Description
Bohemian Black was launched by House of Matriarch on 12/31/2013 and is the 13th perfume in the House of Matriarch Luxury Naturals collection.
Bohemian Black is 100% natural and vegan, described by the house as an “Enigmatic Amber” featuring notes of house-made limoncello spirits, herbal tinctures, white blossoms (gardenia, tiare, honeysuckle, night jasmine), a trio of salty choyas, Omani frankincense, Siam benzoin, Mysore sandal, Buddha wood, agarwood and effervescent amber.
Bohemian Black is available in a 1 ml vial, 3 ml mini, 15 ml and 60 ml flacons, as well as in the form of a studded leather bracelet perfumed with Bohemian Black. The nose behind this fragrance is Christi Meshell.
chabaci – :
A sweet smoky hug in the end. Starts uplifting slightly lemon but more vegetal. Dark deep syrupy and quite animalic.
Definately for close encounters as it does not project far and becomes skin scenty sexy for about 4-5 hours.
Like all of HoM fumes, they are evocations of emotional states. This is a loving dark and soft blanket for me. Adore it.
Chulkoff – :
If you are expecting a sweet limoncello sherbert or hyper sugared cocktail: move along. You stepped into the wrong neighborhood
The good:
This is bitter oily lemon peel limoncello, sweet in it’s natural sugars not in a “refreshing summer dessert” way. The resins pop beautifully and the whole composition leaves me at a loss for words on how to describe it. Really magnificent, almost astringent (but in a good natural way) with ambers and soft sap and bitter lemon and robust moss. It smells like a wild untamed garden devoid of “pretty florals” deep in a summer night when the fog rolls in. Clings to the skin and really hammers the dangerous mystery vibe home.
The bad:
It does not project at all for me after the opening and a little therafter. Past 30 minites on my skin it is only a skin scent. Damn :0/
Scent: 8/10 so good and so dark and majestic.
Longevity: 6-7/10 it sticks around for a good 6 hours and starts becoming undetectable between 7 and 8 hours.
Projection: 3/10 for the first half hour then (forgive me) but a solid 1/10 for the rest of it’s lifespan.
Sillage: 4/10 for the first 20-40 minites then dies off to virtually no trail as best I can tell.
Would I buy a full bottle? Jury is out. If it projected a little farther and for much longer, then hell yes.
Querido – :
Bohemian Black is kind of manic; its personality is all over the place, making it hard to pin down exactly what it is.
It kicks off with the limoncello accord—an Italian liqueur traditionally made from the peel of lemons, steeped in rectified spirits, and then mashed up with syrup. Hasty research tells me that, like fragrance, limoncello is either mass-produced commercially or is hand-made by independent artisans. The taste, it seems, can vary between rough, smooth, tart, and sweet, yet the lemon that opens Bohemian Black is sweet, but not diabetically so. In fact, it’s hard to tell where the lemoncillo stops and where the amber-y heart begins.
Oddly, I get a coniferous undertone from this scent—almost a fougere-like effect, but one that’s buried under layers of thick resins. But I register this as odd because I don’t think there are any traditional fougere components at work. Yet when I sniff really close from the initial application (before the components have sorted themselves out), I pick up something akin to the cannabis tincture from Blackbird, which could be responsible for this murky “green” note that I’m detecting. This phantom fern effect strikes me as a bit of a fun throwback to big ‘80s weirdos like Salvador Dali pour Homme, but it also hints at Guerlain’s more woodsy offerings.
And like Blackbird, Bohemian Black continues the countercultural conversation by marrying a sort of aesthetic of subversion to something quite dark. Of course bohemians run the historical gamut from the Dandy to the Beat to the Gypsy to the Hippie, in addition to their emergence from specific locales and historical periods. I’d locate this scent within the latter half of the 20th century—specifically in a Woodstock-type setting, but I’d imagine that there’s some flexibility in what it evokes for others.
At its core, it’s an amber scent in which sweetness is offset by modest florals. You get depth and dimension, yet it’s fairly linear (at least once the lemon has subsided), and it could be framed perhaps as a complex oriental. Resins and smoke are present, but are more structural than spot lit. There’s a delicacy to the way the combination of notes is handled, but it does produce quite a swirl that makes singling out individual facets a challenge. Apparently, some of the herbal notes were inspired by another Italian liqueur called Strega, but it’s difficult to identify just how this inspiration worked its way into the scent. Essentially, it’s a warm, candied lemon-and-amber affair that’s smooth from top to bottom.
With that said, it’s no Blackbird—but to be fair, there are very few scents come close to touching that one. Bohemian Black ascribes to similarly subversive themes, but it also allows room for your imagination to go nuts. It could be a gourmand, a woody aromatic, an oriental—it’s all of these things, yet it doesn’t conform to any single one of them. It’s dark and moody, buoyant and rich. It’s essentially a series of paradoxes. And in that sense, it really is bohemian.
cpl200speagoessenda – :
‘Upscale headshop’ was my initial impression. This is white floral and incense heavy, to be sure. It’s hard to distinguish beyond ‘incense’ at first for me because of the impression that so much pops into my head. Letting it settle in…
(30-45 mins) mmm now a yummy dirtiness is coming forward (oud) along with some almost peppery resins. This deep mix is sweetened a bit more by creamy, sensual bursts of gardenia and tiare more than at the opening. It has a dark earthy sweetness that really is unisex to me… enough resins and smoke to be men’s, or enough sweet and creamy floral to be a woman’s. It’s too complex to smell simply like ‘incense’ now. Also there is that ever-present lemoncello note detectable which I was concerned would be too citrus-heavy for me to enjoy the fragrance based on user votes of that as most prominent. But really it’s a smooth, sweet undertone that adds lightness rather than its own distinguishable note. It really adds a necessary brightness here and isn’t off putting at all, even to someone who’s iffy about citrus. Also it seems to be one note w/ the herbal/green tincture making it quite a bit different than lemoncello smells out of the bottle. Really digging it now, scents with depth are great! This is a fun one to observe as it progresses.
(about 5hrs) still going fairly strong but a bit less projection (still decent). Will wear a bit more on days when I’m not distracted and can truly observe its depth. Overall I think it’s too resinous for me to FB but I will enjoy every bit of my sample. I’m in the habit of asking my bf’s opinion to see what the average passer-by would pick up from it. He said “incense” then “…lemon! And pepper. Lemon pepper.” Haha. So apparently the lemoncello is more obvious to him than to me; I must be focusing on the resins more.
Thanks to fragrancesommelier for the very generous sample!! <3
P.S. Agree w/ comment below that it has “complexity yet total wearability” for a natural perfume. Well said.
Nenar – :
Oh, dear.
Both Mr. NLS and I have fallen stone in love with Bohemian Black, on ourselves and each other. He gets more smoke; I get sweeter spice. On both of us, it’s such a complex and beautiful warm oriental amber, yet so gentle, too–softly caressing the skin for hours and hours.
Fragrantica writer Ida Meister did a formal review of it that sums it up so nicely (search Articles). I don’t have much to add except to say it’s even better than I expected from her amazing review, and worth every penny.
If you love ambery orientals, it’s a must-try. If you love ambery orientals but sometimes find them overwhelming, it’s also a must-try and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by its complexity yet total wearability. (This is a category in which natural perfumes definitely have the edge, IMHO.)
To everything there is a season, but Bohemian Black is seasonless, genderless, ageless and with universal appeal, if that’s possible. There’s truly something for everybody to love.