous, Mat Chocolat, Al Rehab Choco Musk (all of which I have in my stable, apart from the hopefully-soon-to-be-added Chocolate Greedy) then yes, you're in for a bit of a disappointment as this is not what I would call a true chocolate scent; the other ones definitely deliver much more bang for the buck that way (the Al Rehab especially so given its lasting power and crazy good price). This one is nice, but if you're after a good, solid hit of chocolate, definitely try before you buy.

Genre: Woody Oriental

Well, it's chocolate. Bittersweet, not milk, and very accurately rendered. So, if you really want to smell like chocolate...

A gourmand of some restraintThere is a chocolate-like note at the heart oft this scent, but on my skin it is more like an old-fashioned cocoa-powder note that emerges. A vanilla tone is the second main component, and there are whiffs of flowery distractions. Good quality materials and well executed as a straightforward lighter gourmand, but to me it lacks some complexity. Good silage and projection with five hours of longevity.

A "tamed" piece of gourmand (a semi-gourmand) outcoming in its concert of trails (ideally) as a gentler (anything but "boaster" and more refined) sort of "anything but urban" A* Men with much more chocolate in the blend, hints of rose, without coffee/honey and with a less creamy edge. A* Men is futuristic there where Chocolat is stuck in its saturnine/baroque past. Dark and decadent. This fragrance features also vanilla, spices, ripe fruits and some woods. I detect a note of patchouli which is a slightly aristocratic and luxurious/baroque one and not a brash/bombastic hyper glamour Patch a la Mugler. It's important the role played by spices and hesperides which provide to scent a slightly angular, sweetly prickly, barely exotic and refined vibe. The longevity and sillage are half bodied. Not bad.

Almost no noticeable chocolate, in fact when I first tried this over a year ago I detected none at all. Upon re-visiting Il Profumo Chocolat recently, the chocolate emerged for me. The chocolate that does waft through in small measure is the 80% pure cocoa single origin stuff. The kind that bites and leaves an assertive tinge of sour on the back of the tongue, as if coffee, not candy.Make no mistake, candy is truly here - this is candy from that Asian grocery from the far side of town, it's candy that your aunt brought back from her trip around the world. Spice, yes, but not your garden variety cinnamon/clove that usually pops up with the word "spice." Nutmeg, jeera perhaps; great mysterious hints in the background. Sweetness, yes, and perhaps a tiny trace of incense. Once you graduate in the world of gourmands, and seek the unusual sweet, the complex sweet, the sweet that has had an interesting journey and collected many aromas of a fascinating storage, then pick this one up. Complex, interesting and dark - I couldn't wear this everyday - the plum and hot, sticky notes are too singular for daily wear. But a fantastic little number for the days you feel.... different.