Le Labo is perfume brand which likes to keep its customers guessing with its naming. All Le Labo perfumes have a note followed by a number representing the number of ingredients. There are a few of them where that note is readily apparent. Most of them have the note named on the bottle in a discernable position within the fragrance framework but not the keynote. Then there are the ones I call the “bait and switch” releases where I believe the listed note is there but I never smell it. The newest release The Noir 29 is one of these.
Fabrice Penot (l.) and Edouard Roschi
These are certainly interesting times for the brand founded by Edouard Roschi and Fabrice Penot. It was almost a year ago it was announced this flagship niche brand was acquired by the Estee Lauder Group. There was a lot of written and said about that covering all possible reactions from happiness to rage. I fell in the middle with a “wait and see” attitude. While I imagine The Noir 29 was probably already in the pipeline prior to the acquisition it is going to be looked upon as the first data point. Which is why I admire Messrs. Roschi and Penot for deciding to go with a perfume that displays everything that is offbeat about Le Labo.
Frank Voelkl
They worked again with perfumer Frank Voelkl who since 2009’s Oud 27 has composed eight of the eleven releases since then. M. Voelkl is definitely a perfumer who understands Le Labo as he has made releases in all the styles I mentioned in the first paragraph. For The Noir 29 it is about fig, smoke, and wood definitely not tea.
The Noir 29 opens with a healthy amount of bergamot and a similar amount of bay leaves. There was a moment in the very early moments where this smells like the old bay seasoning used in cooking. That seasoning then gets sprinkled on fig. This is what forms the top accord. As the fig gains more traction the bay leaves start to smolder with a smoky quality. The smoke is even further enhanced with a cigarette tobacco accord. Hay adds a needed bit of balancing grassy sweetness. It all comes to rest on a vetiver and musk base. The vetiver is defined more to its woodier aspects by adding in cedar. The musks provide some depth to what has been a pretty opaque development for most of the time.
The Noir 29 has 12-14 hour longevity and above average sillage.
I am pretty sure The Noir 29 does not provide the tea leaves necessary to know what Le Labo will look like under the Estee Lauder umbrella. The Noir 29 feels like part of the family which came before it. I believe Messrs. Roschi and Penot wanted to make sure all those who were worried would see things weren’t changing. I think The Noir 29 is really going to appeal to those who loved M. Voelkl’s Santal 33 from 2011. This is a different kind of woodiness entirely complimentary to that perfume. There may not be any black tea in The Noir 29 but the smoky figgy woods more than make up for it.
Disclosure: this review was based on a sample provided by Le Labo.
–Mark Behnke
