Black by Bvlgari

A very wearable leather and one of the good discontinued ones from Bvlgari.

Black was my first perfume I bought with my own money in 1998 when Bvlgari launched it. I was looking to change my ‘signature’ (previously using Hugo Boss and Le Male), and I suspect it was the packaging—that disc-shaped bottle with the black rubber tire cap—that hooked me. I wore it during my last year of high school and took it to college. Four decades later, I looked for it again and it had become a legend. I loved it: warm, comforting, super sexy, and unique. No other guy smelled the same, and that was key to standing out. Luca Turin gave it mythical status in 2008. A few weeks ago, I spotted a 75ml tester with the original rotating cap (ON/OFF), the unmistakable sign of the Annick Ménardo formula from 1999. It was a unicorn: perfect, reasonable price, and a charming seller. I’m still in the clouds. The scent is spectacular, like reuniting with an old love, deep and matured by time. It’s special, unique, and delicious.

Reading reviews about this gem, one can almost know, like a psychic, who has had the fortune of meeting it… Don’t be fooled; there are those who enjoy trying to convince others they’ve met it, even though it’s no longer among us.

I met this wonder thanks to a childhood friend who wore it as his signature in 2003; it was love at first sight and sparked my interest in Bvlgari. It’s the perfume with the most bottles I’ve owned: smoky vanilla, soft floral leather, an exquisite experience. I applied it heavily to go out because its Achilles’ heel was performance, until I realized its life was ending. When I wanted to buy it again, I found the sad news that it had been discontinued. It brings many memories, university nostalgia, and youth; its scent is something I’ll carry for the rest of my days.

In perfumery as in life, there are questionable decisions that cry out to the heavens. I’d rather they reformulate favorite perfumes than rip them off the shelves due to an incoherent and sad decision. The wheel, the tire, the rim: few bottles say so much about the scent. A sweet vanilla and rubbery aroma, almost smoky, with a fleeting bitter and floral accord. The tea note breaks the delicious sweet rubber. In 1998, Annick Ménardo conceived this undervalued and missed unisex gem. Perfumes like Midnight in Paris, Luna Rossa Black, or RM nº5 follow its aromatic trail, but in essence, the sensual DNA of Black is there. Its problem was that longevity was inversely proportional to its quality: a decent 5 or 6 hours at a competitive price, lamentable these days. An extinct perfume like a dinosaur; sometimes a spark appears, but don’t pay attention to internet rumors. I just wanted to capture the memory this spring morning brings to me: traffic jam, tires, plants, and heat, a fantastic evocation of those in-between days when you fought over the round bottle to enjoy this Black.

Bvlgari Black is that bold, rebellious, and free perfume that hates labels. It was born when everyone else was clean and conventional, and this is the exact opposite. It’s not for him or her; it has its own melody. It’s sexy, rebellious, with hair blowing in the wind, dreamy leather, and organic vanilla without sweetness, featuring smoky and green notes that seem stuck to a jacket after a motorcycle ride. It’s unique, and it’s such a shame they discontinued it because it makes me feel this way when I wear it. Good longevity on skin and moderate sillage.

In my opinion, the masterpiece by Annick Menardo. Although vanilla and tea aren’t usually my thing, I absolutely loved it. Its rubbery vanilla is peculiar: it opens with a strong smell of burnt rubber that then softens into black tea with vanilla essence. Watch out: it’s not sweet or pasty; it smells like a vanilla pod. It has an animal touch, I assume it’s the leather, but it smells more like suede than cured skin. Projection is soft but lasts quite a while. I see it as unisex for mid-season, day or night. Ideal for those seeking perfumes outside the conventional and extremely rare. Pleasantness: 8/10, Interesting: 9/10, Versatility: 8/10, Originality: 9/10

I’m liking this perfume more and more each time. Almond, vanilla, leather, and rose notes are all beautifully blended. Perfect for the office or late spring outings and cold nights, though I’ve worn it on cloudy summer days and it works perfectly too. It has moderate projection, noticeable within a meter, though you might not catch it as much. After 6 hours, it still smells amazing, especially since I applied it generously.

BVLGARI BLACK: I had reviewed this before but deleted my opinion because after using it repeatedly, my perspective has changed drastically. Created over 20 years ago, it was one of the first to dare to combine vanilla (typically feminine) and leather (typically masculine); it’s unusual and possesses a sublime, strange beauty that reveals its magic, finesse, and stunning elegance. If I were to describe it: ‘aromatic with animal leather, a touch of tar, and something almondy.’ Like an Impressionist painting that requires close appreciation to see beyond the first impression. It’s a different, unique, delightful, and beautiful perfume. Its name ‘Black’ isn’t a clue because I don’t find it that dark, but as an aroma, it’s interesting and captivating. It has a warm, sexy sensation, with black tea, smoky elements, and a hint of almond. The more I know it, the more I enjoy it to the point of not wanting to stop. It’s excellent, evoking the feeling of watching a movie for the first time and discovering new details upon repetition. A masterpiece, one of the few that achieves this. Hard to find, a must-have if you collect. Scent: 11, Projection: regular 2h, Longevity: max 7h. Recommended.

Like with Encre Noire, this Bvlgari Black is interesting for fragrance nerds but difficult for daily wear. It’s true that people say it smells like burnt rubber or plastic, and honestly, I can’t see myself smelling like that. It doesn’t seem like an easy-to-wear fragrance.

Definitely a beast mode perfume! Top pick for cold nights and a masculine style. The best part is that it’s not overused, so it gives originality. Highly recommended for those over 25. Smells exquisite and has good quality. It’s one of Bvlgari’s best, along with Aqua Amara and Man in Black.

I had reservations because of what others comment, that smelling something from your past confronts you with both the good and the bad. But I tried it out of curiosity. Iradia, it smells like the beginning of the millennium. I smelled it back in its day among Gucci Rush, Le Male, and MDMA, and I didn’t know it was this Bvlgari Black. The experience was positive: it’s simple and ingenious. It smells discontinued, like a grail for collectors. It’s modern, youthful (for those in their late twenties) but of the youth of that time. Curiously, it’s still in production. My bottle is from 2002, a real gem. Although it’s unisex, I don’t see it as very feminine. The opening is spiced leather with hints of rubber and burnt tire, but it doesn’t shock me; it’s pretty. Gradually, a dry, sweet but not cloying vanilla appears, along with a warm oakmoss. It’s magnificent, original, very ‘auteur’. The best I’ve tried from Bulgari. Could be a masterpiece. Performance is subtle, longevity acceptable. Not for daily wear, but for special occasions. A trip to the past, the best of it, essential.

Bvlgari Black, how much time have I spent finding you on the street without knowing you were there? I’ve been years looking for a fragrance that would hit me in casual bursts and make me smell like a wet dog. I never found her. I caught her scent years ago in gay clubs, El Corte Inglés hallways, or on terraces. I kept losing sight of her until I forgot about her, but my mind would return to that mysterious aroma that obsessed me. Synthetic, long out of fashion, and decadent today. I knew it was a late-90s masculine perfume by its androgynous tone. It had echoes of Le Male, but it wasn’t him. It could belong to the Rochas Man family with its cybernetic and erotic air. I tried 212 Sexy by Carolina Herrera and thought I’d found her, but I knew I was looking for something dirtier, more caked, more sickly. Thanks to a sample from Josesan, I discovered it: I almost jumped out of my skin. I find nothing unisex or feminine; it’s very masculine, with an androgynous, perverse, and sexually obscene finish. It makes you think of things you don’t want to do and regret later. I’m sure it has influenced many perfumes over the last twenty years and has hundreds of clones. I’ve caught it non-stop for years. It doesn’t smell like gasoline or fuel to me. I sense an artificial vanilla, more like Danette custard with a latex and preservative powder aftertaste, hints of graphite eraser and vinyl, flashes of sexy sweetness thanks to sandalwood to die in a bed of sour musk. I don’t catch the leather, nor the tea; it would be a dark, dense brew. I understand it might remind one of a new car, with a tone of brand-new objects. I love it, it makes me dumb, and I thought about buying a bottle, which is very pretty. But there’s also something that reminds me of what could have been and wasn’t, a youth from twenty years ago that seemed to eat the world and today barely makes ends meet. I suppose defining the launch year so well works against it, because it confronts you with yourself in the mirror and makes you think of things that aren’t pretty. Bvlgari Black has hit me hard; it made me happy but also gave me a nasty, sad twist thinking about how fast time passes. At risk of sounding like a jerk, I think what was born modern and groundbreaking has turned into something similar to those heavies who, twenty years later, still wander the same clubs, disheveled, listening to the same 1999 house music, and telling the same stories. And no matter how much I love Black, every time I try it, I can’t shake that idea from my head.

I should clarify the olfactory family of BVLGARI BLACK. The sheet says Oriental Woody, but my sensation is that it’s Oriental Spiced. It has been curious to me that most reviews on Fragrantica and other websites focus on the smell of gasoline or burnt rubber, as suggested by the bottle imitating a rubber wheel. After testing it for three consecutive afternoons, I haven’t detected even a hint of gasoline or rubber. Maybe it has it, but my nose doesn’t notice it. On the contrary, I perceive an unmistakably spiced note, a blend of saffron and pepper, enormously attractive, that reminds me of some Amouage oriental. I don’t understand how my impression has nothing to do with the general opinion, the bottle, cars, or fuels. Not even the name seems appropriate to me. If it were about colors, I would call it CRIMSON RED by BVLGARI, because the spilled spices are of the intense and bright red genus, proper of saffron. If it were about the bottle, I would use a resolute oriental container, like a red and gold oil cruet: crimson red glass with leather repoussé and gold metal. Of all BVLGARI perfumes, this is the most decidedly oriental. Following my perception, I also detect not the slightest hint of tea. I’ve read references to green tea or Lapsang Souchong, Chinese smoked tea with a smell of ash and cedar fires. Could that aroma be what I detect as saffron and pepper? This variety of tea is also used in Chinese cooking to give a smoked flavor without smoking. In any case, the smell of BVLGARI BLACK for me is delicious; I’m a lover of oriental perfumes. The spiced accord blends with rose, sandalwood, jasmine, and vanilla, composing an exquisite effluvium, worthy of the best perfumes of the Silk Road. Again, the fleeting passage of a woman wrapped in red and black silks and muslins, mysterious in her walk, unforgettable in the scent that permeates the air after her evasive steps, brings me back to the Alhambra’s sighing alley of that Qurtuba that always haunts a corner of my memory.

It’s strange, dark, gloomy, and bold. The fact that the bottle is like a wheel is a whole declaration of intent because it smells like a new car tire mixed with vanilla and a slight sweet touch. I don’t think it’s for everyone, but whoever wears it will surely not go unnoticed. I like it.