Private Blend: Black Violet Tom Ford for women and men

The violet in this seems to be all about the colour not the flower. To me it is the violet of an exotic tropical but poisonous flower, very dark and dangerous. It's certainly not the pretty violet of, say, Aimez-Moi by Caron. Add a hefty pinch of woody notes and oakmoss and you get a medicinal undertone. I don't detect any citrus at all. This is not a perfume I would comfortably wear - someone noted it would be a good goth perfume and I agree, however as in most Tom Fords you can tell that some thought has been put into its creation. It does not smell cheap and has pretty good lasting power (4 hours + counting).

Got an 8ml sample of this and I quite like it - not as violet as I had expected being a huge fan of violets! My joy, however, turned to sadness after a few hours as my wrists started to react badly to one of the ingredients (or a combination) and redden and itch madly :(

EDIT: not to be put off I returned to see if I break out and so far I haven't! However, to be honest the opening of this smelt so much like Zest soap (couldn't figure out the slightly familiar smell until my neighbour asked do Zest make a perfume now LOL) and I STILL cannot pick up any violets !!!!!! *waits* Humm not a lot happening for me here and I really don't get on with this inasmuch as I always hated the smell of Zest soap !!!!!!

After the initial notes, which are very similar to Black Orchid, it dries down to a beautiful, definite scented violets on a forest floor ambience. The only thing that stopped me buying it was the size of the bottle, it would take forever to use up. Can someone convince Tom Ford that he needs to produce a set of miniatures of his fragrances, stylishly packaged in some chic minimalist way ?

The first sniff of the nozzle had me excited, I thought of Narciso Rodriguez and his obsession with musk. " oh, that's getting a skin test" I thought.
Sadly, the story was much different once a sprayed it on my hand.
The opening was heavily sour and unpleasant.
Well half an hour later the sour citrus have died off and the floral, woody musk is afoot. Silage with these kind of scents is lower than my taste demands, and for good reason min you, because you would literally suffocate if it was met.

Overall, the initial application is elegantly horrible, the drydwon is much nicer though, the silage is as good as it can be without killing life.

I'm not sure what to make of this yet. I got the 100ml bottle without even smelling it before buying. Silly I know but I have done that with 6 different perfumes this month, 5 of them being TF Private Blends. My first initial thought when smelling this was "oh god, what have I done". I still don't love it but I think I will come to enjoy it as time goes on. Subconsciously that may be because what a waste of a couple hundred dollars if that would be if I didn't. When I was at the TF counter last week my boyfriend and I finally got to test them all, this was the one he really liked. For me, time will tell but I don't think it'll ever be a favourite.

I've worn it for a few hours now and the scent its evolving. It reminds me of Chanel No.5 funnily enough. I think you need a really strong personality to pull this off too. It's a bit old lady for me.

The opening notes of BV are very citrusy-fruity. There is something smoke like there too but than it becomes quite sweet, linear chypre. I can smell woods there and also patchouli (although it`s not listed). I know this fragrance gets tuns of praise but I`m not sure it fully deserves it. I love other beauties from the private blend but this one smells exactly like a stage deodorant you could have smelled in Ostrava opera theatre (which I love for their wonderful artists) in the Czech rep few years back whenever the curtain went up after a break. I`d say they did not spray around TF BV :) Or did they? :D

zmyslowa fajna woda bardzo trwala klasyczna chwilami mam wrazenie ze dla kobiet chociaz i dla faceta ujdzie

This was my favorite perfume and signature scent for a couple of years. A chypre (i see some reviews ripping on the oakmoss on here- but thats a key element of a chypre). I think it is more feminine than masculine, but still unisex- some of the men in my life have loved it when I wear this and wore it themselves when the opportunity arose. It is pretty strong but despite that has rather mediocre lasting power on me which has led me to layer it with clive christians x or killians cruel intentions. Some perfumes, i just breeze through, but i have only purchased one small bottle of this in my life and it has a little less than half the bottle remaining after about 2+ years of use. I can see how much is left because unfortunately I traveled with black violet and shampoo in the same ziplock and the shampoo leaked! All of the black covering on the bottle began to peel off and now it is a mostly clear, ugly looking bottle- but the juice inside is wonderful, deep, dark, woodsy, fruity, floral, mysterious and most importantly beautifully supports the prominent note of violet. I love tom ford and my messed up bottle doesnt make me too sad because i have another from his private collection on my dresser: tobacco vanille. I also own black orchid and black orchid voile de fluer along with a set of samples from the entire private collection! Keep the masterpieces comin' TF!

Some orientals go onto my skin just like a wet ashtray and this is one of those.It dries to soapy floral notes and stale smoke, like the clothes of someone who smokes after a long evening. It's not so bad I had to scrub it off, but I dislike this intensely. AND it WON'T scrub off, so staying power is unfortunately very good. Count me out on this one.

Like being trapped in a damp haunted forest in winter. Its strange and disturbing. On my skin it shares some similarities with Japon Noir.

After the citrus subsides it becomes mossy and very resinous. Its probably the darkest fragrance i own. Would be perfect for a goth.

This review may sound negative, but its not. I really love this perfume and think its very interesting; especially the way it changes over time. Not a perfect scent to cheer you up, but certainly interesting. It's longevity is like nothing i have ever encountered before, even in the other private blends which as a whole are very impressive longevity wise. It would last for days if you didnt wash. Give it a try! (the perfume, not the not washing)

This one seems to be a masculine fragrance- it must be the oakmoss heavy drydown-would be lovely on a man and rather heady as well

I love the name, Black Violet. But this combination actually hit me wrong and hurt my head. It's way too muchness. What is Mr Ford trying to cover up with this heavy blanket.
I don't even like it on another.
I would have scratched this back in the labratory.
sorry. This and Black Cashmire and Pablo Picasso are three toxic dumps for my olfactory department.
bugs spray.

This is a great fragrance with immense lasting power on my skin. Its very floral its indeed a unisex fragrance, more so than others on the private collection. I read that some of the fragrances on the collection can be worn together and noticed that this one in particular goes EXTREMELY well (in my opinion) with Tuscan Leather. Wow, it amazed me how well the two went together. If you have the privelage of owning those two or the whole collection for that matter, I highly recommend you try it for yourself and give me your opinion. Regardless this fragrance is beautiful on its own, and probably one of my favorites of the collection.

This is a unisex fragrance indeed. A citrusy opening developes into a very sensual violet fragrance. I adore this abundant part of dark, velvety and juicy violet. But after some minutes it gradually becomes reminiscent of an aromatic fougere... How strange? Masculine tunes of wood and oak moss appears and settles into the scent and after quite a short time these notes completely dominates the scene.

I begin to feel strange and almost hunted by these woody and mossy notes.

Still, I would really love to smell this one on a man. The lingering hint of sweetness from the violet in combination with the more obvious woody and mossy chords creates a very sensual fragrance. Smelling Black Violet on the right person would make my heart pound harder for sure.

It took a while to get around to try this. Well, what is it to say about Black Violet then?

You can read my review about Black Orchid, this is about the same.

Incredible, gorgeus almost the best violet top notes I´ve smelled in a perfume. Interesting, fresh yet almost spell binding. This violet must grow in an enchanted forrest. It´s vibrant, glowing, I swear I could almost hear it! I´m stunned! Yes, please... how is it possible with such outer wordly top notes... and then... again! Nothing! Or rather murky, horrible, horrible yes, really horrible oakmoss. And not anything else.

Oh, no the poor, beautiful violet is eaten by a oakmoss swamp monster. Shaaaas your ugly, old, dusty thing!

Sorry, but Tom Ford´s perfumes are kind of like evil nightmares for me, first so beautiful and amazing and then... all the beauty is kind of crushed! Oh why?

By the way, that oakmoss thing goes on and on and on... Forever and ever.

I think it will eat me as well if I try it again! Help.

love it, love it, love it!!!
It's dark and sensual. I usually wear fresh and citrus based perfumes like some of the Annick Goutal or Jo Malone ones. But one smell of this and i kept going back for more. Despite the cost, i treated myself to a bottle of
Black Violet". I have now also added "Japon Noir" to my collection.

I found this description: floral with notes of citrus, pulpy fruit accord, black violet, woody notes, oakmoss, Black Violet. It doesn't smell floral on me, just very warm and woodsy. I like it very much but think it's a bit more masculine than feminine so will give my sample to my husband.

There are the notes above now ;o)

I have tried some from Private Blend Collection, they are interesting.

I´m so curios about all Tom Ford fragrances, why aren´t any notes listed?

Have anyone here tried some of the fragrance that dosn´t have notes?