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I was very excited about this product review, as I have become a big Kenneth Cole fan in the past year. After I discovered the Kenneth Cole RSVP fragrance which is a standard in my collection, I made it a priority to get my hands on the entire KC collection, and my newest addition is Kenneth Cole Black.
To begin with, the bottle is just classic. It's solid black with just a simple and understated title, almost hand printed, which gives the fragrance an immediately personable and, if this makes sense, an unintimidating appeal. It's sleek and says class as much as it says casual. It's a bottle that while just being black, truly stands out on my shelf, which for some reason is a cool attribute for me.
Now, for the scent...it's fantastic, and not one bit of a let down. It opens up fairly fresh with just a touch of fresh citrus mixed with some faintly spicy notes. Although decently subtle, it immediately announces its presence; like an intriguing and mysterious party guest that arrives fashionably late, but doesn't crash the doors down.
As the topnotes fade, the scent takes a very welcome and comforting turn to the intimate side, settling into darker woodsy tones, including cedar leaf, and a unique element: Incense smoke. It gives off a warm vibe while wearing off just enough to know that it's there; a lingering vibe of vintage style.
The basenotes are by far my favourite layer of this fragrance, committing fully to the dark allures of coziness, and settling into a warm atmosphere of violet leaves, musk and in my opinion, the defining scent, Black Suede. By this time, the scent itself has simply become a part of you, acting as your intriguing natural scent instead of a fragrance.
The way i look at fragrances, as you all should know by now, is how they make me feel; what do they say? what season to they evoke? What emotions do they emit? Sometimes i try to characterize the layers of a scent with a scenario in my head; it's crazy to say but it works for me. For Kenneth Cole Black, the combination of the topnotes, heartnotes and basenotes plays out a scenario for me: Coming in from a bright, crisp and snowy winter dusk to a log cabin where you pour yourself a glass of wine (for me it would be Inniskillin's Late Autumn Riesling), start a wood fire, and settle down into a blanket on the couch while you watch the snow fall outside...where you get so comfortable, you aren't sleepy but you just don't want to move. It's that perfect sense of relaxation and coziness that I feel Kenneth Cole Black evokes.
I read several reviews of KCB before writing this blog, and one reviewer compared it to "slipping on a vintage leather jacket". This is also an amazing analogy for KCB, which also comes across as subtley vintage.
Retail stores sell KCB for about $50 for a 50ml bottle, and around $80 for a 100ml bottle. I used my go-to source, Fragrancex.com (link is in the list on this page), and was able to score a 100ml Tester bottle for only $38! For those who are unsure what a tester bottle is, it's exactly what it sounds like: it's the bottle in stores you spray to test the scent. Often there are a surplus of these that don't get used, so places like fragrancex.com get them and sell them at a fraction of the cost. What a lot of people don't know is that when buying a fragrance, part of the high price is the packaging, and amazingly, the CAP on the bottle, which costs often more than the bottle itself. I purchased KCB as a non-used tester bottle without the box or a cap, and saved a LOT of money. Think about it: do you REALLY need the box and cap?
If you're not able to score a tester bottle, and you find KCB a little out of your range, (after all this IS a blog for looking good on a smaller budget...sometimes), you can get a suitable alternative in Swiss Army Altitude. Not often will i ever sing praise on swiss army, but their 'Altitude' fragrance is actually a very close comparison to KCB. It's more citrusy on the topnotes, and doesn't quite capture that cozy vintage feel that KCB has, but to the naked nose, it can pass as a twin. Do I suggest this? No. I suggest buying KCB. But if you insist on not spending the cash, you can pick up Altitude for around $20 at most places.
To conclude today's review, i recommend KCB for day and night use (preferably night), and in very cool to cold weather, and rainy days. Pair it with a leather jacket and don't look back.
Until next time gents,
S.G.
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