Café Mille et une Nuits

[boomtownrat]

Shisha and thick coffee brewed with cardamom pods, cinnamon, clove, black pepper, and nutmeg.

Around the corner from my house there are a couple of Middle Eastern restaurants that double as hookah lounges. While they aren’t nearly as exotic as the actual place in the film, I find myself wanting to go to those places when I wear Café Mille et une Nuits, just for the closest I can get to that experience without booking a flight. I can almost see the residue of shisha in this scent, the ancient walls and floors, the open doorway letting in the deep Moroccan night.

Café Mille et une Nuits is a lot more subtle than I expected, with only moderate throw. It’s not at all heady or overpowering, but it’s deep, warm, and otherworldly. Picking out the individual notes isn’t easy, but I’ll try. First there’s shisha, which is the dominant note on my skin for most of this scent’s long lifespan. It’s much more pleasing than ordinary tobacco smoke and is almost like incense. This coffee note is nothing like the others I’ve tried. It’s an expensive whole bean variety that you have to buy in a specialty shop, whereas the usual coffee note is more like the best stuff you can buy at Trader Joe’s: both are good, but this feels richer in every sense of the word. Cinnamon, which normally amps on my skin, sweetens the blend along with cardamom, clove, and nutmeg. Black pepper is just noticeable, giving it a little kick. The scent is extremely well blended and not foodie on me. It strongly evokes the place as seen in the film.

This will be excellent all year round, mostly at night, but not so strong that it feels out of place in the daytime.

[doomsday_disco]

In the decant: This has a very strong coffee note. It is a bitter coffee scent (not a sweet one).

 

On my skin: The shisha tramples all over the coffee note to the point where it could almost be considered a tobacco single note if it weren't for the hint of spices in the background.

 

Verdict: Not for me. I prefer the coffee and incense vibe of Destructive Vagina of the Fox Spirit, or the brown-sugar chocolate coffee of El Dia de Los Reyes to this one.

[fetish911]

Very strong spice notes in this one. The coffee I do get is bitter. I think this would be a better room spray than a perfume on me. I do prefer a El Dia or Bah! For my coffee scent. Anther one I bought blindly that didn't work on me.

[cinnamonster]

Very strong tobacco with a hint of spice. Not what I hoped for, sadly.

[zankoku_zen]

I was ultra excited about this blend. And sadly disappointed. It was a cardamom heavy, nutmeg and clove with just a dash of coffee. It's actually very Turkish smelling, and very evocative, but definitely spice heavy and light on the coffee for me.

 

Which makes me sad. I was hoping for a robust coffee smell with perhaps a whiff of spices.

[tinyvulture]

In the movie, I loved Eve's nocturnal visits to this Moroccan cafe. A bottle called out to me unsniffed. It's amazing. Coffee so thick you can stand a spoon up in it. Coffee with so many spices, more savory than sweet. Cinnamon, cardamom, black pepper. Syrupy shisha, too. Bold, strong, lasts and lasts. I may not have bought enough.

[Violaine]

I hate to say it, but this has such a loud Yankee Candle-ness about it that I had to scrub it off before it made me too nauseous. I'm sad that I can't experience the beauty of it, but it's just all heavily perfumed retail candle on me.

[Numanoid]

I was very excited to try this one!! I didn't know what shisha was, but ALL the other notes are just heaven for me! In the bottle, I got a perfect scent of coffee....it wasn't too weak, wasn't too strong! I was in love!

THEN, I applied it....and it went south very quick on me. I didn't get any cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper....nothing. It in fact turned to a kind of cologne on me! What the......?? So, sadly I had to set it free!!

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Deliciously dark, bitter, roasty coffee beans lightened up by something a hint of spice.

 

Drydown: Coffee-dominant. Very little sweetness and just the right amount of bitterness. Mostly it smells of roasty-toasty goodness. A brown that's nearly black.  I’m not familiar with shisha, but scent-wise it seems to be lighter and gummier than ordinary tobacco. Earthy but not weighed-down. I detect a slight butteriness at times, like a really good pastry that is rich and airy at the same time. This is everything you’d want to smell on the morning of a cold or rainy day.

 

Dry: This smells like standing at the door of a really good coffee shop, where the glorious scent of espressos, dark roasts, and mochas would be most enticing. Someone’s been smoking clove cigarettes nearby and from inside the shop wafts a compelling aura of rich, perfectly roasted coffee beans, highlighted by just a touch of chai spice and froth. Earthy and robust, but somehow...diaphanous.
 

 

8 out of 10 bones

Edited March 31, 2022 by BoneBone24
(updated to include more recent impressions)

[toburyyou]

I love this so much.

Started off as something deep and rich, like powdery dark chocolate with smoke layered on top. As it dries the shisha really comes to the forefront and adds a kind of incense-like loveliness. Totally dry it's a spicy, warm scent that feels like the start of an adventure mixed into a cup of something dark and addictive and dangerous.

Will be needing more so I can feel like I'm about to go to a dark fantasy realm.

[cinnamonster]

It's really tobacco-y. Such a shame as I wanted coffee too, the cardomom is there a little but it's mainly tobacco.

[Alistair miles]

I love this one it reminds me of back when I was in college and I sometimes studied at a coffee shop that was right next to a smoke shop. Absolutely wonderful memories. I will miss this once it's gone. but anyways it starts as a fairly even mix of tobacco and coffee with something that I can't quite identify (I assume the cardamom) and from there dries into a lovely spicy coffee with a hint of the shisha (truly wonderful in my opinion)

[Little Bird]

I was hoping for more coffee, but I don't really get any coffee from my decant. On me, this is a dusty, dry, heavy spiciness that reminds me of cheap potpourri sachets. The drydown is a little smoky and earthy, which must be the tobacco that others have mentioned. Mostly, though, this is an overload of cinnamon and nutmeg spice on my skin.

[milo]

Rich coffee syrup at first. After a bit, the spices come out, which is a good thing, as I really am not too keen on wearing a perfume that smells like something I drink:) Rather pleasant, rich spices with a touch of coffee syrup. There's a bit of musk here too, somewhat of a perfumey quality. I don't need more, but this is OK as far as coffee scents go.

[annemathematics]

a beautiful blend of coffee and tobacco, lightly spiced and made into a gentle cologne. none of the spices amp individually, but they contribute complexity and warmth to the scent. the tobacco is dried leaf and not sticky. compared to el dia, this has no sweetness at all (despite the ingredients it's not very foodie). a fantastic bpal coffee perfume.

[Atrous]

What I get at first is a bitter dark chocolate with a blast of spices. As this dries down the chocolate morphs into Turkish coffee and the Shisha is coming out. To my nose the main differences between Shisha and Tobacco are that the Shisha smells less smokey and has an earthy component to its scent.

In the end, Shisha and Coffee are perfectly balanced. They really complement one another. Spices tone down to where they are not overwhelming but they continue to make themselves known, especially Cardamon. Since I love the scent of Cardamon so much this just serves to make Cafe Mille even better. I also continue to get faint whiffs of dark chocolate in the background. A warm, spicy blend. Another winner from the OLLA series

[Monster]

Coffee is sometimes a hard note for me to wear, especially when it's the dominant note. But I absolutely love this first scene where Eve speaks with Hal in the Cafe and we start getting to know her character. I HAD to take a chance on a bottle of this and I'm really glad I did!

 

Out of the bottle is a thick, black coffee note. It's a strong espresso without any milk or sugar.

 

Applied to my skin, I'm getting the same black coffee note along with rich tobacco, spices and incense. As I smell this with my eyes closed I can almost see the Cafe around me. As it dries, the coffee fades to the background giving me the impression of sitting in a Cafe but not actually drinking coffee. It's around me, but it's not right in front of me. This is how I like my coffee note! The tobacco and the spices take center stage at this point and there's even something incense-like about this. It reminds me a little bit of Destructive Vagina of the Fox Spirit, it has the same coffee/incense thing going on, it's just a little bit more masculine and with 100% more tobacco!

 

I'm really happy I took a chance on this one, it's exotic, mysterious and whenever I wear it I'm transported magically to the streets of Morocco.

[alioth]

Cafe Mille is such an interesting scent experience for me, because it's the first bpal that's really made me think of a physical place, instead of the idea of one, if that makes sense. It starts off with a blast of black coffee and a tobacco scent that has a distinct edge of burnt--not quite ashtray, but like the stuff that clings to the inside of the bowl of a pipe, smoky and charred. I was expecting pipe smoke, and this isn't that, it's more like the scent accumulation of years and years of pipe smoke on cushions and curtains. That burnt edge fades as it dries, and then the proper tobacco and spices come out, almost like one's nose adjusting to being in a smoky room.

 

This never really gets warm and cozy on me, but it is extremely evocative of a cool night spent in a very old hookah lounge, where the smoke is almost as thick as the coffee.

[Zii]

ITB: Strawberry shisha and thick heavy coffee really jump out at me. The spices are nice and mellow in the background.

 

Wet: The candied shisha is very strong, followed by a coffee note that is rich and sweet and spicy. I'm not really getting the spice notes on their own, but I can get a little bit of clove in the sweet foody rush.

 

Drying: It's much smokier and drier and thankfully WAY less foody. It's much smokier and warmer now, and the coffee has faded way back. However, this candied shisha scent isn't my favorite version of smoke or tobacco. It's occasionally a wee bit artificial smelling.

 

Dry: Here it is. This has dried beautifully. It's spices almost ground into wood, like a spice box, and the smoke has died down to a pleasant tingle not unlike a hit from a shisha pipe. Right now it is very much like Herr Drossylmeyer, which is another foody and smokey blend I'm quite fond of. I'll have to test them side by side to see if it's worth keeping both of these, but this is a stunning blend once it's actually dry.

[aiobhan]

Wet: The lab's tobacco notes always go acrid on me. It's very sharp and there's a hint of coffee. Nothing else as of yet.

 

Dry: It's still all sharp, tobacco-y shisha. Literally no other notes are present. Ugh. I hate it when this happens. Will update review after a few hours if anything changes.

[doublehelix]

In the bottle, this stinks of cough syrup. Wet, it's dark, smokey and spicy. I don't get any foody notes until the drydown, and then it becomes much warmer, and softer, like rich black coffee smothered in spices. I have to say this one surprised me on the drydown, as it changes almost entirely. I agree I would wear this when going out for a cuppa, to lounge around with some friends.

[stellamaris]

ooh there it is, the cough syrup review. I know as soon as I see that, it's for me. And yes. This one is for me, thank you so much to the awesome forumite who sold me this gently used bottle.

This is just beautiful.

I get the coffee right up front but then the drydown is something lush and well blended, nothing comes out and screams at me, it is all one swirling cloud of slightly sweet, slightly spicy gorgeous.

amazing.

This does not smell like perfume, it smells like an amazing place, a time, I don't know. I could see wearing this to work, I work very closely with other people and your scent can't be obnoxious, but I do love it when people (often who because of our job I am standing right on top of) say, wow you smell great!

Worth it. Need backups.

Edited April 7, 2015 by stellamaris

[Poenari]

In the decant, Café Mille is a gorgeous scent. While the coffee is the initial note that I smell, I can also detect the shisha. This is absolutely evocative of an exotic coffee shop! However, once on my skin, the coffee does what coffee notes have always done. It amps, stomps over all the other notes, and turns into the smell of the remnants of day old stale coffee burning on the warmer. So sad, as I had very high hopes that this one would be different on my skin. If it stayed like the decant, it would have been bottle-worthy for sure. I'm jealous of those who can wear this beautiful scent!

[Soupy Twist]

I get sweet iced coffee in the bottle and on first application. Then it immediately becomes cardamom... and nothing else. I don't know where the coffee went! I get a tiny bit of tobacco after an hour or so.

[tillimint]

For me this smells much better once it has dried, but when it's there it's gorgeous and I can't stop sniffing it. Coffee and burnt caramel and spice and the almost raisinish smell of unsmoked cigarettes. Yum. I see what people have said about it being less perfumey, more room-scent-y, but for me it makes me smell as though I've been hanging out in a really cool cafe. I like it a lot.