Widian / AJ Arabia
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
A bright assault of peach and lemon immediately complicated by cinnamon's dusty spice—the fruit isn't clean or innocent but rather glazed, almost jammy. Within minutes, the composition declares itself as deliberately sweet rather than fresh, a deliberate pivot away from conventional citrus openings.
The solar note transforms the equation entirely, pushing the tuberose and orange blossom into something ethereal yet synthetic, almost aldehyde-tinged. This middle phase is the fragrance's most interesting territory, where floral indulgence wrestles with that strange mineral quality, creating an almost uncomfortable sensuality that holds for hours.
Cedar surfaces with welcome austerity, grounding the caramel and vanilla base into something woody and resinous rather than purely confectionery. The final hours smell of amber-tinted wood dusted with burnt sugar—still sweet, but considerably less innocent than the heart suggests.
Black Collection V is an exercise in calculated indulgence—a fragrance that refuses whisper when it could speak boldly. Jean-Claude Astier has constructed something deliberately saccharine, where the peach opening collides with cinnamon's peppery warmth, creating an almost savoury sweetness that feels vaguely illicit. This isn't a fragrance for the subtle; it's a declaration.
The heart reveals Astier's most compelling gambit: a solar note—that peculiar synthetic mineral that mimics hot skin—amplifies the orange blossom and tuberose into something almost aldehydic, rendering them neither fresh nor creamy but rather sun-scorched and slightly metallic. There's an uncomfortable tension here between the floral's natural sensuality and that otherworldly solar accord, as though you're smelling flowers through warped glass.
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3.8/5 (213)