Tom Ford Noir
Tom Ford (2012)

My apologies for adding another Tom Ford Noir review: plenty of folks have already covered the bases. But I love this perfume and it is readily available for reasonable prices. If you need this type of fragrance, you really can’t go wrong here.

So what type is it?

I’d call Noir a neo-classic boudoir vanilla floriental pseudo-ch(ic)ypre. It feels timeless and clever at once—balanced, intentional, with a meticulous attention to dynamic range. At the very least, it’s interesting.

A clean bergamot opening (which is so very nice) transitions into a violet–rose–patchouli body. Iris runs through nearly the entire wear as well, lending a soft powder that teases a slight but noticeable formality. The heart lifts the violet, rose, and iris into a subtle makeup-bag accord. It isn’t as waxy as Dior Homme Intense (2011), but not entirely dissimilar from the drier powder of Dior’s Homme line (2005/2011) or Guerlain’s Habit Rouge EDT (1965/1988), where jasmine materials stand in for iris to soap things out. The patchouli here is all smoothness and fur: it defines this perfume for me in the end. Myrrh adds a resinous sweetness that thickens the composition without letting the vanilla push things into gourmand territory. Tom Ford would reuse this base and add a kulfi accord in Noir Extreme (2015) to go fully gourmand. The base brings that benzoin-vanilla element together with an animalic civet accord—this gives just a hint of beastly raunch.

Take note: in the drydown those animalics are unmistakable. Civet, resins, patchouli, powdery florals—there's risqué energy there that keeps Noir from becoming too polite.

Longevity is eight hours or longer. It won’t fill a room, but it will leave a trail. Choose your contexts wisely: though thoroughly modern in materials, Noir will inevitably trigger the insipid “old lady smell” receptors in the more imaginatively bereft philistine lizard brains.

Noir forgoes bombast and spectacle in favor of timeless relevance. It’s simply a prepossessing, elegant perfume that feels less like a modern release than something that has quietly existed for decades.

I’ve read several people likening Noir to Tom Ford’s Guerlain moment, with many recalling Habit Rouge, Eau de Guerlain, perhaps a bit of L’Instant. Noir doesn’t really comfortably and clearly overlap with any of those, but, if I had to pick, it is most like Habit Rouge. It’s a mash-up, at least as far as olfactive notes are concerned, giving spices more voice and sweeter ambers more weight than Guerlain liked to play with. However, it does share one of the most critical and signature aspects of the legendary-set of Guerlain compositions.

Guerlain is immediately called to mind upon application as you are enveloped with a powdery and effervescent bergamot accord that is absolutely lovely. Sparkling and effervescent, calmly vivacious, gentle yet confident, and endlessly breathable and lightweight. These characteristics describe all of the accords across the life of the perfume; the evolution of the accords, as they endlessly play with each other in gentle ways, all the way to the final dry down without ever forcing themselves through is a core signature trait of Guerlain, and Noir pulls off that same evolution very well. The powdery bergamot eventually begins to give way after a good amount of time, but never fully disappears, and this is when Noir noticeably starts individualizing itself from the classics. Noir is a bit on a sweet side, it's amberic notes creating quite a big and noticeable foundation, but it never pushes the traditional boundary of too much sweetness; it's very tasteful and well-stated. The spice accords of pepper and caraway, and the florals of violet and iris and rose, do a delicate dance with each other - gentle push and pull, strength and vulnerability - as the powdery bergamot very slowly starts to slip away. During the final dry down, the upper accords are still present to some degree (again, harking to Guerlain at their best), and lighthearted and tasteful patchouli, balsams, and vanilla become more prominent.

After spending a lot of time with this perfume, and putting my thoughts and observations to paper (so to speak), I cannot say this is an outright homage to Guerlain, Habit Rouge or otherwise. It certainly feels that way since it mimics the evolutionary template near perfectly, and Noir uses a lot of accords that Guerlain love(d) to use, but the way the accords speak create different depths of emotion that Guerlain didn’t explore. For example, Habit Rouge is emotionally available but austere, whereas Noir is full of emotion worn on its sleeve. There is a tender longing, a heart-wide-open vulnerability, to Noir that isn't present in Habit Rouge. Noir feels like a big hug to a loved one with misty eyes, either of longing or goodbye. What's more is that this is not the typical side of Tom Ford that we see, which is normally brash, a bit lascivious and trashy, over the top, decadent to the point of almost being gaudy, etc. Noir is plenty good to stand on its own without needing that context, but, when placed in that context, it says that Tom Ford's breadth and depth of creativity, and the ability to coax masterful technical execution of the vision from the perfumer, can place the brand amongst the best of the best in the designer world... when they try. I wish they tried more often. I wish we got more things like this from the brand. I absolutely love this perfume.

Tom Ford Noir
Fresh, citrus, spice
Ideal for year round wear imo
It definitely has a new feel to an old spin vibe.
I'm not sure if this marketed as unisex or not but definitely can see a certain type of woman owning this scent.
Dry down is a powdery spice.
The early bergamot juice fades fast and is really nice. What scent lingers is still lovely.
This is not a blind buy. Get a sample. Test this out. Quality of ingredients and smell achieves a 3.5/5 from me which pushes past a neutral review.

The year was 2012. Tom Ford grabbed a bottle of Habit Rouge off of his shelf and wondered how it would be received as a tentpole release in a post-Dior Homme market. Noir Eau de Parfum was born.

That's a slight exaggeration, but Noir EDP is essentially a Gothic Habit Rouge with Shalimar's alluring sensuality mingled in. There's considerably less baby powder, and the rose is creamier and more abstract, and, in keeping with the Tom Ford aesthetic, there's an emphasis on dark resins and dirty patchouli (which, along with geranium and vetiver, dominate the drydown).

Considered as a modern Habit Rouge flanker, it's a much worthier remix than Guerlain's own Dress Code. Indeed, as someone who finds Habit Rouge somewhat fusty and embalmed, I much prefer this more seductive and sleek interpretation of Habit Rouge's themes. All of Noir's substitutions and additions are thoughtfully integrated into a complete and full-bodied experience that still feels essentially rooted in the dense, stereotypically French approach to perfumery that the house of Guerlain excelled at until LVMH pushed it to begin keeping up with modern sensibilities and market demands.

All in all, this might be Tom Ford's best-ever retro-remake from his own line, and has personally become my favorite release from the entire past-and-present lineup.

If vanilla ruins things for you, then I expect vanilla will ruin this for you. I don't understand the marketing logic of calling something "Noir" if it has any appreciable vanilla drydown, which definitely does, as well as possessing a powdery/soapy drydown which for me has come to seem characteristic of many Tom Ford fragrances.

The opening of this is addicting and beautiful. It does conjure to mind Habit Rouge with its rose/vanilla, but the star in the opening is the patchouli/iris. Gorgeous. And I don't use those flamboyant terms loosely. But as this patchouli dries out and fades the beauty fades as well. Two hours in what you are left becomes more and more powdery and feminine. It does feel like an EDP, with the enhanced thickness, close projection and decent longevity. I get a respectable 6 hours here. My problem is not with the presence, but the nature of drydown. Just not quite to my tastes. Every time I put on that opening though I forget about all of that and just revel in the smell. Its rich and sensual. It is not super cost prohibitive, and if I find a great deal someday I may pick up a bottle. Thumbs up here. A pretty good fragrance.