Guerlain Black Perfecto by La Petite Robe Noire

Guerlain Black Perfecto by La Petite Robe Noire went right by me, and I missed it?  2017? Oh, yeah, I was moving then, I remember.

I was never a huge fan of any of the LPRNs except the first one, and I was thinking it was a LE (was it?), and by the time they put out the next version, it was way less interesting, and I sorta forgot about it because you can’t mourn dead and discontinued perfumes, except the Gobin Daudes.

Leather, licorice, almond, smooshy rose accord. This is Thierry Wasser’s creation.  Robin at Now Smell This quoted Monsieur Guerlain’s take on Guerlain Black Perfecto by La Petite Robe Noire, which is lucky because his website is down for maintenance.

“Guerlain fans, rejoice! This smells like a resurrection of Delphine Jelk’s greatly missed original version of La Petite Robe Noire from 2009, which was evidently more charismatic than the reworked 2012 version that followed: a gorgeously rich “Musquinade” blend of raspberry, amarena cherries, bitter almond, Bulgarian rose absolute, licorice, and burnt sugar, well worthy of the Guerlain name. Back then, Guerlain’s now former artistic director, Sylvaine Delacourte, explained that La Petite Robe Noire was inspired by the flavour and chewy texture of a raspberry macaron, and Black Perfecto makes us remember why….”

That should get your heart racing.  I vaguely remember the original, and this is better, thicker, darker.  This is only a slightly snotty sideways reference to the huge disapointment of all the “Noir” version of perfumes from big PerfumeBrands that are about as dark as High Noon at Legoland.

Spraying Guerlain Black Perfecto by La Petite Robe Noire on is an adventure – it is all dark licorice and roses and dark, dark sugar, some black cherries. It is that lovely dessert you get that isn’t that sweet, but makes your taste buds just crave more.  And you mostly do because in an hour or so, all that stuff you really loved is harder to find and you just need another hit. But I solved it, I just spray more on!  It’s a little like Tom Ford Lost Cherry – not that they are alike in smell – the opening is amazing and that drydown early on is just a softer, smoothening (is that a word? it is now) of the opening, and it starts to move more towards the LPRN with some very soft leather peeping out.   It’s not a wet, drenched sweetness, it is dry, like a nut dust or something.

The rose I don’t really notice or mentally go, “oh, there’s some rose.” It’s there, but in this silky jammy way that is just holding all the other stuff in its little jellied petals.

What is really lovely about Guerlain Black Perfecto by La Petite Robe Noire, for all of those scary sounding notes, this thing isn’t going to annoy your neighbor, which is good, because if it projected, you might be able to clear a room or house of people who hated this fragrance. And I am certain some people already hate or will hate this fragrance as much as I love it. That is the most miraculous thing of all – it is one that was not meant to just behave well – though it behaves reasonably well considering all that licorice cherry surgared leather – it speaks with a clear fragrant voice.  Love me?  Hate me?  Meh, doesn’t matter.

I, of course, love it.   I keep thinking I’ve stumbled into my Old Lady Taste Period where I like/love gourmands, think Love Don’t Be Shy is a masterpiece, and Hypnotic Poison should be installed on every dresser.

Samples for sure!  I’ll give way three samples of Guerlain Black Perfecto by La Petite Robe Noire to randomly drawn commenters.

Winners of last week’s drawing of Kilian Love Don’t be Shy samples (or something else we can figure out if you really are hating on that one)  – Elderwen22 and Jo Ann!  Click on the Drop Us a Note at the top, send me your mailing address and a reminder of what you won, and I’ll get it off to you!

Reminder – Posse Zoom on 9/20&21 (depending on time zone – see below).  We still have some spots, but it is getting full!

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• 1am London Monday 21st September
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• 10am Sydney Monday 21st September

You’ll see in the top Tiffany & Co blue line a box that says Drop Us A Note. Hit that. It will take you to a simple message system.