CSKA471 – 2022-06-30:

5 out of 5

Wow! Ok, so I LOVE aniseed, licorice, cinnamon so I thought the odds were in my favour. It’s nice when you hit lucky.
There is a nice background of green and fig notes. Balsam helps the longevity. I like the bit of kick from the incense.
I can see why there is a reference to the gum. It has the cooling effect. A freshness. I don’t get any tyres.
I love it. It’s licorice heaven and quite edible on my skin. This is what Charlie would have had made if he had wanted to sell scent as well as confectionary heaven.
I’m a little disappointed it doesnt evolve much and take you on an olfactory journey. Reasonable longevity and sillage.

SanyaXXX – 2022-06-30:

3 out of 5

After informing a fellow perfumista that I was on the hunt for fragrances containing strong notes of licorice and/or anise, she recommended this as the mother of all dark, spicy scents. She even warned that it might be TOO intense, which of course made me have to drop everything and order a decant.
Black Vines is like being blasted in the face with cinnamon scented pepper spray while you chew on licorice candy in a wet garden. This fragrance borders on assault (there’s even a warning on their website for those with sensitive skin); luckily, I’m a bit of a masochist, so it works out nicely.
I tend to gravitate towards smells that are divisive and even a bit weird, and Black Vines aggressively ticks both those boxes. If it overpowers you upon initial application, give it awhile to calm down: once it settles into your skin, the notes play incredibly well together. The tonka bean and cinnamon contribute a nice sweetness that the lush green notes keep from going anywhere near gourmand, and it has all the licorice I could ever ask for and then some.
I wouldn’t consider it a signature scent, or even something I reach for on a regular basis. But it’s firmly planted in my top five, because, frankly, I’ve not smelled anything else like it.

knc123Unlogrere – 2022-06-30:

4 out of 5

Black Vines is a lovely weirdo – starting out with green, watery, fresh crushed ivy leaves, celery and black licorice. The black licorice note is dominant and sweet. I absolutely love black licorice notes so this scent just jumped straight to my want list! Sweet cinnamon, clove, and a touch of Wintergreen mint gum join the licorice as the scent gets more mellow The late drydown is a cosy scent of rootbeer, vanilla, bubblegum powder and dense chewy tonka.
Longevity is good but sillage is strong – spray lightly to avoid dying in a tar pit of sticky black licorice!
Overall: like/love

derdat – 2022-06-30:

4 out of 5

So, when I was about to try my sample of Black Vines, for some reason it leaked something like a WHOLE, big, oily 1 ml of fragrance onto my wrist, to my horror since I knew its reputation. But I’m still alive so fear not. This stuff is oily at the beginning, but I guess my thirsty skin drank most of it. Anyway.
What I smell the most is licorice plus anise, cinnamon, conifer, and something green/herbal that may be ivy, not sure. Not much vanilla, fig or incense, if not in the drydown. I can’t say it’s bad, really, I thought I hated licorice but apparently I was wrong. What I do not like is the oil/gasoline/glue/whatever smell, it does suit the fragrance itself, but I don’t like it much on skin. It doesn’t smell like “perfume”, it is more like industrial glue with perfume inside. I like the concept and the darkness of it, but I wouldn’t wear it.
Projection is moderate/high, and it is long lasting.
So all in all, good but not very wearable for me, sorry Kerosene 🙂

Mevki377Negeltzex – 2022-06-30:

4 out of 5

My nose interprets this as anise, cedar, and sandalwood. The mixed reviews made me hesitant to try this, but I quite like it. I am a licorice fan and am constantly looking for a good mix with it. The drydown isn’t *as* impressive as I’d expected. I enjoy that sharp, almost-medicinal quality of anise, so to me the opening is fantastic. It mellows quickly though and gets sweeter over time – not overwhelming candy sweet, but more like how sandalwood is. That powdery woody sweetness, plus licorice. Mmmm!
Not entirely convinced I want to pay $140 for a full bottle, but it’s at least 3.4 oz. You’ll need to spray liberally, because this sits kinda close to the skin. On a naked wrist the longevity and silage both are somewhere between poor and moderate, which is how I prefer my scents.

Deoniss – 2022-06-30:

3 out of 5

The spicy black licorice would be highly intriguing on a 30-40 something professional man in a big city and suit. A dark beauty could also pull this off as october fades and November begins.
I like it. Big surprise.

Koreps – 2022-06-30:

5 out of 5

Most Kerosene perfumes tend toward the gourmand type (see perfumer website or have a chat with him). Classing this as oriental is a stretch, especially since the name, Black Vines, is a liquorice candy. Again, gourmand. The entire scent is built around the juxtaposition of cinnamic, warm clove and dark green anisic and liquorice notes. With its warm, fuzzy bed of vanilla and fir, Black Vines calls to mind a middle eastern tea called Yansoon. No matter what comes to mind, it calls for extra blankets, thick socks and a nice big fire.

rafo-1994 – 2022-06-30:

3 out of 5

I mean, it’s an overdose of liquorice, but I don’t think it’s as sinister as the name implies.
My SO said it smells of salt liquorice and burning tires. I think it smells like a Brothers Grimm Christmas, you know, the kind of Christmas where it is pitch black outside of the snowy window in the middle of winter before electricity, in Germany or further north. Inside the cottage there are still more shadows than light, the Christmas tree is unembellished, but the fireplace is heating a pot of mulled wine after the children have gone to sleep.

hxe950speagoessenda – 2022-06-30:

4 out of 5

The shop assistant picked this for me, saying that it “matches my personality”. Wow. I hope to become this person one day. Bold, self-confident, not giving a f**k what others think.
The powerful licorice and star anise opening can be quite intimidating but the drydown is lovely. Big Red cinnamon gum plus vanilla. The fig is there too, lurking in the background, if you look closely.

vitalii7842 – 2022-06-30:

5 out of 5

Immediately sneezed, now my eyes are watering. All I smell is anise/licorice and fir. I must now go scrub.

vasyaga – 2022-06-30:

4 out of 5

This is quite possibly the most unpleasant scent I have ever tried, out of hundreds. Oriental? I don’t think so. My 14-year-old son recoiled from it too. A scrubber for me, but it’s hard to remove, even with soap and a loofah. So at least those who enjoy it can know it’s tenacious! Moral: blind-buy at your own risk.
18 September 2018: To be fair, Black Vines receives 4 stars (out of 5) in a lengthy review from Tania Sanchez in Perfumes: The Guide 2018. BV’s notes add up, says she, to something “… both subterranean and medicinal. This could be what the Troll Market in Hellboy II smells like. In my recent experience, only a few fragrances have even approached this kind of stormy, impenetrable density… Does Black Vines smell good? Possibly. Does it smell interesting? You betcha.” She suggests that an adolescent girl of her acquaintance with “a Krakatoa termperament” might be able to wear it. I agree with TS’s aesthetic assessment 100%. Though I will never try BV again (it remains an indelible, strident, sludgy memory), I wanted her scholarly appreciation of the scent to be reflected here.
That said… it’s still Sid Vicious in a bottle.

KREST – 2022-06-30:

5 out of 5

AT last i got to sample Kerosene line. the fragrances names is quite weird which surprisingly is grabbing my attention.
A very interested one! quite weird & superbly captivating!
It smells like a glue, like a sticky tape with glue! The licorice, fig, star anise, cinnamon, & Ivy creates that gluey essence!
Very surprising as it doesn’t smell like an Indian spices rather than an European hut. quite the type of fragrances that i’d look for and i HOPE his other creations are surprising just like this one here.
Edit (9th Jan 2017) After 1.5+ year, coming to this is quite pleasant, i still like it as i keep on sniffing dark licorice, slight fig leaves, and definitely greenish notes & most probably it’s fir, & fern.

levit1960 – 2022-06-30:

3 out of 5

Black Vines immediately stuck me as different and appealing. The anise and clove hit first and combined into a fresh, spicy and wearable scent. The licorice is the main base for me but is more complex and interesting by additional ingredients. If this is overdone, it can teeter into potpourri-land. One won’t need much of this to be an effective attention grabber. I keep moving my hand to my nose. It’s really quite delicious.

kumar_bmx – 2022-06-30:

3 out of 5

Not only is Black Vines impossibly muddled–the booze cacophonous, the cinnamon so oafish it clowns around desperate for attention, but, and this is a Kardashian-sized but: my skin broke out into a burning rash immediately upon application. Never before have I put a scent on my skin that hurt it physically, and never before have I smelled a scent so utterly beyond redemption. Horrid, harmful stuff.

кризис – 2022-06-30:

5 out of 5

@starassist epic douche

batalov – 2022-06-30:

5 out of 5

@starassist You sound like a real douchebag lacking a sense of humor. His reviews and videos were great and you didn’t need to put your worthless, condescending opinion about his past reviews. Many people enjoyed them including myself. And your review sucks and is misleading. See if they can surgically implant a new nose on your face. I would take a blind challenge against you any day of the week. I wish I could meet up with bozos like you and take a challenge that shows your capacity for smell really sucks behind all your poetic prose.

wze910InsuffBooni – 2022-06-30:

4 out of 5

Never before has a fragrance made me feel absolutely intoxicated. This is amazing stuff. My mind was blown when I smelled it and I honestly felt drunk, like I was going to fall over on the shop floor. A very creative and brave perfume!
Would I wear it regularly? Well, I don’t know. It would be too much. Just like so much of “high fashion” may look like art on a runway or in a photo, but you couldn’t exactly walk down the street wearing it, this perfume is perhaps something to be appreciated for what it is on its own rather than worn every day. It’s a special occasion scene – you wouldn’t want to have it every day. (And for that, I couldn’t justify dropping down $140 at the moment, but maybe that’s just me.)
Motor oil is the very first thing I thought of, followed by liquorice. It is a cold, dark, foreboding, industrial scent. Sexy in a dangerous way. A femme fatale for an industrial wasteland. If I was going to a very avant-garde event, I would definitely spray this on. The office, not so much.
“Kerosene” is a very appropriate name. I’m impressed. Black Vines is what Bulgari Black wants to be when it’s old enough to drink.

kostia2 – 2022-06-30:

4 out of 5

Holy Moly! Licorice. Licorice. And then MORE licorice! I am not a huge licorice fan, but I am a huge Kerosene fan. I have flacons or samples of most of his stuff. I tried this for the first time today and nearly got knocked on my ass. KUDOS to KP for having a pair that must require transport in a wheelbarrow! Once it calms down it’s a damn interesting scent. Until then, LOOK OUT people 🙂 . Absolutely worth a try. KP isn’t afraid to push the envelope – or in this case, to incinerate it 😉 .

ZVadimka – 2022-06-30:

5 out of 5

I got a sample of Black Vines thinking that licorice and fig would be an interesting combo. However, this was just a big bombastic licorice on me–never could detect any fig. I like anise/licorice as a scent note, but I guess I am wanting something a bit more balanced. I am amused by the scent note list, because if there was anything other than black licorice in this, I sure couldn’t find it.
Not for me.

pdl903Diobtetty – 2022-06-30:

5 out of 5

I never want to smell this again. I have tested hundreds of perfumes, this is only the 2nd one [out of 100’s!] to make me literally sick to my stomach.
When I got my sample order, I could smell this before even opening the package. I thought it smelled awful, but I wanted to give it a chance, so I put a tiny amount on my hand. Nausea ensues. It took 3 different soaps and a scrubber to begin to touch this. I can still smell it.
The positives, this stuff is so strong! You would barely have to use any and everyone will smell you. It is also unique, I haven’t smelled anything quite like this. Very sweet, true licorice scent.
The negatives… this is SO STRONG! True to its name, it smells exactly like black licorice. Those black jellybeans. I actually enjoy the black jellybeans, and I thought I liked the licorice perfume note… but this perfume was an instant headache. Test at your own risk!

ruslan valkevich – 2022-06-30:

5 out of 5

Black Vines by Kerosene certainly isn’t the first fragrance featuring licorice/anise blended with something else; there is licorice with lavender (Hermèssence Brin de Réglisse), licorice with rose and amber (Aoud Black Candy by Mancera), licorice with mint (Reglisse Noire by 1000 Flowers), and licorice with lemon (Caron Eau de Reglisse), to name a few. But this licorice with fir/balsam/cypress blend is, by far, the most intriguing and powerful of them all. (The drydown reminds me very much of Eau des Baux by L’Occitane, but Black Vines is much deeper, and richer, than Eau des Baux.) Black Vines is licorice and wintergreen on steroids! But of course, most people don’t like the smell of wintergreen, that familiar medicinal scent from muscle rub creams and Pepto Bismal, but this is exactly the reason I find it therapeutic.

lapik1253 – 2022-06-30:

5 out of 5

I bought this one on a whim despite the fact that I typically avoid fragrances with Star Anise and Licorice. The name of the fragrance, Black Vines, sounded intriguing enough. That along with I don’t see very many fragrances with an ivy note. So I was very curious how Black Vines would pan out.
The Licorice and Star Anise are very potent from the onset. So much so that my blueberry pancakes began to taste like licorice during breakfast. Soon afterwards the ivy, fig and cinnamon makes themselves known. I especially like how the cinnamon and fig seem to provide a creamy nuance while the ivy is there but it seems to be transparent. A few hours into the dry down I was able to pick out a vague vanilla and fir notes.
I’m surprised Black Vines is listed as an oriental vanilla because I can barely detect any vanilla unless it’s the vanilla that is providing the creamy nuance instead of the fig note. Whatever it is, Black Vines is a very enjoyable wear that far exceeded my expectations knowing I can barely tolerate Licorice and Star Anise in fragrances. This stuff projected very well on my skin with only four sprays, two on each forearm from a sample. The longevity was above average as well.
Glad I stepped out of my comfort zone with this one. Two thumbs up!!