I have a miniatyre bottle of Black and it's... strange. It has this funny rubbery, oily feeling like freshly laid asphalt but deep down it's also warm and soft and very much vanilla. I don't like vanilla in perfumes so I seldom use it, but if vanilla is your thing then this has the kinky vibe to take one step from girl next door to sinful.

This is naughtiness in a bottle. The vanilla is sweet and bossy at first and then dries down to a slightly powdery “skin, but better” routine. The leather cracks the whip early on, but calms down after rubber shows up. And then, there is something else. At first, it is difficult to place, but suddenly the answer appears…oh no they didn’t. Animalic. Salty. Metallic? Maybe buckles and chains? Is someone smoking in the corner?
During my next trip to New Orleans, I plan on drenching myself in this stuff. Well, maybe more than four sprays.

Colosal !!! Black is just as much the masterpiece that I expected (hoped) it to be after all the reviews I read on it since years. What a surprise where on the bottom of a shelf in Munich airport my eyes suddenly set on....Black! After all the time I was looking for this perfume, not being able to find it where I live or around (for some reasons, I noticed that you can have in all the fragrance shops the entire Bulgari fragrance collection - except Black!). I love leather and smokey fragrances so the opening of Black is everything you can hope for on the smokey side. A deep leap in a teapot of a Lapsang Souchong and I can clearly see the references to the note of "burnt tires" but it is more smoked tea than tyres, without the chemical fumes. Then what surprised me even more it was how it settled, from that smokey, dry, dark grey, pretty masculine opening, into a radiating warm, amber (with a bit of vetiver maybe) note that lasts until its end, but where you still recognize in the background, very shy and diffused this time, the initial smoky note. If you think about it, you have two of the most opposite notes, blended together like by magic. If it were an image, to me it evokes a flash of black-grey, smokey cloud, through which when it clears out, you see glowing embers. But let's be clear, if you're not attracted by atypical, definitely not "nice and pretty" or polite fragrances, you should pass your way because either you will be disappointed or you will try to place this perfume in a category where it is not meant to be.

This is genius. Notes are described below. It starts strange then gets more feminine on me. It seems less of a "you smell nice" scent and more aromatherapy. This is as complex as a real person and just as interesting. Not masculine, just real.

I've been wearing this fragrance for about a week now, and I adore it. It smells unlike anything else.

I was looking for a replacement as my go-to winter fragrance MV3 from MAC was discontinued. I read about this as a replacement for MV3, and bought it from ebay sight unseen. When you first spray it, you do get the hit of rubber, but once it is on your skin it mellows beautifully into a warm vanilla jasmine scent. I do not like sweet florals and tend to gravitate towards unisex fragrances but do not like overly musky or manly smells. This one, while being billed as unisex, is not at all masculine and very wearable. I highly recommend it. I took one lippy off because it does not last very long, but I don't know a high end fragrance that does. Plus, at the low price it sells for (it is fifteen years old, which is why it is so cheap) I can afford to buy a second to keep with me.

This delivers most of the things I look for in a fragrance. It's warm and inviting but unusual and kind of strange. It somehow draws you in and weirds you out a little at the same time. I can't put my finger on what it is that makes it this unique and intriguing exactly, but I have smelled nothing like it. I can see how it could be worn both by guys and girls, as it's neither entirely masculine nor feminine, however it does still manage to smell very sexy.
And also, surprisingly, it's not as expensive as you'd expect it to be.
I think it's best saved for winter as it's also pretty incense-y and heady.

I don't know how to rate this one. Of course it's very unique: extra potent rubber and vanilla, who would imagine? Very longlasting too. But there is no way in earth I can wear this one. Interesting, yes, creative, yes, wearable (for me) no.

I have more perfume/cologne/body sprays from the highest end to WM...but this one fragrance is the most unique. It is actually formulated for men, but I believe the vanilla makes it one hellava sexy woman's scent. It is definitely a autumn/winter fragrance, and MUST be used sparingly. When I wear this, not only do I receive compliments from strangers...but I feel sexy wearing it. Now I will say, that I wear most scents to please others, since we don't really smell our scent after a short while, but this one makes me want to strut my stuff. I do not feel pretty when I wear it, I feel biker chick sexy to the bone. (yes, I am a biker chick, but spend most of my days wearing a lab coat) . I don't know if its the rubber smell or what, but its amazing, dangerous and not for the timid. It is the only fragrance that smells the same from the time I put it on, til it wears completely away. I love it.

I bought this for my teenage son to set him on the right path. As a bonus, he no longer bothers with Lynx body sprays, and I get to steal a spritz or two of Black myself when he is not around. To me the rubber note exists in a 'push-me-pull-you' balance with the vanilla. They need each other. That is the glory of contrasts. I find Black's sillage only moderate, but the longevity pretty good, and it lasts forever on clothes. On the discontinuation issue, I had heard that Black was to be d/c, but it is on Bvlgari's websites at the time of writing this review. Still, if you love it, stock up. Just in case.

I sampled this in Sephora after I read favorable reviews about the fragrance. I enjoy unique scents and this is definitely a unique scent. I like everything about it except the rubber note which is what the scent as unique as it is. Not for me, but I can appreciate its beauty.

Sexy. Dark. Urban. Modern.