Olivier Durbano Black Tourmaline
I had originally tested out Olivier Durbano's Black Tourmaline (one of three Jewel perfumes -- the other two are Rock Crystal and Amethyst) about six months back and had always intended to review it, but somehow never get around to it. Then it popped up in the comments a few weeks ago and I remembered how much I liked it: a dark, charred, incense fragrance that is significant for its lack of vanilla to sweeten the pot.
The scent notes are dominant -- a tough patchouli, a pungent oak moss, a musky cumin, an ashy frankincense -- and Black Tourmaline makes Durbano's Rock Crystal seem like a choirboy in comparison.
About an hour after spraying some on, I had to take the elevator downstairs to drop off some packages. Another guy got on the elevator shortly after I did, and as we were riding it down to the lobby level, I could sense that Black Tourmaline was starting to fill up the enclosed space. Usually, I have a problem with that, even when it's me that's doing the enclosed-space filling, but this time I didn't mind -- the fragrance is cool and smoky rather than cloying or suffocating; in fact, it was so striking and unusual to smell this charred, burned wood scent in an elevator that I almost started laughing.
Black Tourmaline is like an anti-perfume -- it's surprising and exceptionally well-crafted (Olivier Durbano is a notable jeweler first and foremost) and doesn't follow in any of the usual designer-perfume footsteps, and I like it all the better for its defiant singularity.
Below are some photos I took of the bottle after it arrived yesterday. The liquid is actually a shade of grey smoke, but when I placed the bottle by a window where light could stream through it, the juice took on a jewel-toned hue.
***Note: the three small spheres in the bottom of the bottle are tiny globes of actual black tourmaline stone.
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I love this stuff. It's like smoke-dried limes and cedar ash and really great gin - the first time I sniffed it, my hind brain sat up and said "yeahbaby". I'm a fan, is what I'm sayin'.
Every time I wear it anywhere people lose their minds - what is that, I want to smell like you, that's fantastic. You smell good, said in this voice of reverie.
One of my friends made her husband smell me.
I've had the same unapologetic feeling: if I had on enough say, Shalimar, to fill a space like this does, I would feel distinctly that I had over-applied rather than a tiny bit gleeful.
Thanks for the review....
And it was YOU that reminded me of it, wasn't it? Thank you for that. The reminder prodded me to actually purchase the bottle I had always told myself I someday would.
"I've had the same unapologetic feeling: if I had on enough say, Shalimar, to fill a space like this does, I would feel distinctly that I had over-applied rather than a tiny bit gleeful."
I fully agree. If I had been radiating, say, Tann Rokka Aki, I would have felt bad for the other guy in the elevator (despite how much I love Aki), but since it was Black Tourmaline, I didn't worry so much about it.
There is something decidedly dreamy (reverie inducing) about Black Tourmaline, even though I wouldn't describe it as ethereal or floaty. It doesn't smell anything like what I would ordinarily think of as perfume, while still smelling strikingly attractive.
Oh yeah baby... love that Black Tourmaline! It's da bomb. Can't wait to see what Jade smells like, although I am pretty sure BT will be hard to outdo.
I remember you telling me about Black Tourmaline quite some time back, and I'm glad that I finally got off my duff and purchased a bottle. It only took several months and another prod from Juno, but here I am . . .
Is Jade a new Durbano fragrance in the works? My curiosity is piqued. Though I do agree, Black Tourmaline is going to be a very hard act to follow.
Yes, Jade will be this fall's release from Olivier Durbano... should be here pretty soon (will ask Franco for eta)...