Chambre Noire by Olfactive Studio: A Review

Chambre Noire falls into the category of perfumes that most people, including myself, find a bit meh on the creativity or construction front but are nonetheless so enjoyable to wear that I have decided they deserve a place in my collection, reviews be damned. I just love wearing this perfume. Chambre Noire reaches absolutely no new heights, but its low-level hum of almost-greatness gives me something to turn over and look at every time I wear it.

Like, for example, that advertised plum note that, for some reason smells to me specifically like the dip in a Granny Smith apple that shelters the stem for about 75% of the times I wear it and like an Iranian plum leather the other 25%.

The woody notes are probably not at all distinguished or nature-derived, but the rosy rush of incensey, sparkly sandalwood that fizzes over the topnotes when freshly applied makes me think of Bois des Iles. Even the smokiness here is bright and bouyant. The fact that this accord peters out within seconds is not enough to damn it in my eyes.

Because what follows is a soft, vaguely sour, fizzy leather-amber-wood thing tangy enough to bring saliva to my mouth even thinking about it now. It is not that it has a chewy texture, really, but there is something about it that makes me want to bite into my own skin. It never asserts a strong personality of its own – and remains fairly unremarkable throughout – but its sheer unruffled ease and lack of powerful woody-ambery aromachemicals driving it on makes me prefer it above about a dozen other similar masculines, including Bentley for Men Intense and that incensey Chopard one. I love it, I wear it. It doesn’t get any more straightforward than that.

Cover Image: Photo by Camille Couvez on Unsplash