Nocturnal Rose
Eau de Toilette, Bath & Body Works (2026)

Nocturnal Rose by Bath & Body Works (2026) smells like a lot of things that already exist, namely Déclaration d'Un Soir by Cartier (2012) and ck 2 by Calvin Klein (2016); to a lesser extent this smells like Thé Noir 29 by Le Labo (2015), which is of course what all the numpties in FragBroLand wanna say, because everything cheaper than something more expensive is always a shameless clone of that thing (but never in reverse). Nobody ever stops to think that Déclaration d'Un Soir actually didn't even this thing first, with Burberry Brit for Men (2004) being the origin of this particular species, and Nocturnal Rose is just another one of "those".

If you don't know what I am talking about, it's that particular "gray rose" smell which is a combination of ketones, geraniol, and black pepper over dry woody notes and metallic musks, faking out a colorless rose-like aroma made maasculine (or very least unisex). Burberry's original take was a bit more tamped down for that austere British vibe, while laters cranked up rose, pepper, or added something. Thé Noir is certainly the loudest and darkest with its black tea note, while this downmarket take from Bath & Body Works ends up being mostly about the woods and pepper in the base, making it the easiest to like of all I've tried in the vein.

Regardless of its derivation, Nocturnal Rose by Bath & Body Works is shockingly daring for a release from the mall chain, which typically does not veer often from its long-in-the-tooth 2000's aquatics, boozy woody ambers, or fresh fougères; they certainly don't wander into niche territory with masculine rose fragrances or anything that may be more divisive, at least not without it being a limited edition like Canyon by Bath & Body Works (2021), which aped the style of Amyris Homme by Maison Francis Kurkdjian (2012) with less tropical energy. Who knows, this might be limited too? If it is, I won't start a panic, but give it a sniff regardless. Thumbs up