Black Coffee & Old Books

[zankoku_zen]

No scent description provided.

[zankoku_zen]

I am amping up the black leather in this blend. It's a very cozy, warm and worn black leather. And maybe a ghost of coffee? It's mainly a soft black cozy black leather. Great throw and wear length.

[Missanneshirleyofgg]

Similar to the book scent from BOOKS in the recent release. My review was that it smelled more like new books than old, and I wondered what it would smell like upon aging. So, this smells like new books and the scent of coffee. Not sweetened. Bitter. Acidic. I walked away from this scent saying it smelled like “Adjunct professor grading final exams”. Surely on its own a scent memory for many people, and something to try. Not for me, but that is because I want my coffee to smell like dessert, and with a side of really really old books... musty in the paperback swap package, with writing underlining the most precious quotes and soft leather holding the tattered pages together. 

[starbrow]

A swing and a miss for me. I would absolutely love to get a genuine old books smell from this scent. The smell you get when walking into a used bookshop, with thousands of dusty aging pages crowded together, the slow decay of paper that smells musty and yet good at the same time. With a coffee shop inside, because this is a trendy hipster used bookshop and caffeine is life.

 

Well, Black Coffee and Old Books doesn't smell like that. The coffee is surely black, unsweetened and with strong tannins so it really, erm, wakes you up. "Old books" smells like...how new textbooks or cheaply produced paperbacks can sometimes have an "off" smell? Like the paper has been soaked in something strange or produced with a bargain batch of fibers or something. The word "cucumbers" came up in discussion at Lunacy and while I couldn't say this was a dead ringer for the cucumber in my fridge, it did have a pickly wrongness to it.

 

The book-lover and coffee addict in me is a little devastated right now. But don't worry, there are other coffee scents and cozy scents in this Yule batch to snuggle up with!

Edited December 21, 2019 by starbrow

[VictorianLass]

Hmm.....

 

In the bottle: Pure leather. Leather, leather, leather. It smells like a brand new handbag or a Coach store. 

On the skin: Smokey leather, like books being read around a smokey fireplace, but not a tobacco smell. No sign of coffee.

Dry down: Smoke, ashes, the fire has gone out, the leather book has faded quite a bit, back into the stacks. 

 

So, on first thought, the leather was overpowering and like others have said, it smells like new leather, not old.  I never got a single whiff of coffee in any stage, which was very disappointing. If you know of really good coffee scents, please PM me.  That being said, I admire how perfect the leather scent is...it amazes me how Beth can create such fragrances!  I also like the smokey part which calmed that leather smell right down. It has a bit of nostalgia for me.  It reminds me of back in the mid 1980's when I stayed a week at the Wayside Inn and spent the winter days and evenings by a warm smokey fire in the old hobgoblin hall and read all day long.  This is all about reading books by the hearth to me. But the original new leather smell is not a favourite of mine. This will make a nice post-holiday scent when snuggled by the fire, deep in a Dickens' novel.

Edited December 21, 2019 by VictorianLass

[Casablanca]

This smells like the rough, non-polished under-side of black leather on me. It reminds me of the black leather pieces in a tack shop, from when I rode horses as a kid. This is like a black leather tack shop.

 

It's all of the leather, but none of the coffee. My friend who is an absolute hooker for all leather scents -- and hates coffee -- will probably adore this.

[roseus]

From afar I get a dead-on old books smell, papery and musty with a bit of leather and some bitter black coffee. Up close I get a slightly chemical smell, like binding glue but I think might be the chemical bite I often get from black leather. As it dries this aspect fades and I get more roasty black coffee. So cozy and makes me think of being holed up in a bookshop.

[torischroeder9]

In the decant: Sweet vetiver and new, soft leather. I don't get a coffee note at all. (I am reviewing and testing on the same day it was delivered. Will update as necessary.)

 

On my skin:

 

Wet, it's older, more worn leather with the barest hint of black coffee. As it dries, even the hint of coffee fades, and it's just lots and lots of leather. 

 

After it has time to dry and develop a bit, a softer, almost dusty note emerges -- it does smell like the pages of old books. The leather is still there, but now the whole thing is like standing in a collection of older, leather-bound books. 

 

This is a very interesting blend. I'm not sure I'll wear it for daily perfume, but to be honest, I purchased it more for the curiosity and experience.  

[puellacaerulea]

Like other reviewers, I get tons of leather in the decant and right after applying, such that I have a hard time picking up other notes. After drydown, the old books note really emerges -- dusty, soft, slightly vanilla-y. The leather doesn't go away, but softens quite a bit after drydown, and blends surprisingly well with the coffee note. Very much an "old bookstore" scent. Need to test it a couple more times before I commit to a full bottle, but as an English prof, this one's speaking to me.

[Lucchesa]

Library scents consistently break my heart.  Black Coffee and Old Books is no exception.  First off, I got lots of leather.  No coffee beans were in evidence.  The strong leather (which I like) quickly mellowed into a more parchment feel, with the bit of dust and mustiness and old paper that I look for in scents like these.  A hint of coffee.  I decided it didn't matter if there was any coffee at all as long as the old books aroma would stick around on my skin -- this would be my used bookstore scent, my ancient library.  But no, within 90 minutes it was barely perceptible.  For some reason my skin just obliterates these scents. 

[supreme_c0rt]

I seem to get more of the coffee note than others have here. Coffee notes usually disappoint since they tend to smell like coffee candy, as this one does. Sweet coffee candy mixed with black leather. It feels closer to black coffee because of the leather, but still has that artificial twang. This isn't a slight, as I'm not sure it's possible to really get an authentic coffee smell from not-coffee. At any rate, I don't feel like I'm sticking my face into a bag of beans (if only). 

 

The book note is quite lovely; a pulpy, musty paper with some binding glue (is that a ghost of vetiver?). The big surprise is how delicate it is on me, which is a first for black leather. This is the best version of the Lab's black leather I've encountered so far, after trying several blends where it outright strangles. It's just the right amount.

 

I do like this quite a bit because it has a great lived-in, scholarly feel to it, and it does work beautifully with my chemistry. But it is delicate, and I find myself wanting a touch more throw. It's a really nice blend though, and a great find for leather lovers.

Edited January 22, 2020 by supreme_c0rt

[doomsday_disco]

Black Coffee and Old Books is predominantly a black leather scent. It's got a strong black leather note backed by some coffee, but the coffee is pretty timid compared to the leather. Over time, the leather softens, the scent becomes more powdery, and I get some of the actual book pages -- but by then, the coffee was super faint.

 

Not bad, but not my type of book scent. I was hoping to get more book pages and coffee from this one.

[biggnerd]

This is a worn, soft, faded black leather scent.  There's a little paper sweetness, but not much.  It's mainly leather.  Leather often goes loud and wonky on me, but this one behaves itself.  It is comforting and nostalgic.  

[VetchVesper]

I smell cucumber and cold coffee, specifically the cucumbery smell in some of the plasticy perfumes like Polyester Spiderweb.  A little later I start to get supple leather, and then the plastic cucumber becomes more of an ink smell. I'm not getting much coffee anymore. Just leather, ink, and something smoky. 

 

It's an interesting blend, but not something I'd wear, and once I've got plastic cucumber in my brain, it's hard to think of old books.  

 

ETA - After reading all the other reviews, I was thinking I might be insane, but thank you Starbrow. Cucumbers!  I swear.  O_O

Edited April 21, 2020 by VetchVesper

[Rayleigh]

A big morpher on me. It starts out with a strong, plastick-y black leather, but it doesn't take long for some dust from the pages and a coffee-esque acidity to emerge. Now, if it would freeze at that stage, it wouldn't be my favorite "book" scent (it has some stiff competition!), but it would be a good encapsulation of its subject. Unfortunately, it starts getting sweeter and doesn't quite know how to stop. Within about two hours, it's mostly vanilla ice cream. It reminds me of benzoin, but I don't usually amp benzoin.

 

This would be a more helpful review if I knew what was turning this so sweet. This is interesting, and the middle stage is nice, but I have other olfactory books that I prefer and that play better with my chemistry.

[Roogna]

sad mine has no black leather, no coffee either

it's a sour leather, very "beige" with a hint of sweet? definitely more like some of the other "old book" scents, but more sour

after a solid 30+ minutes the sour dies down and it becomes a bit more "velvety" leather, which is not bad, but this is a lower throw than the sour part. 

and it doesn't last more than a couple hours

[storme]

Why I bought this: I... like coffee and books?
Wet: a sort of... green something and books smell. I mean, in the bottle this is marzipan, which is a concern.
Dry: It's driving me mad that I can't quite place this green note. Cucumber? Definitely a foody green thing, not at all coffee or books.
Notes: this felt so far off the promised notes that I came to check forum reviews and bless whoever else said they got cucumber. It's not just me!

[fairybites]

So I know there's an oil called Black Coffee, I have yet to test my decant so I'm unsure if it's the same black coffee note in both of these. It starts out with the coffee, definitely black. The old books appears more and takes over the coffee with time. The books are yellowed and slightly ink stained to me, combined with the coffee I think it gives the coffee a sort of stale note, or like it's been forgotten in the library. A little bit of leather too, my guess it's black, but it's faint on me.

 

To me, this is similar Mistakonic University but without the creaminess from the Irish coffee. So if you were looking for a less sweet and more bitter/slightly stale coffee note, this might be better.