Reviews of Signature Collection : Nuit Noire by Mona di Orio

This smells like Papillon Salome aka indie Bal a Versailles with an acid Bubble Yum spooge tuberose and a sweaty-armpit-wearing-orange-blossom-deodorant accord. A slurry of Civettone bum rushes the scene with its cat-bum flavor Wintergreen Tiger Balm, and a pair of dirty drawers tossed to the corner in a fit of passion.

It's the breath of a trashy hook-up after that post-coital cigarette, a soapy lather with a hint of Frumunda cheese (good hygiene is a must!), hot ball flavored loaded hot balls, and a drunken stupor burying its face into a sable in an overstuffed closet. This is one of the more obscene creations, and I'd buy a full bottle if it wasn't so damn expensive.

Orange shitsicle

I enjoy most of Mona di Orio's scents but I could not abide Nuit Noire. It opens well with a sharp and spicy orange rind, not unlike dried Persian limes. But that promise is quickly overpowered by creamy indoles poured over a fresh turd. And make no mistake, it's almost pure indoles for me, plasticky, mothbally indoles. Did I mention over a pile of excrement.

Perhaps if I'd waited for more than half an hour before desperately trying to scrub this from my skin, something more tolerable could emerge. But life is too short for this.

Don't get me wrong, I love my skank and filth. But it has to be paired with something beautiful. For those who detect a more complex bouquet, I truly envy you because Nuit Noire does smell of higher quality ingredients.

Initial burst of fresh crisp orange...then , a spiced up wad of bubblegum appears for a little bit...gentle waves of orange flowers and tuberose....a tribute to chypres from the past...also makes me think of MAII/Cologne Reloaded...that deep bass layer of animality...spicy aromatic wood as it progresses...hits a point where the notes start forming accords and becomes harder to pick out individual notes...kind of sexy smelling...an erotic edginess...well blended...unique and different...not sure if I would buy a bottle, but i sure do enjoy smelling it...a spicy floriental...

My worst criticism of this scent is that it feels a bit "ancient" and clunky, as if the movement from one note to another is made by walking up a rickety staircase, rather than by taking the escalator. The civet is a bit front and center here and its dry down on clothing gets a tiny bit musty and somewhat fecal-smelling, but I definitely appreciate N.N's nod toward vintage animalic scents, and I find its use of orange blossom fairly enchanting. As wearing-time goes by, I recognize Mona's signature base which seems absent only in her Cuir, so if you're bothered by that set of notes, be forewarned. This definitely leans toward the feminine side of things, and if you're someone who longs for the floral animalics of a bygone age, give this one a try. Just understand that this smells nothing like any modern or contemporary scent, but seems more of an homage-of-sorts to a different era and to glamorous silver screen divas like Norma Desmond.

A perfume that takes a while to come round on my skin. Upon opening it gave the impression of having sat in the cupboard for too long, like it was trying desperately to be a gutsy old school floral complete with unwashed underwear, but the end result sadly resembled an emanation from a bottle that had turned. The blast of orange blossom-heavy white florals that soars out at the start distorted and gained a plastic aspect, the civet-musk power chord of the base felt airless and stale. It seemed all yellowing lace, fur, and hair; old age in an instant.
And yet, despite all that, there was a perverse pleasure in wearing it, as if one were tempting fate. There seemed to be a core of oriental warmth to the composition, rendered in a creamy, body-hued manner which called out to me, willing me to risk entering the boudoir that time forgot.
And then in a final change Nuit Noire blossomed, the orange flowers became bright and radiant and imbued with a triple-milled soapiness, and that base began twinkling with spicy refinement reminiscent of a classic Caron. Worth the wait? Ya betcha.

A warm and orangey/powdery Oriental in the mold of Shalimar and Emeraude, Nuit Noir bears a very misleading name. It smells pretty bright to my nose. Not particularly original but very well composed.
Reminds me greatly of the similarly enjoyable Ligea "La Sirena" by Carthusia and would be a 'next step' recommendation for fans of Midnight in Paris.

The orange of the opening phase has a dark, nigh candied character that is accentuated by a gently warning cinnamon componenent. Later in the drydown, a tuberose that is fresh and not waxy at all combines with hints of a mildly spicy clove impression laced with touches of tonka.

In the base a sweetish aroma of a new soft Italian leather note develops, which develops a hint of powderiness towards the end. I get moderate sillage, good projection and eight hours of longevity on my skin.

This fragrance has characteristics of a rich autumnal evening scent; one of Mina di Orio's nice creations. 3.25/5

Not bad, but not unique IMO. Smells similar to something I sampled before (can't remember what it is). The orange notes make this one pretty good. Seems like too much is going on at one time with this one. 7/10

This fragrance was difficult to key in on. It shifted several times and I had to let this happen before knowing whether I liked it or not. But no matter how it shifted I can't say it worked for me. My issue really is with the mix of spices that were supposed to give it an edgy, naughty note. They didn't on my skin. I really love a nice sexy fragrance, but for me the spice mixes that are said to make fragrances naughty seldom equate to sexy. 'Dirty' or 'smelly' might have edgy daring in an antiseptic society, but sexy...? Not necessarily. For a while now, I've wanted to smell the 'dirty' ones on someone who considers them sexy, to see if it really is about chemistry, or is more about concept. I hope it's chemistry and that I would find this one smashing on them. Because if they smelled like I do in them, oh dear. I'm not sure I'd know how to tell them to go back to the bathroom and rewipe.
I hoped the tuberose would be a bigger player than it was, but on me the spices dominated. The opening on Nuit Noire has a cardamom-ginger-cinnamon note and I seldom care for ginger in a fragrance - I usually find it somewhat grating, a little too sparky, especially if used wrong (i.e. allowed to assert itself), so it didn't sit well with the deeper notes, sort of over-rode them on my skin. Unfortunately, the dissonance of the spices were a factor until almost the end. The skankier aspects became stronger in the mid note, and like I said earlier it didn't equate to sexy. The spices sitting on top of any sensuality in this fragrance were a dissonant combination because they didn't quite meld, but were instead a vaguely fecal blanket. Everytime I smell that note, the fairy tale 'The Emperor's New Clothes' pops into my head.
The dry down was best, becoming smoother and a little leatherier, but the distinctive tone of this fragrance never really left and I got tired wearing it. It has to work for me, not the other way round. In this genre, Jicky is skanky and sexier on me.

Yes, this is definitely a polarizing fragrance but, given how some perfumers and brands have pushed the boundaries of old-fashioned skanky stuff since Nuit Noire was originally released, this is much less *challenging* than it used to be perceived.

The opening is a white floral (mainly orange blossoms to me) with some sparkling citrusy notes. Very nostalgic in feel and aimed to tribute french feminine chypre classics. It suddenly turns into a kind of sharp and too dangerously soapy middle phase where the animalics show their presence with a slightly fecal musky presence. The juxtaposition between soap and the animalic elements still feels somewhat classic but there's something wrong about it. It's like smelling a beloved fragrance which has turned. It doesn't settle with the skin comfortably. It feels somewhat out of place.

The base is a warm and very old-fashioned ambery-leather with sweetish facets. All in all not the monster they made us believe it was but, in year 2014, nowhere close the charming power of somewhat similarly themed fragrances such as, say, Bogue's MAAI or even Chypre Palatin.

Mona di Orio Nuit Noire is effectively a tribute to the classic chypre standing out there in a glorious left back era of the olfactory french/italian tradition as I detect by soon a leather/floral/chypre classic accord between spicy tuberose, orange, leather and oakmoss. I detect by soon a sort of typically stuffy-vintage (a la Gabriela Sabatini Magnetic or Roccobarocco), sinister, barely mouldy, ripe floral and dirty (slightly incensey and powerfully spicy) atmosphere conjuring me more than vaguely Eclair de Tubereuse by il Profumo as ideally combined with several Histoires de Parfums' leather/tuberoses, Absolu Rochas, Parfum d'Empire Musc Tonkin and with Lutens Muscs Koublai Khan (since I feel a profound dirty and almost camphoraceous muskiness which appears anyway in this case overcharged by tons of cloves, cinnamon, pepper and ylang-ylang). The spiciness is strong a la Cinnabar but it smells not properly harmonized. The aroma in the central stage appears dissonant, almost fecal ( I suppose the effect is aroused by the association between civet, musks and indolic tuberose, a killer combo often eliciting that typical dirty/acid flowerpot water effect). The dry down is smoother, cleaner, more vanillic, softly leathery and still musky, I would say far better than the previous phases for sure. The leather is minimal and finally velvety but for a too much long time submissed by spicy/orangy tuberose, tonka, animalic patterns and musk. The final leather on the contrary is almost delicious, subtle and with and ostensibly berrish undertone. Not bad on the complex but clearly unbalanced (along all the initial and central stage) and frankly unoriginal.

Bold, straightforward, classic opening of tuberose on a vanilla-amber spicy and powdery base. Nostalgic and feminine, a tribute to classic chypres, vaguely gloomy and carnal, but at the same time quite natural and dry. As for some other scents by Orio, however, this all "stands" there for just a while, before collapsing and going wrong – here, luckily, not "that" wrong... just a bit. I won't agree with Luca Turin, as he was clearly too and unnecessarily cruel in reviewing this: it does not smell that bad, just a bit cloying for a while, then sweetish, eventually developing a persistent, unpleasant stale note on the drydown. And overall, terribly dull. Not a disaster, just barely decent and totally unworth the price tag.

5/10

Contrary to popular belief, there is no civit in this perfume. There is a sweetened leather with orange up top. Very creamy and dark. You can definitely get tuberose along with amber here. I find it comforting and luxurious. Too bad Turin only tested on paper strips. This one needs to warm up and meld with the human skin. Glad I bought a back-up.

Unfortunately this reminds me of a specific cleaning product (rather pleasant I must say it was, and likely cheap), only 10 times stronger and with a powdery sweet and dirty twist.
I would probably not like it anyway, even if it did not bring such bland memories to mind.

One powerful scent. And I thought I could tolerate just about anything.... Apparently not. I do like the "sweaty butt-cheeks"-note in Une Fleur de Cassie combined and tempered by its rather astringent notes, but that thing has at least a grain of modesty and balance. This stuff is purely to give me headaches if I even touch it.

Try before you buy, as with most things

I really fell in love with this, and was so disappointed when I heard that it has been discontinued! Reviews are so mixed on this scent, but I like complex and sensual perfumes, so I felt pretty confident that it would benefit from my chemistry, which tends to "sweeten" things. On me it is a rich, multi-faceted oriental that evolves over time. In the first 5 minutes, the animalic component is more noticeable, but it settles into velvety floral and spice and woods, with amber making its way into the mix after a bit. Utterly sensual, sexy but not at all "nasty"...and sadly not available much now. I was shocked by the abysmal rating from Luca Turin, whose taste I generally respect, but then, perfume is such an individual thing. It's definitely on my "5 stars" list.

Oh man, this took months for me to figure out. My first impression was that Nuit Noire is gaudy. But now it has me forming some further thoughts. Nuit Noire is one nasty sexy bad girl perfume, along with D'zing. However, if you want a feminine super classy floral with an assertive leathery seductive base, get Cuir de Russie by Chanel.

My favorite perfume for my wife to wear for an intimate evening together. It's so strong it practically makes my eyes water, and I start salivating like Pavlov's dog (Not literally, but you get the picture). Strong floral and civit up front that dies down slowly, but never really disappears as the woody, ambery base develops. A near opposite in terms of smells, but similar in strength to another favorite, Angel. Both are up front, in your face, and decadent. Both make great role playing perfumes. A definate try first. Thumbs way up!

I recieved a sample of this from the good folks over at the Perfumed Court after reading it was a "skank" perfume at another website. The opening was huge- civet and jasmine. Ohhhhh, nice! Like slightly floral MKK with the civet being more dominate. Into the midnotes, the civet began to shrink and as time went by the florals and amber overtook the civet and it became a little boring. I could still detect the civet every now and then, but the hot skanky vixen with the heavy black eye makeup and black-crimson lipstick had turned into a more refined proper lady trading in her Catholic school girl outfit for a designer evening dress. An evening filled with hot uninhibited sex followed by a quick shower and a formal night out. The drydown was strange, I must say. Like another reviewer all I got a wierd grape smell... like grape kool aid or some kind of hard grape candy. The longevity wasn't great ( the CK Obsession Men was still going like a steam locomotive on my other wrist- I use this as a control so I know it's not my nose getting fatigued ) , but towards the end you really aren't missing anything unless you really like grapes. I still have to give it a thumbs up because of the AMAZING opening and for what the designer was trying to do here.

I had really high hopes for this. Loving civet as I do and other animalic notes in fragrances, I had hoped this would be right up my alley. Wrong. Every time I try it I end up taking the dish soap to it and scrubbing for my life. The opening burst of lemon and citrus is a little much for me. I mean, it's really citrus. Then, what follows is something I intellectually understand to be civet and animalic notes, I don't recognize it as such. It just smells like "stink". I keep thinking rotten food, like I've walked into the back room of a bad Asian restaurant where they keep the garbage to be taken out. So, basically, this perfume to me is a combination of the lemony-citrus and "stink". I agree with LT in the Guide. Maybe he wasn't being snarky and the rest of the line really is that bad. Still, I've only smelled this one, so I'll give the rest a chance.

Animalic to the core -- this is raw, deep, dark, and, well . . . odd. I can easily see fans of Knize Ten, Jicky and Mitsouko being drawn to the beautiful juxtaposition of tuberose and (almost distinctly fecal) civet herein.There's a leathery note here, too, and even somewhat of a rubber "twang" -- both of which should appeal to the Dzing! crowd and the Bulgari Black aficionado. .Addictive? I can see that, yes, at least for some. Still, at app. $200.00 per bottle, I can think of other frags I'd rather follow to the ends of the earth. In either case, it's a definite try-before-you-buy kind of fragrance. And yes, other reviewers have been quite correct in pointing out that this IS (love it or loathe it) a fragrance from another era. (Think Belle Epoque, folks.)This one ultimately snags a positive rating from me, but with reservations. Here we go: a) try before you buy, b) ignore Turin's cruel "civet fart" comment and c) try to get a bottle in a swap, or "for cheap" if possible. ($200.00 is, like it or not, a great deal of money to spend on this Italian oddity.)

Soapy woods and fresh balsamic florals with some animalic nuances. I don`t find the composion particularly animal nor fecal, but surely there is some civet in the mix. Its easy to detect especially during the first hour or two.Because of the fairly prominent floral notes mixed with that civet, this leans quite strongly towards feminine side.Not horrendously bad, but it has a strong feel like it was made "with left hand" by not especially talented perfumer.

Nuit Noire is another Mona di Orio fragrance that I can't grasp the significance of. Like some other fragrances of hers, it comes across as being gaudy and ostentatious, as well as a little clunky. In the top where I should be getting florals and spices, I'm getting a strong fecal note. I suppose it is civet, but to my nose, civet only suggests a fecal ambiance… here it IS fecal. The only note in the published pyramid that I can allegedly blame is leather, and this doesn't seem like leather. There is a tuberose in the background… the tuberose I get is more of a solid, unchanging background note to the animal notes that take center stage. I don't think that the fecal smells are the indoles from the tuberose. Okay, moving on to the middle notes: I get a hint of cinnamon and clove and some incense in the background, but mainly I get leather… an off-leather at that. The base lightens up and smooths out somewhat and is almost pleasant enough (for a second or two) for me to forget about the headache the fragrance has given me.

With Nuit Noire, it felt as if Mona di Orio was trying to do a modern take on a classic type of perfume. Nuit Noire is a powdery floral that has a touch of musk but I couldn't pick out any specific middle notes. Reading the notes listed up above was surprising- I definitely did not get ginger, clove, cinnamon, etc. The base note, however, smelled like just like red grapes. I kind of see where Mona di Orio was trying to go with Nuit Noire but honestly, it is just not a likeable scent.

An unusual fragrance, unlike almost any other perfume on the market. If I could make any reference, it would be to the highly unusual Santa Maria Novella Muschio, which uses sambac (a vegetal musk) and has an unusual bittersweet aroma, like butterscotch and bourbon.Nuit Noire starts out with a brief citrusy,lemony orange, but it quickly develops into something much more unconventional. Cardamom and olibdanum resin appear, followed by amber and a bitter leather note. This fragrance possesses a "fleshy" characteristic all its own, animalic and insistent. The effect is dusty and sweet, like sweaty skin with powder on it. The aroma is deep and mysterious, like spices and ancient wood. Dispite its name and the darkness conveyed by its depth, this fragrance invokes a sweet-smelling haystack drying in the sun. The fermentation of the grass provides the sweetness; it is a balance that can tip too far into decomposition at any moment. This high-quality blend unfolds, allowing the notes to escape individually. It is not flat-smelling like cheaper perfumes. Provokes waves of nostalgia. Smells like the powdered resins that women of the 1900s used as sachets to scent their closets and purses. This is beautiful. It is strong, however. For some, it will be an acquired taste due to that strange, dusty, bitter undercurrent. Highly addictive. Very impressive. I crave it.