Sillage & Longevity

Intimate to moderate sillage, moderate longevity.

Thoughts

I love love, love love love this perfume. Well, I basically fell in love with the original Black Musk already. It makes sense that I fall in love with this variant as well. Later in this post, I’ll give you the difference between this Night Bloom variant and the original one. Stay tuned!

Back to the topic! The reason I fall in love with this perfume is that it has the proper depth to it. Moreover, I feel like it leaves an unexplainable, mysterious impression on the users. Those reasons would make you smell more elegant and mature. Even though this perfume has a sweeter tone of scent, and I’m not a big fan of gourmand type, I still love it anyway. I’d say if the original Black Musk would be the perfect scent for women in their 19-23, this Night Bloom variant would be used by women when they’re 24-27. In my head, I feel like the women who use these variants are those who are elegant, high-class, and metropolitan (lol).

Before we get into the comparison that I promised you before, I’d try to describe the scent journey of the Night Bloom one.

At first, you will only smell some fruity scents. Fortunately, it’s not a punch in the face kind of fruity scent and not too sharp as well (very friendly to those who sensitive to/don’t like fruity aroma). I can’t smell the pepper, though. I assume the pepper note is very subtle--but prominent enough to tone down the sharpness from the fruity notes to make it easier to the nose. It doesn’t need that much time to enter the middle phase, where you can smell the typical rosy scent dominating here.

If you read the notes, you may notice that there are three different notes in the middle. One of those notes is heliotrope. I didn’t know anything about heliotrope before. I thought it would smell like a typical floral scent. But, based on the description I read on Fragrantica, this note leans to the sweeter scent more. It makes so much sense since I smelled a sweet, vanilla-like aroma after the rosy scent started to tone down. I thought it was the travel time of one phase to another being extremely fast, but now I assume it is just the heliotrope.

The dry down scent that I get from this perfume is a sweet scent with a touch of rough, woody smell that successfully makes the whole fragrance has a more mature and elegant touch. Besides the woody notes, the musk in this perfume also makes the sweet scent becomes more pleasing. Don’t forget the touch of pepper at first is a rescue to balance out the fruitiness, make it softer to the nose.

Overall, I feel like it certainly is a more feminine fragrance. Well, I personally think fragrance is genderless, so it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman and you want to use this scent. Oh, I want to give you a fun fact~ Out of all my perfume, my partner loves this one the most. I think this is a men-getter kind of scent. Men love this kind of smell on women. They think it’s attractive. Though, of course, it depends on how the perfume works on your body and skin. It might smell good on me, but not on you—and vice versa.

Do you think it’s worth the price? Yes, I do! I feel like the price I pay is very well translated to what I get in a bottle. I know that nowadays there are so many new perfume brands offering very much more affordable products. Not to mention those products are EDP. But, since the body mist from The Body Shop is quite long-lasting (especially the Black Musk variant, both the original and the Night Bloom one), it is still worth the price. Besides, this successful combination of notes won’t be easy to get in other more affordable perfumes.

Okay, now I’d give you a bit comparison of The Body Shop Black Musk original and the Night Bloom one. A little disclaimer before we start, please remember that the Black Musk original I have is probably expired already since I bought it years ago. So, I’m sorry if the description is not as spot-on. Even though the detail description might be a tiny different, it should have the same general scent colour.

The Body Shop Black Musk (original) notes. Source: fragrantica.com

Simply speaking, the original one is way more gourmand than the Night Bloom one. Both of them are very similar at first, but the more you let it dries down, the more you notice the difference. The original one has a sweet and darker, gourmand, chocolatey like kind of scent. While the Night Bloom has a sweet yet woody aroma.

When I first spray the original one, it also has a fruity scent. But it’s subtler and has a floral combination to it. When it starts to enter the middle notes, it starts to smell way sweeter than the Night Bloom. I feel like it is because of the liquorice note in the original one, while you get a rose note on the Night Bloom. I think the sweet scent makes me feel like this variant suites younger users more.

If you still can’t decide which one to buy, I suggest coming to their offline stores. If you can’t, just use my description to pick one that intrigues you the most. I hope you find the one that will suit you!

Suitable for

More feminine fragrance users, those who love sweeter kind of scent. Even though it’s gourmand, I feel like it’s still okay to be used at noon.

Pros

Cons

Overall rating
5/5

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