Back to Black

Signed by Calice Becker and released in 2009, Back to Black is the eighth perfume in Kilian’s L’Œuvre Noire, an aphrodisiac woody in which a languid honey lifted by sweet spices blends with cedar, smoky incense and vanilla to recreate, according to Kilian Hennessy, the narcotic appeal of tobacco, without real tobacco.

Brand: By Kilian
Launch year: 2009
Perfumer: Calice Becker
Gender: Unisex
Olfactory family: Woody
Concentration: Eau de Parfum

Published November 11, 2026

Where to buy

My collection

Back to Black came out in 2009 at Kilian, composed by Calice Becker. Michelyn Camen, for ÇaFleurBon, presented it in 2010 as the eighth perfume in L’Œuvre Noire, the collection launched in 2007, coming after Prelude to Love; it was nominated for the FiFi Awards the same year.

An artificial paradise

Kilian Hennessy links its subtitle, aphrodisiac, to the theme of artificial paradises: the perfume would be an olfactory aphrodisiac based on the narcotic appeal of tobacco, a path to pleasure less dangerous than absinthe. He also sees it as a return to a more daring family.

Wreaths of smoke

It now belongs, at Kilian, to The Smokes, a family devoted to bakhoor, incense and tobacco. Kilian Hennessy seeks there to rekindle small fires in the darkest of nights, under black skies where the brightest stars shine.