Nuits de NoHo
Bond No. 9 (2003)

Spiced cherry and boozy creme de menthe on top of a rich, condensed milk caramel vanilla, balanced by dark woods, while round, effusive florals mix with the mint.

This lies at an interesting point where it's sort of a gourmand (the milky caramel vanilla is definitely Angel-inspired), but also a fruity floral (kind of like Florabotanica-meets-Guerlain's-cherry), and also a boozy minty, wood perfume.

It's not a personal favorite (I just don't like the mint combined with fruit), but I have to give it credit for being clever and the skillful way it integrates multiple tropes i haven't smelled together before.

I recently ordered a sampler pack of several Bond No 9 fragrances. Not sure what all the hype is about; however, this house is onto something, I suppose.

Initially after applying Nuits de Noho, I had to scrub, scrub and scrub. And I still couldn't erase the "stench." But after reading many reviews here, on Fragrantica and elsewhere, I decided to give the fragrance another try. I really wanted to like this one and the notes intrigued me...so I decided to give the fragrance a few more tries.

What initially smelled like rotting & acrid pineapple, foul patchouli and smelly, old, rotting jasmine later turned into an amazingly appealing fragrance. It took some patience and time but the fragrance did morph and pleasantly change.

When reapplied, I did not sense as much fruitiness, or pineapple as previously but a more balanced application of slight sweetness, gentle jasmine, natural patchouli (not head-shop strength) and a lovely musk-vanilla base. The dry down remained pleasant and more patchouli-musky versus cloying sweetness (or fruitiness).

Overall, this fragrance surprisingly ended as a relaxing and overall calming scent. Cannot imagine a man wearing this because to me, it definitely leans feminine. Silage is low and longevity is pretty good at 5-6 hours.

Definitely not a blind buy; yet overall, this turned out to be a uniquely pleasant surprise. Not sure its full-bottle worthy at such a steep price, though.

Bond's Nuits de Noho (NdN) is certainly a child of Angel but by no means is it a dupe. NdN is much lighter, less sweet, and the patchouli note is much cleaner, greener and more camphorous than Angel. They smell slightly similar and are certainly related but you would never mistake one for the other.

On my skin NdN has a pronounced sharp green, almost eucalyptus-like note that projects strongly off my skin and consequentially the sillage smells quite different than the area I've sprayed it on. I suspect that this is what is billed as the pineapple leaf note.

This has also been compared to M. Micallef Mon Parfum. Again, there is a family resemblance but the Micallef is softer, muskier and creamier. Comparing Angel, the Micallef and NdN, I would say that NdN is the least sweet and least floral, but with the brightest composition as it has pronounced green, citric and medicinal facets laid over the familiar patchouli vanilla base. For this reason it also strikes me as the most conventionally unisex.

Overall its fine, but its not setting the world on fire. Sillage is modest, longevity is about 6 hours.

I heard it was like Mugler's Angel. Kinda sort of, but that's a big stretch. It's a fresh, kinda-sweet synthetic fragrance. Not bad, but I can't say anything good for that. It didn't really speak to me or make me feel anything.

2/5

Underrated fragrance from this house and a definite winner. I enjoy how it evolves on me over time into a nice vanilla mood.

Sweet Stuff A sweet bouquet of flowers, Lovely as can be; Unisex? Well, maybe... But too feminine for me.