Potion Royal Black by DSQUARED²

Juancar, if it’s a bad copy of VC&A Pour Homme, it wouldn’t be cheap, since the Dsquared2 version costs double. A 100ml bottle of Pour Homme from VC&A goes for about €25 (26-27$), so technically it can’t have high quality. That’s one thing; whether it’s a great perfume is another, and I don’t doubt it (I don’t know it myself). By the way, the distinctive note of Royal Black is incense, which Pour Homme lacks. Everyone says Pour Homme was reformulated a while ago. I can’t judge its scent or quality, but maybe I’ll buy it soon for the price and reviews. If it smells better and has more quality as Juancar says, then with €25 for 100ml, Van Cleef’s Pour Homme would have to be one of the best on the market. To wrap up my review of Royal Black: it stands out from current ‘designer’ perfumery thanks to that dark incense note, which blends with leather. It’s not a shy, plasticized leather like in CH Men (which sweetens it to avoid scaring the younger crowd), but a rough, coarse leather. That aspect is what I found most interesting.

Well, it’s a very ‘interesting’ fragrance. The rose note is very prominent at first, but it’s a dark, spicy rose, with lots of incense and leather. It’s a muuuuy rough, pure oriental scent with ‘decent’ quality. For current ‘designer’ perfumes, I’d say it’s exceptional, but you have to like strong, rough, somewhat gothic scents. In the style of Amouage (saving for the quality differences, which do exist). It’s not personally my taste. Simply, the aroma doesn’t quite please me, but that’s a matter of preference. I don’t like Amouage Epic or Memoir, for example, nor Tuscan Leather by Tom Ford, to give another example. Good longevity, over 6 hours, and a rather low sillage (which isn’t a bad thing). Only for the brave, or if you like the smell of Napalm in the morning, well, soft Napalm or ‘designer’ level… 🙂

A fragrance with very good reviews that somehow hasn’t made it to Spain.