Explosions d'Emotions : Amour Nocturne
L'Artisan Parfumeur (2013)

Amour Nocturne is an eccentric, surprisingly versatile gourmand. It opens with a milky, creamy caramel, blended with a distinctive, curious gunpowder note. As it evolves, the sweet caramel subsides, the gunpowder settles, and subtle floral and savory nuances emerge, adding depth and complexity to the scent. Cedarwood adds a rounding element, keeping the rich notes in check.

Later in the drydown, Amour Nocturne evokes the feel of a vintage diary that is lightly dusty and worn with age. A potent perfume once anointed its handwritten entries, but has now faded to only a sweet hint of orchid. A cedar pencil lies between the pages, left there as a bookmark. The scent of soft incense smoke clings to the cover, capturing the essence of quiet, introspective moments spent at the writer's desk.

Best suited for colder weather, Amour Nocturne is an incomparable fragrance that will intrigue those who enjoy complex, evocative scents and seek a perfume that leaves a lasting impression.

I have samples of Amour Nocturne available, feel free to send me a message if you’ve been hoping to get your nose on it!

Cedar and caramel - that is the greeting I get in the opening blast. Cedar and caramel sounds like two fairly standard notes mixed together, although they late probably not found often in such direct juxtaposition. The result is surprisingly unusual and the balance of the two notes is just right to create an new combined note. This is rather a nice opening.

The later stages add a hit milk impression that - again - is implemented quite convincingly. A touch o white florals crops up too, mainly orchids - possibly Cattleya adding the nutty vanilla aroma - and hints of muguet. On me the gunpowder is mainly a slightly smoky accent added in, and it is weak and nigh perfunctory.

I get moderate sillage, excellent projecting and an impressive eleven hours of longevity on my skin.

Whilst this autumnal gourmand is a bit linear in its development, the whole is quite synthetic, and the name seems selected arbitrarily for marketing purposes; the sweetness, however, in it is balanced quite skillfully and never cloying. The combinations of ingredients yields some interesting effects, and the excellent performance gets it across the line to a - just - positive score. 3/5

A powdery, spicy, sweet wood fragrance. The gunpowder note feels like a novelty at first, but soon morphs into this spicy-smoky-dusty layer that just sits atop a dry and aromatic cedar. The sweetness is never too much for me, though the overall effect is that it makes the scent feel very dense and a bit stuffy. It is not too unusual to be unwearable, but quirky enough to eschew the mainstream.

Woodcut from Olympic Orchids came to mind immediately in the dry down.

Hot milk, caramel, and a smidgen of flowers. And a recently discharged capgun, a scent I immediately recognized even though I haven't smelled it since childhood.

Hot milk is way up there on my master list of Favorite Random Smells, so it does my heart such good to smell it in a perfume, especially when it's so flawlessly deployed. Amour Nocturne is exceedingly evocative, and beautiful in a way that is mostly comforting but just a little unsettling.

A decidedly unpleasant olfactory experience. My teeth hurt.

Sexy, creamy, soft, edible. Dulce de leche with an edge of bitter gunpowder. Love this stuff. It's one of three of the Explosion d'Emotions range that I own (the others being Skin On Skin and Onde Sensuelle) and it's my favourite. I love the way the gunpowder accord stops this from becoming cloying and keeps it just the right side of hideous-gourmand. It was my introduction to the work of the fascinating Bertrand Duchaufour; I find it to be...just lush. It gets complimented by anyone close enough to get a whiff - it wears close, but it's tenacious.