Mona di Orio Nuit Noire – part skank and part lady.
Who does it remind me of? A perky little cheerleader dressed in cashmere twinsets who keeps flipping up her skirt at the boys to get them to go behind the bleachers with her when she thinks the teachers and her parents aren’t paying attention, that’s Mona di Orio’s Nuit Noire. I knew that girl, and just about the time I thought I nailed it down that she was a slut and stealing boyfriends, she’d smooth her skirt down, smile pretty and take homemade chocolate chip cookies to the Long Term Care Unit before morning mass. Yeah, that’s right, that girl. As much as I wanted to dislike her, I just couldn’t — could only admire her panache in carrying off that duality. Nuit Noire doesn’t change as she sits on the skin, but she just has two faces — just when I think she’s a fairly innocent thing, she just gets nasssssty. Notes of orange flower, cardamom, ginger, orange guinee, olibian, cinnamon, tuberose, sandalwood, clove, cedarwood, amber, leather, musk and tonka bean… and the smut note is a bonus. Mona di Orio Nuit Noire has been discontinued and is no longer available.
Best Perfume for – Always a lady, soft and kind, reminds you of Miss Melanie from Gone With the Wind, but if you poke her a little, she turns around with her glowing red eyes, fangs bared and hisses at you… that’s JAR Jarling. Elegant, beautiful, slightly evil — I forgot just how much. This thing is so gorgeous, it needs its own planet to live on so the other fragrances don’t bother it. Now, I realize not everyone feels that way, but it’s probably the most comforting almond smell I’ve run across, but there is that slightly malevolent undercurrent that I find in most of the JARs, and I don’t mean that as a bad thing, that gives it more, um, spark! It doesn’t change as much as the other JARs do in the drydown. The reviews I ran across on MUA and POL called it all sorts of bad names, like baby lotion drydown and soap but most of the JARs react strongly to the person, so I think what I love, and so does Luca (throwing out his name so y’all don’t think I’m just completely balmy in my love for this), may turn into something disgustingly powdery on someone else. Now, powder is Kryptonite to me, so I’m totally not getting the powder — I get a lot more almond and something spicy, a little licoricey and then there’s some floral later on, some people have said Lilac, and that sounds about right, it does have a little bit of an En Passanty feel to it. Available from Bergdorf Goodman for an astronomical sum plus a dollar.
What is superfun is having these two on at the same time – Mona di Orio Nuit Noire and JAR Jarling. I don’t know whether to polish my halo or chug some Green Jesus Juice* and ditch my panties and dignity.
A very special giveaway this week — It’s Christmas! Whether you celebrate or not, please feel free to enter this drawing. There will be two winners, and you will get a sample pack of some very special things, very hard to get, plus you can pick one additional sample from my collection that you would like.
*Green Jesus Juice is a plastic trash can of full Lime Kool-Aid and Everclear. Don’t ask, I don’t remember.
If I’m not too late, please add me to the drawing.
Happy holidays, all!
I am a newbie to this blog–and to this esoteric world of fabulous fragrance.
You guys inspired a poem using the phrase “carnal flower”–now I need to find and sniff…
Please, please enter me in the drawing…
Hey, where’d my comment go? I wanted to be in the drawing, too. :((
I hope I’m not late to the party: please count me in!
Draw me a picture, draw me a beeline to win! One of these days I have to try JAR — only problem, I don’t think they’re sold at all in Miami, just NYC, right? Maybe Paris? Bah, humbug!
Patty,
Everclear! Just brought me back to high school/college days, which BTW is why we used the everclear–designed not to remember. LOL
Please enter me in the drawing!
Frankly, last weekend I was wearing a twinset, drank a lot of ouzo, and the rest…well, I don’t know you well enough to tell!
Is it too late to be entered in the draw?
cookies to the longterm care unit BEFORE mass. What a girl. Please enter me in the drawing! xoxo
Eeeek!!! Buddy has his work cut out for him this week. 🙂
Thanks to you all, and I’ve gotten you put in the drawing!
So exciting!
Wow, it’s 4:30 am, the gingersnaps were callin’ after a resless night and I am behind in commentville! Powder=evil yuck, yes. Green Juice I seem to recall on moonlit evenings in Boulder on the roof of my dorm….
Please sigh me up! I love putting different things on each arm and seeing how they get along (or not…)
yikes, what a flashback. everclear n’ koolaid. i recall purple/black. and i can never go within 100 feet of Peach Schnapps again. Then there was Bartles n’ Jaymes wine coolers. And Kaluha dumped nto Arby’s Milkshakes. Ah, high school. please enter me in the drawing…thanks! also, on this ‘hung-over’ note, I wonder if you could do a post sometime on WAKE UP!!!! scents. Things you can put on in the morning to clear your brain. The only one I have in this category is L’Occitane Verbena – it’s like a green slap in the nostrils…
Happy (almost) Holidays to All,
Please enter me into the drawing as well.
Hi Patty!
Please include me in your draw – ESPECIALLY if the adorable Buddy chooses. Give Buddy a smooch on the forehead for me regardless. (Do you make him wear antlers for Christmas?)
I laughed at your description of the “Cocktail” specialty of your youth. Ours were made up of the dregs of whatever we could find in the parents’ liquor cabinet. Bleccch :-&
Can’t seem to summon the nerve to experience the experience of the JARs. At least, not yet. Malevelolent . . . AND comforting? Hmmmm.
Please include me in your drawing! Thanks!
Hi Patty,
LOL at this post. Hadn’t thought about spolioli in years and years. I think it’s mentioned in an old Doo-Wop song, but can’t remember which one. Lost some brain cells on that.
Please enter me in the drawing. Thank you.
so now i have to go back and find my nuit noire sample and sniff it again, cuz i don’t remember it getting naaaassty in any way on my skin. would’ve liked that very much. maybe it will cooperate this time.
please enter me in your drawing, too! thank you!
Dear Patty ,
Holiday scented greetings from Vegas ! Yes I’m in sin city. I would love to be entered into your generous and thoughtful drawing ! I thougt I knew perfume etc.. but when I read all the posts from all corners (nearly) of the world — it’s great and overwhelming ! so many scents to try ! I will check out Jars at Bergdorf’s when I return to NY this W-E. tried the Golconda -(Marie-Helene de Rothschild’s favorite )Very heavy on the carnation – elegant and sophiticated . Hello to all !
Madelyn E
Hi Patty,
Green Jesus Juice & Hunch Punch usually equal amnesia for me too, whether that’s the everclear or just my desire not to remember what insane thing I did while flying high is up for debate 😉
Please enter me in the drawing!
Skye
Patty,
Just getting back to your response after a loooong day. I’m disappointed in the whole Profumum line. I hate to say it but they strike me as kind of … tacky, maybe? The best of my new trove of samples from Lucky Scent were all from Parfumerie Generale. Especially Aomassai. And the Musc Maori, like buttah…:)
Dusan’s comments had me lmao! Such memories of college.
Patty, I’ve never tried to make an edp w/ one of my Yosh scents. Since I’m a low sillage sl*t, they work for me as oils. I bet you could, though.
And I’m going to have to spend some time thinking about what girl Diamond Waters would be.
Hi Patty – please enter me in the drawing. Still have yet to sniff a JAR, silly me.
Please enter me in the drawing. Thanks!
I loved the reviews of Nuit Noire and Jarling.
Please have a chug of Green Jesus Juice and enter me in the drawing!
Thanks!
Oh yes, do sign me up, please!
And can you fill up this to-go cup with some of that there Jesus Juice. Thanks.
HA HA! I see that another Karen has entered the drawing. Well, if there’s any confusion, I’m the Karen who used to wear Army combat boots and run around the woods near Lampertheim, Germany, playing war games!! Please enter me in the drawing. And I have tried Jagermeister! There was one soft drink in Germany called “Lift” that was horrid, but actually grew on you. It tasted like really strong lemonade with a healthy dose of baking soda added to it. At the end of my tour of duty, I actually liked it.
I, too, love Miss Melanie. She was a true lady. Scarlett always “planned to be a lady” but always put it off because it was too inconvenient. She idolized her mother who was a lady. She always wanted to be like her mom.
Catholic girls as sluts? Oh dear. But I was really surprised by my husband’s story how several couples at Heelan Catholic High School in Sioux City, Iowa rented (individual) hotel rooms after the Senior Prom. I had to put in about “individual” (each couple had their own room) because I didn’t want any dear readers to blow a gasket, and think “orgy” or “group sex”.
Mine was ouzo, straight from the bottle, brought back from Greece by a friend.
Still feel a bit iffy about licorice 28 years later.
Please enter me in the draw, I’ve been a real good girl, pretty close to a bloody saint actually, in a Betty Boop meets Joan of Arc kind of a way. I deserve all the goodies I can get my hands on!
Oh, a pack of christmas goodies !! Please include me in the drawing? Would love to sample stuff from your stash!
Thanks so much!
Please enter me in the drawing (I’m in London — does that matter?).
Nuit Noire is pure ivory soap on me but I love your description of the girl who is true to herself.
Except for the powder, the red-eyed Jarling sounds very intriguing. Please enter me in the drawing, tia.
LOL at the slut in twinsets… heck, most of the girls at the catholic high school i went to were just like that…
please sign me up for the special xmas drawing! thanks and hugs!
Josey and Mmarie — Nuit Noire is normally not something I would love, but it really is a lovely dirty little thing.
Tom — who Else? Luscious Cargo. I had the name in when I first posted cuz I was madder’n hell when I went to bed last night, but pulled it this morning because it seemed too self-indulgent.
I’m just irritated that she actually agreed to do the right thing, and then just won’t do it, and now won’t respond to phone calls or e-mails at all. It’s taken too much time to deal with, and every day I have to get up and think about it, I get mad all over again because now I have to call my credit card company and start a chargeback and call L’Artisan just because I’m reallly irritated at what she’s doing.
and … and…and I could go on it’s a long story, e-mail me if you want details or have your own bad story.
MC — put you in the drawing.
Dusan! :d
I tried Jarling at Bergdorf’s at the Sniffa, and I was instantly smitten by its soft, powdery effect. However, the drydown turned completely vile, and for the life of me would not come off. Diamong Waters and Golconda still top the list for me.
Karen and Gaia, I put you in the drawing.
Gaia, I still haven’t come up with a girl for Diamond Water yet. 🙂
ABsolutely, Justine. I’m still so glad you went and had a great experiences. I’m shocked about Close Your Eyes being the one! 🙂
Will do, Tigs.
Blue lagoon and chocolate cake…. oh,lord!
Oh, Kuri, you must go! They really are nice at the JAR in Bergdorf Goodman and so welcoming, and even if they weren’t, I would brave any snootiness just to sniff.
Maria, the only two almondy scents that I’m fond of are RAhat and Castelbajac and Jarling, and that’s pretty much it!
S — JAR is for Joel Arthur Rosenthal. He’s a very ritzy jeweler that created these fragrances
Rachael, I put you in the draw, and Merry Christmas to you!!
Jamie, Eliza and Terri, I put you all in the draw, thanks!!!
Julia, bad customer service is horrible, yes, especially when they agree to do the right thing and then just simply fail to follow through. I’m still just so torched about it! 🙂
I’ll put you in the draw!
Ooo please enter me! :d
Normally I wouldn’t have given Nuit Noire a second thought, but your analogy is irresistable! 😕
Will do, Jill! All the JARs must be sniffed!
I love this post.
That is all!
Hugs!
Marina, if it hadn’t been for Melanie keeping Ashley away from Scarlett, I would have hated her more! 🙂
Erin – LOL at the antithesis to a perfume blog! My buddies, on the other hand, were off their heads most of the time so I doubt they even remember what I did for them. I certainly won’t!
Anna — grape? Wow, you guys were so bold! Loss of memory is a blessing for teenagers. 🙂
Put you in the drawing!
Off to stalk Nuit Noir…
please enter me in the drawing as well. Thanks!