Description
Designer John Varvatos presents his new fragrance Dark Rebel in September 2015. The fragrance is inspired by the designer’s return to Detroit, intended for rebellious men who think outside the conventional framework, individuals who march to the beat of their own drum and are not followers. It is advertised by the slogan “From Darkness Comes Light.”
The composition is smoky, oriental – woody, with sweet tobacco mixed with sensual, resinous woods. It opens with accords of Jamaican rum, Cuban sugar cane, davana, cardamom and clary sage. The heart includes black leather, fir resin, nutmeg, pepper and styrax. Akigala wood, tobacco leaf, Mexican black vanilla, castereum, balmy wood and juniper are in the base.
Sleek black bottle is tightly wrapped in leather bands, decorated with a black cap with silver Fleu de lis design. The fragrance is available as 75 and 125 ml Eau de Toilette.
The nose behind this fragrance is Rodrigo Flores-Roux.
kamalov_ernar – :
a like, not a love … i recommend testing before buying,
no sweetness, just a dark leather on old ship´s wooden floor
posledose – :
I recently procured a 4.2 oz bottle as part of a much larger order. Another masterfully created fragrance by Rodrigo Flores-Roux and Varvatos. Not a sillage bomb, but a very pleasant, boozey, dark tobacco and spice. I have never been disappointed with a fragrance created by Rodrigo Flores-Roux……and this one is no exception. I go heavy on this when I apply it and get great results, and great longevity. For the price point…it is an absolute must have…and an outstanding composition
Mevxe204JeomiWogkig – :
The opening is a musty old leather jacket, along with a gasoline/smokey note. I don’t get any sweet or rum on the opening at all. This is another frag where the drydown comes along to save the day, or night, in this case. The resin and vanilla come up to mellow things for about an hour, but even that fades away to leave a kind of powdery, rubber skin scent. I get zero sillage on this after the first hour and not much before that.
Edit: I tried something new with this and put it in the refrigerator just to see what difference it may make. Surprise! The sweetness amped back up and sillage increased to make it reasonable to wear. Have worn it twice and recvd an unsolicited compliment both times. Now in my Fall rotation.
Emilisinc – :
Rodrigo Flores-Roux the nose behind most John Varvatos’ creations may be the very best in the business at developing the opening and mid-range for all the JV gems. Dark Rebel is no exception. If you like your fragrances dark, mysterious and sumptuous look no further.
While Dark Rebel performs on the high end for a JV fragrance it is by no stretch beast-mode! However, for the price the performance is significant and is only an atomizer away from lasting all night. Being a fanatic of leather, tobacco and booze I give this beauty my highest recommendation!
orvavl – :
I personally love this one, one of my favourites for Autumn and Winter. Best for nights out, with a black leather jacket. I’m into rock and metal and decadent post punk kinds of music and find it suits my image on a night out and I’ve had a lot of compliments. I probably wouldn’t wear it to the office, and if I did, go very light on it. For the price, I think it’s very high value. I also love John Varvatos presentation of his bottles, which add to the whole experience, and this bottle also looks great with it’s design. Other houses should maybe take a leaf of the Varvatos book for presentation.
MAKSFRIEND – :
Hype and a lot of it. Yes, it’s a dark fragrance but it’s not daring or unique. F Black by Ferregamo and Rocawear Revolution ( they came first) are extremely close to Dark Rebel. Decent fragrance but projection, sillage and performance is lack luster. Id pass on it at any price close to retail.
1geroy1 – :
Alright, here are some words to describe this one:
– Dark
– Bold
– Black
– Burnt
– Smoke
– Daring
– Boozy
Clearly, this stuff isn’t for everyone. This is some seriously crazy juice. It does remind me of an oud fragrance. It has that “oudy” vibe to it.
As I am testing it, that “oudy” vibe is only there for the opening.
It then settles into this cigarette-smoke-boozy-woody scent. It’s actually quite pleasing. It’s a very clear rum boozy note mixed with a juicy cigarette. The juicy cigarette is due to the moist, dark tobacco note. It sounds weird but its awesome.
To be completely honest, I HATE overly dark, dry, woody, oudy scents, but this one is SO interesting to me. I will not wear this one often, but glad to have it in my collection.
OVERALL:
This stuff is not for everyone. It is ridiculously bold and potentially hard to wear, but for $25, this stuff is awesome to have just to smell every now and then.
I absolutely appreciate the boldness about this.
rereeagergimi – :
This smells exactly like Egoiste from the 90’s to me. Sweet and woody.
blifynisy – :
I can imagine Marv from Sin City pulling this off perfectly.
Excellent for the cool nights out and goes well with that black leather jacket and boots look. Longevity is above average on me. I absolutely love this. A real confidence booster. Very good choice for the rugged man.
nerkam – :
My first thought was that this must have been an inspiration for Gucci Guilty Absolute, except Gucci decided to crank up the smoky, oily leather vibe to an almost medicinal level. This one is totally wearable. Even though it does give off that sticky leather note off the top, it doesn’t stick around for long and the dry-down is much softer.
dimax7143 – :
just tried it for the first time today.
one spray on the right arm. WOW! too strong!
i went back to my car, gave it a little time to settle down and develop. as i was driving i took a few more sniffs and i deduced that it smells like an aggresive oud and amber combo with an empowring leather note too (smells like axe instinct LOL). This is suitable for ages 30-40.
26region2010 – :
What a different fragrance. It smells really complex and unique. Masculine and badass. I Imagine daryl dixon in “The walking dead” Wearing this while riding on his motorcycle.
SEPA73 – :
Masculine, dirty, leather jacket, manly, biker type of scent. One of the few fragrances on the market I could see tough, rugged bikers wearing. Some people will find this fragrance off putting, even to a point of disgusting. Others like my wife and I will find it uber masculine and even intoxicating. The more manly you are the better this will work for you. If you are more of the masculine type, don’t let the unisex or gender bender comments discourage you from trying this. John Varvatos made this for a specific type of guy. And of course, he also made it for a specific kind of woman that would appreciate her *man* to wear this. Check it out because it’s cheap as chips. Not the quality… the price.
HAMAJAGA – :
Blind buy I don’t like these dark dry scents. I have Prada L’homme intense and cashmere polo Ralph Lauren and they smell all alike. So if you like those dress up suit and tie scents this is perfect for you
shamilproducer – :
CH men has a cooler, darker, more handsome, and more successful brother that not many people are aware of. He is a badass, doesn’t give a s*** what anyone thinks, and you definitely want to get on his good side before he becomes too popular, because he’ll recognize the band wagoners easily.
Asateres – :
Wow I love this! Much better then I expected! I am a female that often turns to scents marketed for men. I also love leather. I was looking for a true smooth black leather jacket smell. That is not Dark Rider. But I still love it. There is leather, and while it’s not the leather jacket I hoped for,it’s nowhere near as rubbery as Bvlgari Black. It’s also mixed in with booze tobacco, woods and skank. The castoreum is very dominant. This one is also very sweet. Does that temper the masculinity? Not at all. This one might be too manly for all but the bravest of us female scent gender benders. The silage is what I would call moderate. I find Male scents often perform better for me then female scents. Men that complain about the longevity/ silage of this should try a few of my scents for females that are rumored to have great performance and don’t even come CLOSE to Dark Rider! Altogether, very impressed with this one.
Nikita391ru – :
Obtained a bottle in a swap and I like it better on skin than on paper. Yes, there are clearly some aroma chemicals, possibly a bit of iso e super and some “woody/amber,” but it seems tolerable. And the longevity seems fine. I think the issue about longevity with this one largely involves whether you can detect at least some of the aroma chemicals that last a long time. In any case, the sweetness is obvious but the tobacco has a bit of a diluted quality. Otherwise the notes seem to mostly blend together for me. You can sometimes find a 125 ml bottle on ebay for just over $20 these days, if you have patience, and if you take price into account, it just blows away niche scents that have similar notes and composition. Note that the Rider flanker is different, and has an interesting marjoram note (which some might dislike), and I think I prefer it, but because they are different I don’t mind owning both, especially at these low prices!
REPA777 – :
Great cologne. Lasts about 3 hours on my skin and have gotten multiple compliments.
GoldMan23 – :
too bad performance is a skin scent. Decent makeup and solid scent. smokey and sexy/dark but not strong enough
dt75max – :
Dark rebel opens with an oud-like smokiness that reminds me of amouage interlude. To my preference this is more wearable. Interlude is just picking up steam when this dries down quickly and joins the sugared vanillac accord which is also familiar. The two combine to make a delicate, but very interesting soft skin scent. With the reviewer below i agree, this could be stunning on the right lady. Comments of non-performance are true. Pick this one up at a discount.
shneur – :
Beautiful dark, sweet and spicy juice with a shot of tarmac on the side. I’m surprised by all the manly bro ha ha because this my friends, is very unisex. I know plenty of women that wear this and plenty that would. It’s a perfect sexy unisex scent.
kapl1788 – :
This is a man’s man scent buddy……don’t shave that stubble. A leather jacket and t shirt, and nice worn jeans is a must with this frag. James Dean would be proud of this baby. Rebel is right. Girly men can stay at home. You have to be tough to hang with this crowd.
eddi – :
This is one of the most masculine and natural smelling fragrances ever made. As a result, it is my favourite designer scent of all time.
Despite all the positives, this is not for the faint of heart. It’s not playful at all, it’s serious and rough. Tobacco, booze, wood and leather. This is a Harsh and strong scent.
I recently read some of Ian Fleming’s original James Bond novels of the 1950s. This reminds me of what the literally James Bond would have likely smelled like as he was a heavy smoker and drinker.
Performance isn’t great. However it lasts well if sprayed on clothing. If you don’t like spraying your clothing you might struggle with this one a little bit.
9/10.
Mironov1968 – :
I bought John Varvatos Dark Rebel as I do with most of
my cologne acquisitions – blind, based upon reviews.
So I’m passing some time reading reviews on Fragrantica
and I find myself looking at Dark Rebel reviews again.
I own quite a few frags – enough that I actually forget
things I have in my collection. So, quite often, it’s as
if I’m trying one for the first time.
I then decide to put in my 2 cents so I go back to the
bedroom and look for the JVDR on top of the chest of
drawers among another 99 or so bottles.
I spray on about 6 good squirts to my forearm and I’m
immediately greeted with the pungent goodness. That was
now 10 minutes ago and it has already lost about 50% of
its presence.
I have to concur with others that although the opening,
with tobacco, rum and leather, is splendid the reality
is that this is but another of many modern day frags
that are are full of promise but woefully short on
delivery.
This dries down to little more than a spicy skin scent
that is unremarkable at best. It also explains why I
forgot I owned it as it was relegated to my not-worth-
bothering-with category.
The men’s perfume industry has really screwed us these
last 20 years with their watered down dreck. That’s why
I have narrowed my search for “the perfect cologne” to
EDP’s only.
That notwithstanding, many of today’s EDP’s are eclipsed
by lots of old school EDT’s. That was when the concept of
excellence wasn’t considered to be extraordinary, it was
the norm.
P.S now 30 minutes since applying the JVDR and it’s
faded to a mere skin scent.
280608 – :
My husband loves this fragrance. Very boozy leather opening that turns into a sweeter woody tobacco scent in the dry down. No burnt rubber smell detected at all. Very sexy and masculine to me and I prefer this over JV Dark Rebel Rider. Definitely not a safe blind buy but a great scent for colder months.
wna784speagoessenda – :
It was love at the first sniff.
I struggle to get any leather and I don’t even thing this scent needs it. What I get from the opening to the end of the dry down is a super-boozy rum and a piercing aromatic cigar rounded down by the sweetness of cardamom.
Maaan I just crave sitting in a rough underground nightclub with live music enjoying a spirit when I smell this. It matches my personality soooo much!
Unfortunately the performance is just average, but acceptable.
PaXa4len – :
My first impression was a no. It was like smoking a burnt rubber cigar on a pile of wood chips. However, the dry down allowed the sweeter rum and sexy leather notes to come through.
It smells drastically different on skin versus clothing and I actually prefer it more on cloth.
This scent has grown on me.
prorok99 – :
John Varvatos Dark Rebel for men. Lots of guys seem to think that if they wear this, it makes me feel like “Jack sparrow” in the movie and like a man who wearing leather jacket..it’s suitable to men. And if you will compare it I thinking the smell is like “Carolina Herrera CH Men Prive” but no sugar cane and vanilla.
Сад – :
This stuff is ok. The Rider version is much better. This definitely hits the masculine and unique marks but thats about where I run out of praises for this stuff.
Performance is underwhelming. I found this very soft and after about an hour the scent was gone.
Lots of guys seem to think that if they wear this, it makes them “badass” (seriously, look up some reviews) but to be honest they are just victims of a good marketing campaign.
Dont waste your money
murik5891 – :
I am going to slam this frag with vigor; proceed at your own risk:
Saw Jeremy cover the brand once or twice. He gave the impression the brand sponsored some traveling/etc he was involved in.
Jeremy’s descriptions sounded interesting. But then again, Jeremy is pretty good at making gasoline sound interesting.
A friend had a bookend sample of Dark Rebel on her dresser this morning.
So “what the heck…it’s right here, I’ll spray a post-it note in the sink and give it a go. At least I’ll finally be introduced to the brand.”
Sprayed it.
Sniffed it.
Hated it.
“WHY” you may ask?
I’m middle age. I’ve been at this a while. Off and on since the 80’s.
There is absolutely NOTHING new here. I recognized the same tired old aromachemicals that I’ve smelled a thousand times before.
And if my tone isn’t indicative…”yes”…it fisses me off.
We are not moving forward with fragrance, AT ALL, when we have this 2-decade-old Abercrombe/Fitch-style sewage continuing to be mass produced.
“Why is it still being produced?” we may ask.
Because the younger generations haven’t been exposed to these chemicals yet. To them, (whom also have minimal niche/indie exposure), they are novel and pleasant…
…until they discover 90% of the rest of the guys in the skinny-jean house-music club with dance moves worse than them smell exactly the same.
To end on the positive:
Kinda cool marketing. Kinda cool (at least different) presentation. Slightly less nauseating than Dior Sauvage (measured in cups of vomit). Dark bottle wrapped in 100 yards of black twine can be used to fly kites covertly at night.
Cheers.
Karambay – :
You don’t wear Dark Rebel because others like it, you wear it because you don’t care what anyone else thinks about how badass you smell.
RaicleVialync – :
CH Men, with its brown sugar canes wrapped in smooth suede, sold its soul to the devil and came back on earth as Varvatos’ Dark Rebel. An austere yet still sweet take on Herrera’s recipe. Much darker, more masculine and grown-up to the point of not being enjoyable to some of the “inspiration’s” lovers. Also one made with references to Bvlgari Black, Varvatos Vintage and Bentley Intense.
You get white sugar engulfed by a big dose of a leather/vanilla duo but one that is very, very rubbery and smoky (Bvlgari Black), like you’ve dropped tires over a campfire. So it’s a bit ashy as well, dry with tobacco and pine needles added (Varvatos Vintage). The coniferous part pretty much disappears on me after the opening though. Finally you pour some spicy brown booze on it (Bentley Intense). In the dry-down it becomes less rubbery and not as smoky. It’s more balanced with the sweeter notes.
In a world where the old-school manly powerhouses of the 80’s are no longer the norm, Dark Rebel is a refreshing well executed wink to that period where your level of masculinity was measured by the hair on your chest while also managing to stay modern. It could easily appeal to a fan of the Mugler A*Men/Flankers or Burberry London as well … But it won’t be for everyone for sure.
opughTYGHgyhb – :
One of those fragrances that’s not love at first smell(for me). But, for some reason, continually intrigued by it I kept going back and ended up really liking it. Only for some occasions though. Here’s why:
Very smokey (kind of like burning wood smell/campfire), with a very undertoned Rum touch at initial smell without much else. Maybe some incense there too. Then, the leather, vanilla touch and sugar slowly comes through and really becomes that dark and interesting scent as the bottle would indicate. The sillage is all over the place for me. On my arms alone (which, admittedly hairy and keep scent away from skin), its gone after the smoke wears off. But, sprayed all over and on clothes, it lingers in an amazing way for hours. I’d only wear this when I’m operating solo or loud and inclusive events. Not a morning scent or one to wear all the time. All and all, I like it and will keep it at the front of my bottles for use.
DicBomoswomia – :
یه کار متفاوت چرمی شیرین که گاهی میتواند تداعی گر یاتاقان بزرگ باشد
———–
Scent & Qualiy: 8/10
Longevity: 7/10
Sillage: 7/10
Creativity & Uniqueness: 8/10
Affordability: 8/10
———–
Overall: 7.6/10
Belij_vlad – :
It smells like a seasoned leather jacket that has been dropped on a beer -and booze soaked bar floor. I quite like it!
utyf666 – :
I had the chance to sample this scent on my skin at a perfume shop. I was appalled at the scent initially as it is quite a sharp and bold scent, but the bottle should’ve been quite the warning.
I moved on, but as I occasionally sniffed my arm it settled into this sweeter, vanilla, yet still boozy, tobacco scent. I started to like it more and more as it settled and transitioned. I quite enjoy nonlinear scents, so this one began to win me over.
After a couple of weeks, I kept thinking of this scent every so often and had the sense of “absence makes the heart grow fonder” come over me. The perfume shop said $90, Amazon said $70, but I happened across it at Marshall’s for $30.
Now that I have it, I LOVE this scent! Bold, adventurous, a subtle sweetness; this scent tells a story and the story has some years on it much like the demographic intended for this fragrance.
It has lasted the day on me and the projection is about 3 hours for my skin. My clothing still hints at it as I pass by anyone and it remains closer to my skin at this time. To me, this is a smell that has you standing out, but not necessarily like a playboy. You could easily attract someone different who admires this scent.
All in all, not a crowd pleaser, but very unique and distinguished. For me 9/10 and you should get some compliments at smelling great and lingering in someone’s memory for a smell that isn’t worn so popularly.
ulc207JeomiWogkig – :
The nitwit below me must be an olfactory authoritarian. He needs to get the memo that smell is subjective. You can’t force someone to see, hear or smell the exact same way as you do.
timohazorko – :
This is really nothing special , but it is an ok frag & needs overspraying , So it does suffer from longevity & sillage , but > I say with confidence , that Dark Rebel smells NOTHING !! like M Kors or Zirh Icon , nothing ! … So disregard the review of the person two steps below …
cucker – :
A little overhyped in my opinion. This scent easily falls under the 60+ curse for me…meaning if you own at least 60 fragrances, then chances are you’re going to own something that smells pretty damn close to Dark Rebel. For me it’s smells like a cross between Zirth Ikon and Michael Kors For Men, although I like both better than this offering.
JV Dark Rebel is not a bad fragrance at all, it’s just that after reading many of the reviews here, I was expecting something a little more different and creative. A slightly disappointing blind buy for me. If someone has something to swap, hit me up.
4nikonsniperp – :
Well id call this love at first sight. To be honest what i fell in love at first was the bottle and the name. When i got it and tested it i remained in awe. Just a fuc!!! Awesome fragrance. Great notes blended together. As it opens up immediately one can smell the rum and the sugary notes, as it settles down the woody notes together with the tobacco makes it an amzingly rich scent. I describe this as a scent for a bad boy with a lot of masculanity and who makes women go crazy for him. Definately a night winter scent. Sillage is very very good in my opinion as i got complimented from more than arms length distance. Performance is quite decent also although not its forte. But damn it i love it. Definately 10/10
ucenic88 – :
Dark, smokey, a little salt like the smell of prosciutto – that was hard spelling to remember!
Woody.
I layered this with jpg scandal, this lasted all day
I’m female
I loved the depth this gave the sweeter scents
Gamesfdfreeadg – :
Good fragrance with very nice opening.
Beautiful and manly but nobody around you can detect it after max one hour.
its projection / scent bubble is extremely poor with average skin scent longevity and above avergae staying power on clothes.
It reminds me of D&G The One minus the grapefruity vibe.
турик – :
Just got a bottle and immediately gave it a try, one spray each wrist. initially smells identical to “Dragons Blood” incense that I buy at a local smoke shop. It is what everybody describes, dark, boozy, tobacco, leather etc.
To me it’s dark and mystical, an excellent scent, takes me back to my teens in the 70s, the hippy commune near my home, hanging out with friends in a dark room, my 600 watt Marantz receiver, KLH speakers, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, black lights and dragons blood incense, etc etc etc…
It’s real nice!
slava7777777 – :
I came here for the tobacco note, and stayed reading and contemplating. Indeed, the list of notes left me swooning and wondering – would this be suitable for a woman, hmh, maybe? yes? No?! Reading the comments it got very clear very fast that this is a manly mans scent. Alrighty then.
Ohhhhh, how I wish they’d make something like this for a woman as well. Why not?! Why does it always have to be this juicy, fruity, silly, sugary, “sparkling”, “airy” thing -like a bloody-baby-pink-bubblegum-lipgloss counterpart of a fragranced water for women???
Why can’t it ever be deep, dry, sexy, rich, slightly sweet/soft/woody and well composed perfume with this very same tobacco, leather, rum, black vanilla, cardamom and sugar cane found in here? Ok, maybe with just these notes that’d fall a little flat. But let’s add some cinnamon, amber, coffee, hazelnuts, sweet wood, maybe heliotrope, and finally lily, shall we?! (no fruits, no patchouli, no frills, no faff pretty please!) — and I’d probably die for it.
Sorry for the rambling, I´m just exhausted. Have been looking for a beautiful deep feminine oriental for ages!
planch – :
Damn this fragrance is manly as hell i love it!Im not getting bad longevity,projection isn’t amazing but the scent itself is stunning.
Dark,smokey,rich i’d definitely recommend for masculine guys over 30
erkebulan_kz – :
This is a case of loving or hatting a scent at the first sniff.
Dark, dirty, smoky, boozy, wet tobacco, black leather, burnt, rubbery, very manly…
This fragrance promisses to be the Katrina hurricane of fragrances, but the wind never blows stronger than 30 miles per hour. You get just a thunderstorm premature climax. It’s a pitu because I REALLY LOVE DARK REBEL.
Performance kind of sucks. After 2 hours you barely get a skin scent and 2~4 inches sillage. It does not get much better if applied on clothes.
YesterdayI saw the movie “Run Away Bride”for the 10th time and my disappointment with the Dark Rebel performance has been similar to what Ike / Richard Gere felt like in his weading. IT also only took me 3 minutes to fell in love with this EDT.
Let’s see the maths for John Varvatos Dark Rebel:
– Scent: 9.0 (my judgement – the scent is just GREAT)
– Longevity: 6.0 (under average for the existing notes – less than 6 hours)
– Sillage: 5.5 (3~4 feet at its peak with 3 sprays; projects for less than 2 hours)
– Uniqueness: 9.5 (preetty unique, considering the existing fragrances that I am aware of)
– Wearability: 8.0 (all year round day or night, except hot temperatures)
– Versatility: 7.5 (yes to clubbing, socializing, events, restaurants, bars, dates, romancing, sex, office, picnics, weaddings, movies, birthday gift to your best friend, work out…. as long as you stay less than 2 hours in any of those situations)
– Quality: 9.0 (my judgement)
– Presentation: 10.0 (simple but very bautifull and effective)
– Price: 7.5 (100 ml tester for 28 Euros + VAT + shipping)
Overall rating: 8.00/10.00
Will I buy it again?… yes – because the scent is out of this world.
Turnarounds:
1st trick – This fragrance is the child that resulted from the marriage between A*Men Pure Malt and Encre Noir. I tried to layer it with Carven’s Vetiver and it turned a little more darker and doubled the performance. 🙂
2nd trick – Apply a bit of almond oil on your skin and then apply 3~4 sprays. No scent change and you almost double the performance.
kovdenyr – :
A fascinating fragrance, and perhaps the first one I’ve ever come across (of the hundreds I’ve smelled in my life) that manages to make “burnt” and “smokey” smell good.
The aromatic pipe tobacco and gentle leather won’t show up for the first 15-20 minutes, so prepare for a very dark and dangerous opening that smells like very dark incense, or the inside of a recently used and emptied smoking pipe, or charred wood, or maybe all of those things at once.
After I jotted down my first impressions, I read the rest of the reviews below in search of words and descriptions that resonated, and @shopkw is exactly correct to call it a “pool hall vibe.” Although, that maybe conjures up images of foul-smelling cigarette smoke, and if it does, disregard the comparison.
Maybe it’s more of a cigar and pipe smoking lounge aroma, but it’s the day after a whisky tasting event, so the smokey scent is faint, and part of an overall bouquet that includes the leather chairs and whisky glasses.
The word “ashtray” is also used in several reviews below, and that is also accurate, but it’s not a stinky plastic ashtray. It’s carved of wood, and it’s sitting far enough away that the harshness of rancid ash is a threat, but only a threat. It never materializes, because it keeps its distance.
As I said, it’s fascinating. It’s very well balanced, especially during the drydown when the sweeter elements are more identifiable.
Belphegor – :
if you can get past the ashtray vibe…
this is ‘Bon Jovi: wanted dead or alive’ in a bottle
murkatepa – :
Dirty, dark, masculine scent. Nothing feminine, sweet, or pleasant here. Whoever brought up Jack Sparrow is correct. I cannot pull off wearing this because it is too male for me. I can’t say I’d be particularly attracted to it on a man, but it certainly makes a statement.
alexsnake – :
I like this one. I get where the inspiration of rebellious men in Detroit comes from. As it has a throwback, matured, smokey, incense pool hall vibe. But this represents them with class, smoothness, and sweetness. Once you get past that opening vibe you get a very well blended juice thats very aluring. The notes are blended to compliment each other so well here. Longevity is good here as well as the linear dry down. You get the same scent and effect from start to finish. The price maybe too reasonable, but they dont promote this fragrance enough. So you can get that feeling of exclusivness. I’m adding this to my cold weather frangrances. This is a hidden gem in plain site.
MakedonskiSasha – :
This is a fantastic dark and smoky perfume, one of the catchiest and addictive ones I have ever come across. All the notes play extremely well with each other and the longevity and projection are huge. There is a certain calm in the darkness of this perfume and for me looking at the bottle takes me to a dark moonlit night by the lake.
lalin – :
I feel like a broken record here. Not saying my nose is the end all be all, and I know everyones skin is different, but people who don’t own a fragrance need to stop commenting and misleading…
THIS SCENT IS A BEAST.
Projection: strong 2-4 hours, moderate additional 4 hours, with total longevity on skin 10-14 hours at least, and I have dry skin not friendly to perfumes.
Similar performance on clothing.
This is with only 3 sprays!!!
This is a leather scent with wet tobacco accord, backbone of sweetened smokey western oud. It’s similar to Oud Wood, but better due to its leather note. Much better than Versace oud nior and knocks the socks off of many $200+ bottles I own.
Manly, smooth, sexy, dark yet elegant. Can be worn anywhere.
If I can rate it an 11 I would
busar – :
I was only able to try this on a smelling strip and I didn’t get the castoreum, tobacco, or rum. Instead, it came across as a similar kind of smell in Varvatos Vintage, which is fruity and with some “darkness,” though the notes seem “sticky,” and the sweetness might enhance this unfortunate quality. Though the prices are great now, I think I’d rather do something like layer vintage Z-14 with a gourmand scent. At least that way I know exactly what I’m going to get, and it won’t have that sweet/fruity/sticky quality that leads me to reach for something else when I think I might be in the mood for the original or Vintage Varvatos. Great notes listed but the ones I want to be dominant never seem to be!
tata19771 – :
I finally got around to trying Dark Rebel and I love it. It’s a macho boozy, leathery, smoky scent. I like to taste mezcal liquor, which is similar to tequila but often has a strong smoky aroma and Dark Rebel has that same kind of smokiness.
Typical of most JVs, with a few extra sprays I get good longevity and projection on the lighter side.
My wife hates when I wear this however. I find it to be smooth smelling but she thinks it smells harsh and incense-like. She says that it’s one of the strongest scents I’ve ever worn around her and could not believe it when I showed her all the reviews with complaints about projection.
The bottle is okay in person, not as impressive as other JVs.
shuri4ella – :
To me the davana is one of the strongest notes in this, and it is apparent throughout the entire wear, as are leather and tobacco. The rum disappears quickly after the opening. There are some resins and woods in the background. To my nose there is nothing sweet in this. Longevity is not horrible, but it doesn’t project well.
zipper – :
@Danielectro
Haha, yes, there is something similar. Stinkor, “Evil Master of Odors”. The good guys’ counterpart of Stinkor was Moss-Man. Ever smelled that? I always liked Stinkor better.
About Dark Rebel: I love it. I’m not sure if there are so many occations I would wear it, but on the other hand, it doesn’t project