Havana Vanille (Vanille Absolument) L Artisan Parfumeur for women and men

From the bottle this is overpowering and very unpleasant to my nose. It smells like fresh vomit. Sorry, it just does.

I have had stinky fragrances before and made them useful by mixing them. I had some Penhaligon's 'Lily and Spice' and I thought vanilla, lily and spice might go together. I mixed a 1ml sample batch and it is an improvement. The stinky notes were pushed to the edges and a floral ginger centre blossomed. Much better but not enough to make me like it.

It needed something clean and sharp to drive off the lingering stinky so I added some cologne (Jean Marie Farina). Now I have something which is curiously attractive. No remaining ugliness. The top notes are sharp, floral - light, fresh not heavy florals, herby, soapy, clean. The middle is made of richer florals - big, blooming, how tea roses should smell if they had a scent, an almost life-like lily, plus ginger (the flowers not the roots), a mellow spiciness. The base is a sensual seductive vanilla, warm and creamy and soothing (not oily and rank like the original unmixed vanilla) - how it should smell and how real vanilla pods smell to me. Wow! Very feminine, very sensual, captivating.

My next experiment will be to try to create a masculine vanilla mix.

I am getting to like 'hacking' fragrances. Take three smells I do not like, mix them together, and hey presto! This is amazing!

Verdict: unwearable out of the bottle. Does something magical in mixtures / layers with other fragrances. If you dislike the 'raw' fragrance try mixing it up with other items in your collection and you could be pleasantly surprised.

I'm not sure what to make of Vanille Absolument. I should probably mention that this is already a stretch for me. I am not particularly into gourmand and/ or vanilla like fragrances but I wanted to give it a try, as I read it is a different sort of vanilla.

Well here are my thought on it:

The opening is very boozy on my skin, like wearing a baba au rhum. Then it evolves into a strangely cold, somewhat leathery and smoky, mildly vanillic scent. Not unpleasant, somewhat masculine. I actually enjoyed that phase. The dry down, however, is simply disappointing: a vaguely sweet, rather artificial smelling vanilla. Very flat, yet cloying in a nauseating sort of way. Cheap is what comes to mind. Thankfully, by that time, there's barely a whiff left.

So, it's definitely not love. Yet, it is intriguing , so I will not dismiss it entirely. I only wish the dry down were more complex and more in line with its middle development.

Vanille Absolument has a saccharin sweet opening that is almost too much for me to handle. The drydown is pure "wood shop". I normally love the aroma of a wood shop but in a vanilla based perfume I found the combo a bit strange and unpleasant. I don't think anyone else is getting this development so it must be my body chemistry. This is almost surreal...I can almost hear the saw blade cutting through a plank of wood! After a couple hours my hand smells like a mellow smoky vanilla cookie...not bad!

One of L'Artisan's best creations since the wheel and sliced bread, I know those are big words but that's just my opinion. There is something about boozy fragrances mixed with vanilla and or amber that just gets my banana peeling lol. This is one of the first niche and first L'Artisan I smelled years back and I was really taken back on how horrendous I thought this was based on the opening, but things change and so do people and now I'm proud to say that I have this as one of my all time favorites.

If I could change this I would, I'd add a true tobacco leaf dipped the syrup note to the mix to really get the ball rolling but then again why tamper with something that's not broke?

I thought this would be the Holy Grail of vanillas, and there are many lovely elements to it, the rummy, powdery muskiness of it-- but on me there was a cloying, rancid sweetness reminiscent of butter gone off. I really tried to ignore it and was supremely dejected, but would have been more so had I shelled out for a full bottle unsniffed.

It's not what I expect .I think that this perfume has a note that spoil it.
I'm not sure what it is. It was not love for me.

I was expecting something rich, vanillic, and almost cigar-like, but no. Before trying this I was imagining Javier Bardem, and how he looks like a gorgeous, noble centaur full of sublime man-beauty. I was hoping that Havana Vanille would be as equally striking, like him as a perfume. Havana Vanille fell waaay short. (Shakes head in sadness).

On a friend of mine, this smells like vanilla ice cream. On me, it smelled like a snowball with way too much ice and just a meager squirt of vanilla syrup.

Review for Havana Vanille (which to me is a different composition from Vanille Absolument which I found had a far more screechy opening). This is definitely not a gourmand vanilla ( at least to my nose it isn't). It's a herbal/tobacco dry vanilla that's just slightly sweet. I love it personally but I can see that this is a love it/hate it perfume as it's a little strange/challenging on the nose? I agree with the comparison to ELDO compositions. The herbal/tobacco/rum combination...it's very intriguing to say the least. Those who hate licorice will want to stay far away from this as the note is quite intense in the opening. The drydown is my favourite part where it is less intent on challenging your nose and becomes a softer, comforting and warm, ever just slightly sweet woody vanilla. It lasted about six hours on me and by then it was truly a skin scent. I find this more interesting a composition than Tom Ford's Tobacco Vanille although that is also a fond favourite for this catergory of scent.

Delicious gourmand vanilla fragrance through and through. Comforting, milky, with enough sweetness and medium strength. But the name Havana Vanille tricked me into thinking there would be more to it. Yes there are spices, and when I focus I can smell some rum, but these are not very noticable notes. The price is way way too steep for something so ordinary and easily found elsewhere (although beautiful). But this is my problem with the "niche" market in general. Enjoyable ordinary fragrances in pretty bottles, that cost a fortune. And what's worse usually only available in huge amount of 100 ml. With hard-to-find, expensive samples. (rant over)

For a very similar fragrance I recommend more reasonably priced Vanille Ambree by Acorelle, a wonderful vanilla/spice scent, sold by a company with a very transparent policy.

Reading another reviews, it seems that this fragrance is a love or hate fragrance. I think (this is a personal though) that the negative point of this fragrance to some people is the rum-dried fruits note which is very similar to you can find in Frapin´s 1697.

I personally like this fragrance a lot. Despite the name has changed, I think the "Havana" concept is well reflected on its smell. This is a strong aroma; not fine or elegant but to me this is not a negative point. There are a lot of vanilla fragrances in the market and I think this is one of the best. If someone is looking for an elegant vanilla fragrance, I think one of the better options (if not the best) it´s Mona di Orio´s Vanille. I adore that fragrance too, but it goes in another direction.

Though not entirely synthetic as with some of the other more popular and widely marketed vanillas, Havana Vanille is a not really a natural vanilla to me (which in itself is not necessarily a good or bad thing). It is a sweet and slightly dirty fragrance, which simultaneously reminds me of a rum-laced confection, and of an ice cold car window covered in condensation. In an attempt to peer through the glass onto a Wintery landscape, I press my nose to the window and smell this peculiar vanilla mixing with the Winter outside and the ambiance of the crowded stuffy car. Intimate but neither romantic nor particularly comforting... It just IS.

Oh, how I wanted to adore this! Newly named "Vanille Absolument " - for some unknown reason - this vanilla is far from refined like the description wants you to believe. While I am intrigued by it, I just cannot put myself together to love it like I love Bois1920 La Vanigla, or Il Profumo Vanille Bourbon........
On me it starts sexy, with a boozy spicy rum, with hints of vanilla. This is the best phase on my skin and I would have preferred it to remain like this. But it doesn't last long enough.
The fragrance changes... the tonka takes over the spicy rum, and there is a definite dirtiness here.... it's dusty and yes, as someone else mentioned, a little moldy... humid and woody... reminds me of those shacks made of rotting wood that have roofs made from banana leaves... people who are poor by our western standards, who didn't have a shower in ages except in ocean water perhaps... and their skin and hair smell.... they elude a certain simple happiness... that smells like this perfume!
After this, another change... between the wet wood, tonka and mold there is fairly strong hint of...condensed milk? And tobacco leaves, green.... nothing like the tobacco in Tea for Two which is dry, cured, smoky...
Finally everything softens... more vanilla comes at the end, and a little pleasant sweetness.
Vanille Absolument is a true woody vanilla on my skin; not too spicy, not too strong, zero fruits, and surely not gourmand at all. There a weirdness in the middle phase that makes it a difficult love for me... Silage is mellow, lasting power quite good . Nevertheless it's addictive without being exactly beautiful. It's appealing and raw. Even though I am not enamoured with it, I cannot stop smelling it. Goes inside your system without the jitters of new love.

12/2012
Bertrand Duchafour is the poster child for the perfumer-as-auteur movement.  Contrary to the old school of perfumery, he speaks publicly about his work, is identified by perfume producers as the composer of the work and has identifiable styles. He is commonly discussed as an artist and creator, still a fairly new phenomenon. When his work is discussed, you often see words such as translucent, sheer, radiant, weightless.  I only know a small fraction of his work, but I'm interested in the meaning of this weightless quality. 

Duchaufour takes elements that we recognize (incense, orange blossom, vanilla, and rose for example) then separates the 'flavor' of the scent from other material qualities that our noses identify as weight, viscosity, density. Removing what reads to the nose as mass or palpability from identifiable aromas gives fascinating results. The perfumes aren't less complex or thinner than traditional perfumes. They are not simply diminished. They become twisted in a manner that implicitly makes us question the works until we've come to some understanding of them. Timbuktu feels not so much like an incense fragrance, but an answer the question, is light a wave or a particle? Timbuktu's radiance says wave.  Vanille Absolument doesn't change vanilla itself, it alters the context and gives us a vanilla pod in zero-G.  Can the flavor of Turkish Delight be separated from its material manifestation and placed as a permanent watermark on a perfume? (Yes, Traversée du Bosphore)

Duchaufour's work, more than any in the past 20 years of perfumery, takes us back to one of the original questions posed by modern perfumery, starting with the coumadin in Fougere Royale:  how do you define synthetic and natural?  In the late 19th century the answers might have seemed clearer, though no less interesting. Duchaufour's take is not to argue for a distinction, but to focus on our beliefs, based on the interpretation of our senses, of what feels natural or synthetic.  He gives us the tools to recalibrate our instinct, to retrain our 'gut' and smell the world differently if we choose to. In doing so, we, the subject, are changed. We are not 'natural' in that our instinct, our inborn ability to sense a more fundamental reality than our 5 senses reveal, is shown to be mutable and therefore subjective. Instinct is revealed as a hunch that we tend to believe is absolute. Duchaufour liberates instinct from the fairy-tale realm of natural and un-natural and shows us how to make better use of our intuition and insights. And we get to smell nice along the way. Take that, Secretions Magnifiques.

Easy shot at Etat Libre, another house that does a great job of challenging our views, but intentional. Punk, as a genre or sensibility, tends to come from the ring-and-run school of art. Duchaufour’s example shows a few more interesting things about perfumery and art. His making of spectacular perfumes is artistry per se, but to make us question the supposition of our beliefs about fragrance and ourselves while at the same time giving us gorgeous perfumes to wear? Bravo! And by welcoming the wearer to question societal beliefs, Duchaufour makes perfume wearers comrades in arts, an important piece in the definition of perfume artistry.

(I’m not very well informed on the Uzbek perfume issue, so I won’t comment. The question of the ethics of the ‘independent contractor’ or ‘hired gun’ in perfumery does raise interesting questions, though.)

I really expected to like this but I did not. I was expecting a warm, cozy scent with all the elements of amber, rum, leather and vanilla. Instead, mostly I got a very cold scent. It felt cold- icy florals with vanilla and a murky funk background. Not a well done scent at all to my mind. Very disappointing. Thank goodness I only bought a tiny decant.

I'm really surprised that people describe this as being gourmand. To me, nothing about this fragrance is really food-y. The perfume smells very much like the woody pods of vanilla and just barely sweet at all. I was also really sad to test this on my skin, because on the tester card it smelled rich, woody, and like a complex vanilla the like of which I've never experienced. On my skin, a musty note was brought out. This did happen a tiny bit on the card, but on my skin, it was a mildly pleasant vanilla wood smell combined with some kind of musty funk. From testing this on the card, this fragrance was one of the top ones I was thinking of buying as my new perfume. I don't think so anymore : ( It might be better if you mix it with some kind of rich, straight up sweet vanilla, because the woody pod note is really quite interesting. All in all, it's clearly a pretty well composed fragrance and if only the dirty note were to go, it would be absolutely perfect in my books. It manages to have such an airy, weightless quality--something I don't usually associate with vanilla. It's something that's hard to put into words, and maybe that's what's most striking about the fragrance. It's what really drew me to it, and you notice it more and more with the dry down (well, on my card, not on my skin). It's a rich fragrance, but I didn't find that to be in the way that others said (buttery), but in a woody, dry kind of way.

Something about this smells like a moldy pumpkin :o/ I much prefer the discontinued Vanilia.

Truly spectacular! To me, this is the most beautiful scent in the world! Being L'Artisan, it doesn't hit me over the head & shout "PERFUME"!! It actually has impressive longevity, yet it becomes a sexy part of my skin. I've tried all the vanilla's & I appreciate many. L by Lolita Lempicka is a favorite of mine & is a sweet, creamy vanilla with cinnamon & orange. It is amazing & so easy to enjoy. Un Bois Vanille seems best suited to wear to a beach bonfire in the fall. It is abrupt & harsh. It is also not very vanilla-y. I've used almost a whole bottle & just don't love it or appreciate it enough. Havana/Vanille Absolument, on the other hand, is done so beautifully & perfectly that I lust over it!! That's what I've looked for for years! My perfect perfume!

I wish this was still called Havana Vanille because I definitely smell the dry tobacco. Not only do I detect each and every note, but I detect them in the exact order shown in the perfume pyramid above, and it all blends together very effectively. The end result is a sweet vanilla with an herbal persona. It's only in the very end of the drydown that it smells like vanilla extract; up until that point it contains a note that resembles a vibrant green moss or maybe freshly crushed plant leaves. This green note lingers for hours.

It's probably the second most unisex vanilla I've ever smelled, after the infamous Tobacco Vanille, which I sometimes find too dark and harsh. I always have a difficult time imagining vanilla on a man, but this fragrance might actually work.

I personally don't think it smells like vanilla ice cream or think that it's gourmand, but at the same time I can easily see how it might come up that way on others, depending on chemistry.

The projection and longevity are perfect--I can smell it on myself all day, but another person would only notice it if they gave me a hug.

I am not normally attracted to vanilla perfumes, but this one is interesting. It is a very "round", creamy fragrance that reminds me of Lutens' Muscs Koublai Khan mixed with Goutal's Sables, garnished in Carribean flair with rum, dried fruits, and vanille- like a "black cake" accord. I do not envision tobacco much here- what there is, is "dry" rather than sweet, and I am glad the name was changed to 'Vanille Absolument'. Would I wear it? Of that I am not sure... as others have said, it does have good (excellent) longevity, but the sillage is about 2-3" from my skin- which can be a good thing, at times, but my own tendency does not usually lie in such subtlety. For this "type" of "dry tobacco" fragrance, I much prefer Odori Tabacco... and for my occasional vanilla fix, I'll stick with Acqua e Zucchero.

I love vanilla fragrances, especially during the Winter months, as I find them both soothing and warm. Admittedly it's not a vanilla gourmand that I'm usually searching for on my quest to find the perfect vanilla. So seeing that I prefer my vanilla scents with a touch of spice, I was quite convinced that Havana Vanille would meet my requirements.

Although Havana Vanille isn't overly sweet, it does remind me of vanilla icecream, which kind of classes it as a gourmand to my nose. The vanilla icecream note isn't necessarily bad, but since I have grown tired of eating vanilla icecream over the years, the scent has lost its charm too.

With vanilla icecream comes a strong condensed milk accord, and this is what I'm smelling plenty of in Havana Vanille. In all honesty I find this fragrance a little cloying and difficult to wear. I wore it shopping last night and this morning, and yet my original opinion has not changed.

The top notes are where this composition tends to struggle, with fluffy vanilla, condensed milk and dusty immortelle. I have to wait this fragrance out for a good couple of hours before I begin to enjoy some stronger hints of spice and resins. By the drydown I can safely say I am beginning to like Havana Vanille, although I am still far from loving it.

For any Australians reading this review, Havana Vanille smells exactly like Bulla's Vanilla Ice Cream. To sum up this product for overseas readers, Bulla icecream is less creamy than other brands and is more light, watery and icy.

I was unimpressed by the longevity of Havana Vanille. I usually have a lot of respect for L'Artisan, and I still do, but this particular fragrance pales in comparison to the rest of their range. Well, that's my opinion anyway.

This smells less like a vanilla than almost any other vanilla I've tried. Dirty, raunchy, smells like wet or chewed tobacco. More woody than gourmand, luscious & rich, this is not a light or watered vanilla but suropy (though not especially sweet). One thing I can say for certain is that it's interesting, though it's definitely not to my taste. One of the few vanillas I can actually see a man wearing with no problem.

As the name applies, Havana vanille smells like a sweet cigar. Sweetness of course coming from vanilla. Somewhat boozy? Projection sucks on this but longevity is good, got 8 hours on this. I like this one a lot.

Ho posseduto una confezione di HV comperata sotto Natale per aver letto alcune recensioni positive sul prodotto. Dopo averlo provato una prima volta non sono stato colpito favorevolmente. Ho deciso quindi di aspettare qualche giorno quindi di riprovare. Niente da fare: mi è venuta nausea. Ho cercato di individuare la vaniglia all'interno del profumo anche perchè lo avevo comprato per tale componente. Tuttavia per quanto mi sia sforzato la vaniglia non l'ho mai percepita nè nelle note di testa, nè in quelle di cuore tantomeno in quelle di fondo: in questo sono d'accordo con shoguns2480: la vaniglia, ma dov'è????
L'ho regalato oggi a mia suocera....
Per chi ama la vaniglia consiglio:
1) Spiritueuse D.V. di Guerlain
2) Tobacco Vanille di T.Ford
3 e 4) Dulcis in Fundo e Vanitas di Profumum
5) Eau Duelle di Diptyque

If you are looking for a great vanilla look elsewhere! As a vanilla lover, more like the obsessive jealous lover of vanilla must say this a letdown. It just plain smells nothing like vanilla-and I love all kinds of vanilla from spicy to sweet to dry. This smells like it has no vanilla in it! GUESS WHY?!!!!
BECAUSE IT HAS NO VANIELLA IN IT! No Sir! It would be genius to try and replicate a scent that occurs naturally and readily available by combining a hodgepodge of other notes if it actually replicated the scent, but this does not! I REPEAT! I SMELL NO VANILLA!

Vanille Absolument (formerly known as Havana Vanille) is a gorgeous, creamy-sweet dream that made me exclaim at first sniff 'It smells just like vanilla ice cream!". And up to this date, I haven't come up with a much better comparison to illustrate it, except maybe a tasty dessert my grandmother used to make called Oeufs a la Neige (Eggs in Snow) - a heavenly delight with custard cream.

It's luscious, fluffy and milky and it has a kind of silkiness that sets it apart from all other vanilla perfumes I've tested before (which, truth be told, are more or less alike).

The composition is a beautiful blend of vanilla, rum and dried fruits, rounded off with benzoin and tonka bean and a just a touch of orange and vetiver to make it seem easier and lighter. I couldn't however detect any tobacco in the notes - this is not a tobacco perfume. It's a mouthwatering milky gourmand that stays sweet and savory without ever falling on the cloying side.

It's yummy!

Dusty buttered rum vanilla. This is definitely a different take on vanilla and for that I love it. L'Artisan never fails to make interesting perfumes. This is not one for daily wear, but I appreciate it's softness. The vanilla is toned down with a creamed butter scent with a light hint of immortal flower. It is almost butter cream frosting, but the slight dusty, even lightly smoked smell gives it an edge that makes it more grown up and unique. Havana Vanille has decent sillage in the beginning, but becomes more of a skin scent after a few hours. I don't mind, this is a scent I would choose when I want to smell soft. Not baby powder soft, but interestingly sweeten dusty soft. If that even makes sense!

I have also tried this layered with Coromandel by Chanel (a rich amber blend). They are absolutely fabulous together. So keep in mind that this scent pairs well with a strong amber perfume.

You need to be in a certain mental state to wear it, honestly. I had the best salsa night of my life wearing this, feeling so luxurious - because honestly, one spritz is plenty. Here's why:
Smoky, boozy vanilla and narcissus open the show. it's a bit off-putting at first, you think it would be too strong, even masculine... but as it mellows on the skin, it softens. The narcissus turns from plastic to flower, the vanilla comes in as the richest, finest vanilla extract on the market. There's a powdery note that starts evolving and growing at the core, about half an hour into wearing it. With time, it becomes very femme. However, this is not a girly scent in any way. Don't buy this expecting something pink and fluffy. No. It's Rum, Narcissus, Smoky vanilla... real grown-up juice. One spritz is enough.

The beginning of this is strange and a bit alarming considering what I was expecting. I smell only a green floral note, and it is drenched with dew and covered in earth. Just very damp and slightly remniscent of mildew. I actually have to wonder if I've received a mismarked sample vial. And if I haven't, all I have to say about this one is - very disappointing. Yuck. It feels like I'm trapped in a mold laden cellar and the air is heavy and thick with moisture. And it is not getting any better as it wears. I'm having a hard time believing that this will be transforming into some magical smoky vanilla dream, but I will let it settle for the day - against the will of my heavily protesting nostrils.
EDIT: At the end of an entire day of wearing, just as it was about to disappear for good, I sniffed a hint of sweetness. A little too late. I highly suggest sampling this before you buy it - I'm glad I did!

The color of this picture is totally not the color of real Havana Vanille bottle. The real ones are pretty like dark yellow to brown. This is my most favorite vanilla-scent fragrance anyway! :Q

The opening of Havana Vanille is off-putting, with a sharp leather/tobacco note, but as it developed on my skin, the fragrance settled into a lovely, rich, creamy rum/vanilla accord with hints of tobacco and leather, very warm and atmospheric. I love gourmand scents, such as Guerlain's L'Instant de Guerlain pour Homme, and I'd classify Havana Vanille as a gourmand scent due to its rum and vanilla top notes. I do smell a bit of narcissus and musk, as well. The scent lasts very well and every so often you get a delicious whiff of that rum/vanilla/leather/tobacco accord. Not as inspired as L'Artisan Parfumeur's Dzing! or Timbuktu, but very wearable and intriguing.

Wow this is some good stuff it smells delicious and it last for more than 12hrs . Not more than 3 sprays and that's all it takes to do the job lol.

I am a vanilla lover. Vanilla fragrances are my favorite and I have a hobby of sampling all that I can! but I must say, this is my least favorite of any vanilla. Havana Vanille smells kind of harsh & bitter. to my nose it's absolutely not pleasant. It does smell smokey and burned, and I do smell vanilla, but it seems like vanilla mixed with burned plastic and something acrid. I like feminine faintly sweet (but not overly sweet) vanillas, but this smells kind of masculine, and there is no sweetness at all. This is definitely an unusual smell, but not something I'd want to smell on me or anyone else. If you want a smokey vanilla that's sweet try Laura Mercier Vanille Gourmande or Guerlain Spiriteuse Double, though that one bourbony-rum-my; if you want a smokey vanilla that's not sweet and has some scent of a fresh tobacco leaf try Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille. that is better than this but similar.

I love this beautiful gourmand. On my skin it smells like a rich vanilla extract. I do not get any rum or tobacco notes... Although I'm sure it's even better for those who do.

However, I will not purchase this fragrance. It fades so quickly on my skin that I would go through a bottle at such a rapid pace that it just wouldn't be worth the $$$.

On me this is moldy pumpkin. Putrid and disappointing. Too bad :(

By all accounts I should be in love with this soft but curvaceous powdery spicy fruity vanilla but the liquer note is just not agreeing with me. I don't hate this but something about the whole composition reminds of like a wooden cigar box that has been sitting in an old persons bedroom for many years. After a short time the liquer softens and the vanilla sweetens and it's less powdery- I like it right now but not enough to buy a bottle.

I am head over heels in love with this soft romantic fragrance. Its been a loooong time since something was so divine I felt this strongly about it! This intoxicatingly beautiful fragrance is a gorgeous vanilla bean tempered with lightly buttered caramel rum. It melds with the skin while a light, clean and refreshing wintergreen playfully emerges. I had no idea I'd like this one, much less LOVE it! Amazingly wonderful!

on my skin it settles as cocoa-vanilla dust. it smells so delicious! i could literally lick my arm!

too bad this one didn't agrees with me! i love sweetest of the sweet perfumes and never thought i'd say this but this is just a bit "too" for me :-( i do love neil morris intimate vanilla though

perhaps the only vanilla fragrance that I actually like.. a lot at that.. it smells like vanilla in rum, very Havana-style.. on my skin, it develops best in hot humid weather/location :)

L'Artisan Parfumeur HAVANA VANILLE delivers on the promise of its name: this really seems like a taste of Cuba captured in a bottle: vanilla, rum, tobacco, tropical flowers, all stereotypical components associated with the island.

The opening of HAVANA VANILLE really smells to me like vanilla extract, but shortly thereafter the tobacco and rum become dominant. This is a good example of a truly boozy fragrance--a bit too boozy for my tastes, actually, as the rum persists all the way through to the drydown.

I should say, though, that I do not like rum at all, so I may not be the best judge of any perfume in which rum plays a key role, as the taste of that spirit makes me somewhat queasy thanks to a life-transforming rum and coke experience. The tobacco and vanilla work well together in HAVANA VANILLE but are somewhat ruined by the rum for me. Désolée!

I live in a rather hot region, and I usually do not care about the temperature, just wear the perfumes whatever I like to wear.

I thought Havana Vanille ought to be a scent for cold days, and still it has something not to my concent.
(I'd like there is 2 more drops of labdanum, 1 drop of benzoin and patchouli each :p )

But I wore it just few days ago, the day was a fiercely hot summer day. I found the powdery-gourmet sweetness no longer stand out; instead a subtle, deep wet-earthy leather tone governed.
(Is that someone calls the note as Duchaufourade? xD)
That was much to my holy ecstasy, I have to claim it loudly.

No wonder, Havana is not a cold region. This humid, smokey yet delicious vanilla scent is made to be worn in a hot day in mt opinion. I think anyone who wants to verify this perfume should at least try it on in 2 hot days respectively. :D

06/28/10
I watched a program about Cuba. It said so: Cuban taobacco farmers soak the tobacco leaves in water with either rum, vanilla or honey in order to remove the harmful resin on the surface. Now I believe that Havana Vanille is made to evoke the aura in a humid warm tobacco drying room!

...Havana vanille is warm, smokey and humid, creamy and rich and also powdery...It is vanilla and dried fruits saturated in aged rum exhaling gentle puffs of tobacco...it is very grown up sweetness, lively, but mature and nostalgic somehow...it is bursting with colors burned and mellowed in the years of scorching sun - terracotta, deep orange, crimson, dark yellow, emerald green...hot blooded and beautiful...

Oh L'Artisan, what have you done? Or actually, have you done anything at all?
I am generally enchanted-disappointed-happy about it. Enchanted, because it is quite a beautiful fragrance. Disappointed, because it could have been so much better. Happy, because my wallet will remain full (for a while at least).

Havana Vanille is till now the least Artisan-ish fragrance of them I have tried. It lacks the 'powderiness' I love so much in Bois Farine and I hate in Mure et Musc. I generally consider it to be something quite characteristic of the brand, it is however gone here.

The fragrance makes me think of a very rich, sweet white chocolate with nuts and raisins and dried figs. It has some alcohol quality to it, thick almond liqueur maybe? Very rich, creamy, sweet. The final phase is vanilla-woody, with deep, resin aroma. However, it certainly does not seem to be inspired by a “wooden boat mingling with the aroma of rum and spice”, rather by a posh hotel on a private beach, where people in the morning sip coffee from fancy porcelain cups before they are out for a party of tennis. It is not a scent of an adventure, but elegant holidays. It is too gourmand to evoke the true Havana. Nevertheless, it has something nose-catching to it. I would love to say that it is safe and boring and that you can invest your money better, but... I can't. Maybe this is what I might wanna have when I am in the mood for sweet delight.

This stuff is amazing. It goes on smelling, to me, exactly like a cup of my favorite chai tea - milky, sweet, spicy, and warm. To me, it's fairly strong. The only trouble is, there is a bitterness I can't appreciate. I am not sure if it's the "aged rum" or the smoked woods. As it dries down, it still smells great except for that darned bitter edge. The vanilla & spices are gorgeous, and I get the suggestion of there being tobacco with the tonka bean, etc. Really, it's an excellent fragrance, reminiscent of a humidor, I just can't appreciate every note in it. What a shame. (I got B&B Words Chai Tea a couple of years back without testing first, and was disappointed at how heavy the anise was; that was enough to ruin the rest of it.) Also, Havana Vanille did a funny thing, starting out fairly potent for the first couple of hours, and suddenly, I could not smell it anymore. I can't even find a trace of it where it was applied. It's a mystery.

Havana Vanille starts with some kind of cleaness and sweetness (in a perculiar way, it makes me think about tuberose, of course they smell different, but similar in the way they project clean, sharp and sweet aura) and mixed with spicy cinammon + vanilla combo.

Soon it smells like a comfy local cafe in the winter to me. It smells of nice sweet foody spicy, a little bit sensual, totally intoxicating in an innocent, comforting way. I suddenly got the image of Tai Chai Latte, a slice of raisin toast and me, sitting at the table and enjoying a book.

The dry down is something I would die for. It is sensual, sweet and truely intoxicating. I can smell something creamy and sweet like vanilla (I guess that's the resin + woodsy notes), and really great musk (the musk smell sweet, sexy, great quality and so real, it reminds me a lot of Musc by Bruno Acampora).

The sillage is shorter than most of my other perfume, it lasts a good 3.5-4 hours, and then even though I can still smell it, it doesn't have any projection. It's like a shy trace of vanilla icecream, left really close to my skin for another 3 hours.

A must try!

I find it lightly spiced vanilla
although a bit lacking in umph..

I had hoped for a much stronger Tobacco..and Rum ..scent
what I get is a very SHY fragrance...
and frankly ...there are others that
can do it better with Pizazz!

Sorry .. this fragrance is for the meek at heart!

L'Artisan Havana Vanille transports me - one dose and I am suddenly sitting next to James Wormold right before he orders a daiquiri.

We wait in the hot sun, big-fendered cars crawl past us as the heaviest, sweetest vanilla mingles with the air drifting out of the packing rooms where cigars are rolled and wrapped. I feel the hard mosaic tile floor, the crushing weight of humid humanity in pressed cotton voile shirts.

Beautiful women with lacquered coifs walk by. Rum hangs in the air, barely able to escape liquid form to evaporate lazily across the bar.

What's the secret password? Vanilla.

I do appreciate this isn't a real sweet vanilla - sometimes a person doesn't want to smell like a cupcake shop. I also really like the powder element in this fragrance. The vanilla here on my skin reminds me of the extract used for baking. I don't know if it's the rum clouding it, making it smell cheaper than it really is, but it doesn't work on me. I find the tobacco really comes forward after 90 minutes which is very nice but not enough to move this to a love category. Well worth trying though.

This is not your plain old vanilla. After putting on a sample of my sample yesterday evening, I'm still smelling it this morning, in a very different form. The first thing out of the bottle was a white musk scent, followed a second or two later by a strong aroma of egg nog. The only way that I can stomach drinking egg nog is with prodigious amounts of rum, and this particular mix seemed miserly on the rum. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant foody scent with light vanilla, sugar and nutmeg, sort of an egg nog lite, creating an image like a translucent egg sunny side up, made out of vanilla extract, sugar and spice. That note lasted until I woke up this morning. The original egg nog scent was still on the shirt that I'd been wearing, but the scent on my skin had totally changed to a mostly fruity accord with hints of the promised tobacco and flowery things. I'm fascinated by the way that this evolves, and am sorry that I missed part of it while I was sleeping. After writing my review, I always go back and read the blurb. It's interesting that the notes appeared to me in a completely different order than listed, with many of the "base" notes coming out first, and the "top" notes only after many hours. One thing about this perfume - it has lasting power.

I got an onset of spiced vanilla with definite rum notes, very lovely and rich. After awhile, it began to dry down into what I can only describe as Egg Nog. This being tried around the holidays, that wasn't really a problem. The nog stage passed and left me with a lovely, warm faintly spiced vanilla that I really think I will have to buy. It's not too sweet or boozy, as others have observed, and has just the right amount of gourmand touch to keep it a true vanilla. Lovely and warm like a fine cashmere/silk sweater.

This one does exactly what it says on the bottle: It smells like vanilla, and wonderfully so. But beware! Some cook might confuse you...

Now it's my favourite parfum, I love it!!
Vanille, but not sweet, very special wearing.

Once again L'Artisan and Bertrand Duchaufour show us that perfumer still can make Perfumes.

Havana Vanille starts creamy, almost buttery vanilla that gets support from fresh tobacco.

I used to have Vanilla pipe tobacco and I enjoyed it's smell- it remains my best loved tobacco ever. Love that part.

Later composition sweetens and it feels like a moderate drop of rum added. Not boozy or sickly at all.

I recommend to try this one. Also will add that it lasts. It really does ^^

Well,i thought i could smell tobacco notes in its base,but on my skin i have a very foody scent with a doninating vanilla note.
So for me its a warm vanilla scent,nice for cold days.

I had a chance to receive a sample of this new Havana Vanille. I didn't expect much due to the notes. I'm not a fan of gourmand and liquer notes. Still I try everything L'Artisan at least once. I've never failed to be intrigued by L'Artisan creations. Most of the time their are enchanting even when they don't fit my type or my quest. I think of Dzonghka and Timbuktu...
Havana Vanille is a very gourmand scent like a very well made exquisite drop of vanillic rhum (if any exists!), very warm and inviting, but it's something I would rather drink in small doses rather than putting it on my skin! I did anyway. It smelled very boozy and very sweet for a while and very "Cuban" in a sense. In my imagery this is the smell of Cuban things: vanilla, rhum, tobacco. Not my cup of tea. I left it to set on my wrist for a while and in about 1 hour it became a syrupy vanilla marshmallow. Still nice, but not my cup of tea AT ALL! I'm not saying that it smells like Pink Sugar that makes me feel sick. Of course you can smell the mastery behind and I'm not trashing Havana Vanille forever. Just try it before buying. It's very personal.