Vanilla Noir (2024 version)
Cologne, Bath & Body Works (2024)

Is it super unique? Not really, but it's a good overall fall fragrance, and extremely well-priced for what you get out of it. If you wore this out, I hardly think a soul would assume it's B&BW...unless it's someone who is actually aware that B&BW is capable of better than they're often credited for (like myself, I'll go to bat for B&BW any day of week). It smells lovely, and is not at all junky or tacky.

And yes, I'm *that* woman who will go on stealing sprays of this 🙃 It's moreso on the masculine side, but still flexible enough that I'm comfortable in it too.

Golden vanilla
Silver-rusted to blackware
Smoking in the road

Beyond the walls of
San Akigala Pueblo
We bought broken pots

She thought us crazy
I failed to mention my [mom's|wife's]
Kintsugi art scam

Turning body sprays
Into mystery niche frags
Through old moonshine coils

Our pyrite glitter
Suspended in urethane
Worked just like turquoise

A Navajo trick
I picked up along the way
Works on perfume, too

Just add some sparkles
Art may all be a lie, but
Craft is craftier

The vanilla fades
The addiction yearns for more
Just one more spray, lads

You can't run away
From beauty you can't unsee
Twenty-one kivas.

***

Vanilla Noir (2024) is a surprisingly enjoyable offering by the B&BW Men's Shop.  I'm a big fan of the long-running best-seller Noir, as well as the discontinued men's fragrance Dark Amber, and the seasonal men's fragrance Classic Flannel.  Somewhere between those three great B&BW fragrances, and several popular niche vanilla scents, lies Vanilla Noir.

The glossy, shiny, "golden" vanilla accord provides a solid and addictive opening, which lasts reasonably long on my skin, but it begs to be replenished.  However, as it fades, a complex, spicy patchouli accord takes its place, and keeps things interesting.

The vanilla is dark but not too ambery.  The gray and black color cues on the can label are perfect, along with the gold lettering.  There is a nice, ringing, chypre note, which adds a lot of class.  Overall, it's neither "too good" nor "too perfumey" for a body spray, but it makes itself noticed.

My wife likes the fragrance, and thinks it's better than most.  Vanilla Noir definitely escapes her most deadly characterization - that of being "ordinary".

***

Vanilla Bromance
Begs the girls to love him back
By never begging.