Perfume Pen Pals: By Kilian Back to Black vs. Serge Lutens Chergui


Katie,

Okay, re-reading these Perfume Pen Pals are making me self-conscious about my habits. So many ill-advised purchases, I need an intervention! Why won't someone intervene?

Dan


Dan,

You wanted an intervention, you got it. Stop, for the sake of your bank account and the party dresses you will adore buying for your new girlfriend, stop right there, buddy! Step one: you are not buying By Kilian Back to Black. When I first smelled it, I determined to warn you off, because I remembered your intrigue with it.

Back to Back is a gorgeously yummy fragrance, but it's not for Dan. Here's why: it's a powdery loukhoum (honey vanilla marzipan), girly sweetie-sweet scent. It's not as kerrrazeee powdery as Keiko Mecheri's Loukhoum series, but it's that same vibe.

If the blog chatter about "cherry pipe tobacco" is what's giving you a burnin' yeanin', then I would strongly urge you to try Serge Lutens Chergui instead, which I swear, I WILL be acquiring one of these days. Chergui is hay/tobacco/leather first, sweetness second. And B to B is sweetness first, sweetness second.

But any way the wad blows, I expect a decant.

Katie


Katie,

So you talk me off one ledge and then stick me on several others? Over the course of one paragraph, I've gone from Back to Black to party dresses for Alicia to Chergui.

And everyone is talking about B to B's cherry pipe tobacco. Everyone! The Basenoters are even in favor of it, and they're generally all persnickety over By Kilian, mostly because of the prices.

Dan


Dan,

My form of perfume intervention is more subtle: I steer you away from something you'll just go "hmm" at, and direct you towards something that will give you more pleasure. So truthfully, I'm not saving you money at all, just redirecting the flow towards greater satisfaction. And that's good, right?

I still insist that Chergui is your one stop for cherry pipe tobacco. Also, I don't want to intimate that B to B is not a luscious delight. I just thought it was a little puffball for you.

Katie


Katie,

Too puffball for me? Me who already owns By Kilian Love? Surely it's not more puffball than that. Or is it?

Maybe I'll feel the same about Chergui, too. Though I don't generally like cherry anything.

Dan


Dan,

Yes, B to B is more puffball than the sober (yes - sober) "vanilla for adults" of By Kilian Love.

And wait...what? You don't like cherry anything? I'm confused - why are you gassing on about Back to Black, which references cherry pipe tobacco and Turkish delight? (Though the notes list raspberry, not cherry, so we'll just call it "red fruit".)

Is this going to be another "I hate roses" scenario which then turns into Dan wearing Tom Ford Noir de Noir all winter long?

Katie


Katie,

I'm pretty sure I don't like cherry more than I don't like roses. And I stand by my rose assertion (three or so rose purchases later), but only as it relates to what I initially assumed all rose perfumes smelled like: that uptight, old-fashioned, funereal rose, the best (worst?) example being anything Montale with rose in it.

As for Back to Black, I saw the raspberry (which isn't quite cherry), but I so like Calice Becker's stuff (all the good By Kilians, Tommy Girl, Beyond Paradise, J'Adore) that I was ready to jump in regardless of the ingredients.

And jump in I did, because today was perfume day. Alicia and I hit Barney’s and Saks, and I now own Serge Lutens Chergui. I'm wearing it right now and while it's robust, it also moves, and it has real dimension, cherry, yes, but sexy cherry. (Who knew such a thing was possible?) I didn't have a complete impression of it but I could tell it wasn't going to be a mistake.

At Saks, Alicia sprayed on By Kilian Back to Black, and I liked it! Saffron, almond, vetiver, labdanum, raspberry - those definitely aren't Dan-endorsed ingredients. It sounds like a sweet, powdery, spicy, fruity mess. And it is. Except for the mess part. It's mostly a sweet, fruity amber, yes? But I did like it. At least on Alicia. So I bought it.

Back to Black and Chergui. I kicked ass today.

Dan


Dan,

What a result! Chergui AND Back to Black. And there I was thinking it was an either/or situation!

Katie


Katie,

My first impression was that Chergui and Back to Black don't quite fill the same slot. My second impression was, "Uh-oh, my first impression was wrong." Because Back to Black developed into something closer to Chergui than was my first impression. I shouldn't have bought both but at least I now don't have to regret not buying one or the other.

I love Back to Black, even more so on Alicia. She wore it tonight and I can say with no hesitation that this thing turns very sexy after a few hours. It's powdery and not too far from Le Labo Labdanum 18, but with more complications.

This, to me, is a sexy perfume. It's sweet, yes, but there's something else about it that draws me in, maybe the labdanum (which is also sweet, I guess). To my nose/brain, B to B just smells all sweet and sultry, the perfume equivalent of Homer Simpson saying, "Mmm, doughnuts!"

Dan


For more on this particular perfume dance-off, see the "Back to Black vs. Chergui" thread on Basenotes.

12 comments:

  1. Both Chergui AND Back to Black!??! What did Oscar Wilde say? "The only way to get rid of temptation is to give into it."

    Nothing makes me happier (an more confused) when scent notes list seven things I think I don't like, and then I smell, and I say, Mmmmmmmm.
    Rita

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  2. I like Oscar Wilde's temptation policy. Sounds like Dan's perfume-buying policy.

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  3. Another Wilde passage worth mantra status: "I can resist anything but temptation."

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  4. That Wilde fellow was certainly endowed with more than his fair share of wit!

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  5. Talk about wit endowments, I laughed all the way through this whole exchange! And every word was so true. How could it possibly be Back to Black OR Chergui, when they're both so Yum-Tastic?

    Wait . . . what happens if you wear them together?! Don't answer that. I've so far resisted the siren call of Back to Black, even though Patty at Perfume Posse has determined that Back to Black and Pure Oud are lethally gorgeous when layered.

    -Nathan

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  6. Nathan, as I believe I already commented on your B2B post, I tried Patty's decadent layering advice, and can whole-heartedly endorse its efficacy!

    However, I believe advocating the coupling of B2B and Chergui is a bridge too far. That would truly be Coldstone Creamery Syndrome (CCS), eg caramel ice cream with a side of dolce de leche covered in pecan pralines drizzled in caramel sauce and butterscotch fudge. My good man, there IS a limit, after all!

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  7. Rita, I know what you mean about a collection of undesirable notes somehow adding up to goodness. It's like your tastes are constantly called into question. That never happens in other art forms. If you don't like movies with robots, decapitations, dumb dialogue and dumb actors, there's no possibility of you liking "Transformers". Just like windmills, streams, churches and Thomas Kinkade never amount to anything good. But perfume often surprises us. Which is why it's the best temptation of all. Or second best. Top five, at least.

    And Nathan, Katie, you KNOW what combination I'm trying tonight. Limit schmimit.

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  8. Better keep the Pepto-Bismol on stand-by, Dan.

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  9. That was a mistake. In the end Back to Black outlasted Chergui, but the journey was grueling, an ugly collision of two big fat heavyweights in which no one was left unscathed. Especially those within a few feet of me. Because I smelled like a Moroccan brothel. Or a Moroccan-themed brothel in Western Nevada. On a busy night. In the summertime. Without air-conditioning. My nose needs Pepto-Bismol.

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  10. Thanks for taking one for the team, Dan. Let us all learn from this man's stunning foolhardiness.

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  11. This exchange was very entertaining, as usual. And I read it like watching a movie. Some time shortly into it I thought, "Get one? That seems highly unlikely. But, sometimes crazy stuff happens."

    I found this conversation after trying Chergui (er, truthfully, after trying Chergui followed immediately by buying Chergui). This is one of those omg, it's great ones for me. And I thought, hmm, Katie must love this one! And I got the bonus of a Katie and Dan convo. And so I had grab a sample of B2B that I'd never tried and compare and . . . yeah, it's nice, and kinda similar but powdery and sweet whereas Chergui is as Katie describes and I summarize as WOW.

    Katie, your Coldstone comment made me laugh. I like sweet stuff but Coldstone is so sickly sweet on sweet (and I didn't even have caramel ice cream with a side of dolce de leche covered in pecan pralines drizzled in caramel sauce and butterscotch fudge!) I never went back again.

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    Replies
    1. Good to hear of your positive Chergui experience, Darin, and that you tracked down the Pen Pals' volley on the matter.

      I'm happy to report that I've moved beyond Coldstone Creamery to malted milk gelato.

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