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.
The house sums it up in three notes, cedar, incense and honey: cedar in the top, honey in the heart, a base of incense and vanilla. A languid honey laced with sweet spices marries, it says, smoky incense and vanilla absolute.
Tobacco without tobacco
According to Kilian Hennessy, honeyed, fruity, woody and amber notes come together to recreate a tobacco accord. Mark Behnke, for ÇaFleurBon, points out that Calice Becker achieves it without real tobacco, with a leathery quality and a mentholated touch.
Chamomile and smoke
Blue chamomile and cedarwood are veiled in smoke, and a sandalwood note joins the rest in a gourmand tobacco harmony, the house describes. Mark Behnke also picks out olibanum, cistus absolute and amber around the honey.
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