Spotlight Fragrance: January: Bond No. 9 New Haarlem and Dior Eau Noire

Welcome to January's Spotlight Fragrances.
This month we will be discussing Bond No. 9 New Haarlem and Dior Eau Noir.

Our B&B vendors have come through for us like champs! Here's the first post in the Vendors Forum for the samples/decants for the January Spotlight Fragrances, Bond No. 9 New Haarlem and Dior Eau Noire:

Spotlight Fragrance Sale for January

The B&B vendors are taking turns for each month, in order to get a better economy of scale. I appreciate our vendors, Rick, Randy and Garry, supporting our Spotlight Fragrance project this way.

jakespoppy said:

I appreciate our vendors, Rick, Randy and Garry, supporting our Spotlight Fragrance project this way.

Click to expand...

+1- indeed!

I have placed my order for samples of these two frags, but I don't know when I will be receiving them and the month is half past already. It should be expected that it is going to take a little bit to get the train moving at the start aside from any additional commitments we may have had coming out of a major holiday season.

In light of this, I went ahead and ordered small samples for the remaining frags online so that I will have them on hand. If our vendors come through with some great bargains like Rick has done with New Haarlem then I will be taking advantage of those as well. Thanks again Rick!

I am also curious if there is anyone who may have used either of these two frags in the past and can give us an idea what we have to look forwar to?

My two samples from the PP came today. I will try them ASAP. I also ordered samples from Rick since I want to support "our guys" in this great endeavor!

OK- tried the New Haarlem. Very strong coffee and vanilla, sweet. Dry down was more coffee and less vanilla. I don't care for it and rated it a "2" on BN.

I love the smell of coffee and hope I have a much different impression on New Haarlem than you did since I ordered the 15ml from Rick.

Was it the coffee, vanilla or the sweetness that you did not care for? I don't particularly care for sweets.

Probably the vanilla/coffee combo. You might very well like it! Most do. I can add at this time that it was not a long lasting frag. Also a two or three on BN in that category. But, hey- I'm fine with the result- what a great way to learn and experiment. And, I'll likely have a good amount of testers for BST in a few months. AND- better I don't like too many- saves the wallet that way!

I'm really interested about the lavender in these. It's a top note in one, and a basenote in the other.

Eau Noir gets another negative vote. Very cedar and vanilla- starting out mostly cedar and turning into a mixture of both. I'm getting the idea I don't care for vanilla in my frags. Was quite long lasting, however. Did not smell lavender in either, but noses are different, I reckon!

Just placed my order with rickboone. I'm looking forward to trying the New Harlaam, I haven't tried a frag with a coffee note yet.

New Haarlem is one of my favorite Bond scents. I'll post my thoughts on it and the Eau Noire after I receive the Dior!

This was a great idea and is going to be a lot of fun, not to mention informative.

Well, the frags are on their way to me. We, the vendors, promise to get this in a more timely fashion in the coming months. This way we can discuss the frags in the months they're featured. I apologize for the delay this month.

More importantly...the frags. I have never tried these myself. Well, a small sample of Eau Noire. Don't recall much about it. I'm reading coffee on these and hotreds reported the same. Is this similar to say, A*men?

Rick - I think y'all have done great work pulling this together so quickly. Thanks much. I've ordered decants from you and Garry already - if this keeps up and the quality of selected frags stays this high I may not buy any more FBs and just buy large decants of the spotlight frags

I haven't tried the Eau Noire, really looking forward to it. I guess you could say that New Haarlem is similar to A*men in that they're both pretty sweet gourmands with dominant coffee notes - but I'd say closer to Rochas Man. The Bond is better blended, smoother and I get much better projection and longevity from it. My only issue with New Haarlem was a fear that I'd burn out on it pretty quickly. Was happy to be able to buy a decant rather than having to risk a bottle buy of something that I might tire of despite being smitten on a first wear.

See, Rochas Man, I get nothing but vanilla from it. Though, I've seen the same comparison. I will know myself soon enough.

rickboone1 said:

Well, the frags are on their way to me. We, the vendors, promise to get this in a more timely fashion in the coming months. This way we can discuss the frags in the months they're featured. I apologize for the delay this month.

More importantly...the frags. I have never tried these myself. Well, a small sample of Eau Noire. Don't recall much about it. I'm reading coffee on these and hotreds reported the same. Is this similar to say, A*men?

Click to expand...

The first month getting everything going was going to be tough. This didn't come together until late in December.
You, Gary and Randy have stepped up to make it work. There's still time left in the month. I openly thank all of you for your effort

The January discussion thread will remain active so long as people are wearing the fragrances and wanting to discuss them.
They may not be in the spotlight after January, but they can still be worn and discussed.

Enjoy them everyone and let's hear what you think!

rickboone1 said:

Well, the frags are on their way to me. We, the vendors, promise to get this in a more timely fashion in the coming months. This way we can discuss the frags in the months they're featured. I apologize for the delay this month......

Click to expand...

BillC said:

Rick - I think y'all have done great work pulling this together so quickly. Thanks much......

Click to expand...

maxman said:

The first month getting everything going was going to be tough. This didn't come together until late in December.
You, Gary and Randy have stepped up to make it work. There's still time left in the month. I openly thank all of you for your effort .....

Click to expand...

Just want to agree with Bill and Marc's comments. Rick, you've done a great job jumping on the January frags and getting the samples going. We knew we were giving you practically no advance notice to get the January frags ordered, must less back and distributed to us. Thanks again!

Great idea, Marc, to keep January going for a while.

maxman said:

The first month getting everything going was going to be tough. This didn't come together until late in December.
You, Gary and Randy have stepped up to make it work. There's still time left in the month. I openly thank all of you for your effort

The January discussion thread will remain active so long as people are wearing the fragrances and wanting to discuss them.
They may not be in the spotlight after January, but they can still be worn and discussed.

Enjoy them everyone and let's hear what you think!

Click to expand...

+1

We could always bump things down a month. Give us the month to aquire the frag, and then the discussion can be the next month.

Thanks to Garry and Rick and Archfire for putting this all together so quickly!

rearviewmirror said:

We could always bump things down a month. Give us the month to aquire the frag, and then the discussion can be the next month.

Thanks to Garry and Rick and Archfire for putting this all together so quickly!

Click to expand...

might make some sense...otherwise we could just double up February. Any word on the bottles rick ordered? I heard he was placing the order this last Monday so depending on how fast he gets the bottles and then has to decant and mail out to everyone I suspect we'll be getting them a day or two before February....there'll be a flood of reviews on Jan 31st