Widian / AJ Arabia
Widian / AJ Arabia
136 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
Spearmint erupts with green, toothpaste-like brightness—sharp enough to cut—while bergamot adds a subtle leather note beneath its citric facade. The first fifteen minutes feel disconcertingly fresh, almost medicinal, an olfactory shock that demands attention rather than acceptance.
The mint recedes as leather and dry woods move centre-stage, creating an unexpectedly sophisticated woody-spicy framework. The composition settles into something contemplative and oddly introverted, the leather gaining complexity against cedar-like austerity whilst the green accords remain woven throughout rather than fading entirely.
Moss and patchouli establish a grounded earthiness whilst vanilla introduces the only concession to warmth, preventing the fragrance from becoming prohibitively cold. What remains is a refined, somewhat cerebral dryness—the fragrance becomes a skin scent, intimate and withdrawn rather than projective.
Black Collection - III possesses the architectural severity of a brutalist monument—all hard angles and deliberately austere aesthetics. Jean-Claude Astier has constructed something that refuses to seduce gently; instead, it confronts you with spearmint's crystalline bite colliding against bergamot's resinous warmth, a friction that feels almost abrasive in its clarity. What emerges from this tense opening is a fragrance of studied contradiction: the heart reveals itself as a leather-forward composition, but this isn't the supple, sensual leather of traditional masculine fragrances. The dry woods—likely a combination of cedar and possibly vetiver—interact with the leather to create something arid, almost parchment-like, as though you're holding a well-worn leather journal in a sunlit library.
The base notes don't soften so much as anchor; moss and patchouli provide an earthy, slightly dampened foundation whilst sandalwood offers a whisper of creamy texture rather than warmth. Vanilla appears as restraint rather than indulgence—a ghost of sweetness that prevents the composition from becoming completely austere. This is a fragrance for the intellectually demanding wearer, someone whose taste gravitates towards conceptual rather than instinctive pleasure. It suits the transitional moments: the solemnity of autumn, the interior of a gallery, or the quiet focus of methodical work. It's best worn by those uninterested in being smelled before they're met.
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3.8/5 (140)