Cuore di Pepe Nero Erbario Toscano for men

After months of dreaming about this fragrance, I finally got a bottle of it today. I’m so excited to wear it!
Cuore di Pepe Nero is a gorgeous scent.
It works so well with my skin chemistry. On me, I definitely smell the citruses and something fruity that’s both fleshy and tart/dry at the same time-I think the rose hip. It’s aromatic all the way through and it gets woodier and slightly sweet as it dries down.
To me, it has dark academia, sophisticated but also kind of cozy vibes. When I smell it, I picture a reserved and very elegant gentleman in a velvet smoking jacket in his study with a pipe. It would work well as a signature scent and has a bit of a je ne sais quoi.

I have a bit of a problem with this one. After not wearing it for years, I recently found an old bottle of this (almost 10 years ago) and it smells divine, but the bottle is almost entirely spent. So I got a new 50ml bottle. I enjoy it but it really doesn't smell the same? It sounds ridiculous but I wonder if perfumes can age. The old bottle smells so much richer and almost woody.

Otherwise I'm still a big fan. It's hard to find proper masculine scents that don't smell like locker rooms or overbearing leather. I should try some more italian fragrances!

Cheap and cheerful piquant pepper,
Spicy spritzer,
Amber after
Patch.

Punchy,
Pleasant,
Fiery fragrance,
Fun!

Last spring a male friend and I were browsing through a high-end gift shop on the square of my small town, awaiting an adjacent festival to begin. Anywhere there's fragrance, I will sniff it. Several of the Erbario Toscano scents were presented in the back of the store, and this one made me gasp with awe and delight. Why? A memory. It flooded me, hauntingly, driving me mad trying to place it. Surely, a man from my past, long, long ago, as in my early childhood, wore something nearly identical yet with so many peppers and vetivers out in the 60s and 70s, I suppose I'll never know what it was. Regardless, I exclaimed about it aloud in this small shop. I approached my friend and told him how I felt. Later, when I was at the front of the shop, he secretly bought Cuore di Pepe Nero for me. It's definitely up there with Chanel No.5, Coty Chypre, and Opium for bringing back fond if vague memories of those who wore such divine scents around me before I even knew what perfume was. As our days warm up now that it's March, I'll be putting this back on and wondering, "Who am I emulating, and will he come to me in a dream?"

Super underrated, which is understandable as its hard to find in the US. I managed to grab a travel spray from a local European gift shop. I like it a lot. Tons of vetiver and some lemon in the first minutes, and then in the dry down it smells JUST like freshly cracked black pepper.. lives up to the name for sure. Sucks that it doesn't last long at all, maybe an hour max on my skin. Very similar to TdH and I kinda get Gucci Guilty Absolute vibes too, but it smells a lot more natural than both of those. Fresh, but warm.

I understand why some people speak about TdH but for me this is another story. It’s true this is bitter and citrusy in the opening, spicy all the way through. But CDPN is in my opinion a bit more quirky. If I had to choose right now I would probably fancy a spray of TdH rather than Pepe Nero. That said I loved Pepe Nero and I will surely love it again.

It’s fresh yet very dark. It’s a thick black linen cloth hanging from a citrus tree in a summer night. There’s the sea over the horizon whilst someone is grinding some black pepper by the window where a bar of soap rests on a windowsill. It smells natural. I remember sniffing deeply to take it all in.
It lasts forever on my skin and even in hot weather it projects for a good five to six hours.
Great performance from opening to drydown.
I don’t know why I got bored. Maybe I wore it too often and intensively for a few weeks no matter what I was wearing or the circumstances. I couldn’t get enough of it until apparently I did.
I confess I do open the bottle for a sniff from time to time and use the shower gel on special occasions. So I guess I still like it but I just don’t feel like wearing it for now.

A more natural version of Terre d'Hermes, one step closer to being a decent, wearable fragrance. Don't get me wrong, it's overall a really nice, pleasant fragrance, but there's still something that comes across as unpleasantly synthetic, unfortunately. As a side note, I cannot identify the smell of any kind of pepper in this fragrance — is it just me? I feel like this is a rather common theme in perfumery — often the smells described as "something" don't actually smell like "something" but are just the perfumer's impression of "something"... Or maybe "black pepper" here doesn't mean dried fruit of black pepper, but some other part of black pepper? I don't know. Either way, I must say this fragrance really does remind me of Terre d'Hermes and its countless imitations. But somehow — to me at least — this doesn't feel like a straightforward imitation of TdH, which is a good thing.

Totally agree with eb87 down here.

Cuore di pepe nero ("heart of black pepper") is mostly pepper and citrus with a woody background. The pepper is really prominent.

It is in the same family of Terre d'Hermes and Ginepro Nero by Erbolario, but at the same time it is very different.
TdH and Ginepro all have a smoothness to them, a roundness, maybe a slightly synthetic feel. This instead is more raw. No roundness, just a nice blast of pepper and sparly citrus. Very realistic and natural smelling.

Unisex. All year round. Performance is decent.

I have to admit I am very surprised while reading reviews. Although I am very enthusiastic about this scent, to start with... I hardly perceive it as summer fragrance,I pick up a little of the lemony vibe but the dominant note for me is black pepper (which I love), so for me, it classifies as an autumn fragrance.
About being unisex,I would rather say it is a typically masculine scent, however, it is known to appeal to women too. In fact, a female friend of mine wears it and she does elegantly so... and the clerk at Erbario Toscano boutique told me it was one of their best sellers and that although targeted towards men, an incredible amount of women happen to buy it for themselves (and let's say it, a woman wearing a masculine fragrance smells sophisticated and sexy, so why not...). Now, one final disagreement, so many smell a similarity with Terre d'Hermes and Ginepro nero, well I think they might be confusing the black juniper note with the black pepper note in Cuore di pepe nero, I find them completely different. I get the similarities between TDH and Ginepro Nero, but absolutely none between the former and Cuore di pepe nero. Now... it remains an AMAZING, spicy scent.

This fragrance is UMAMI - deeply and unexpectedly savoury. While it doesn't actually smell of food in any way, its intensely lemony-pepperiness kept reminding me irresistibly of that scent of perfectly-sauted scalloppine or schnitzel, crunchy and singing with heat fresh out of the pan. And much like eating by the seaside, the sort of outdoor-fresh background here keeps your appetite for it going for ages.

The pepper is strong and astonishingly true, but the lemon/woodiness keeps the whole effect very fresh and light and zingy, rather than going down the dark-moody-oriental-spicy path of something like CDG Blackpepper. This is a more outdoorsy and sunlit affair altogether. Totally unisex, though you might not think so from the macho branding/marketing. Gets a little sweeter and spicier as time wears on, but never any less nose-tingling or enticing. Kept smelling my wrist and wanting to lick/nibble it ... I'd love to see how animals reacted to this one. Absolutely delicious.

It is indeed very reminiscent of terre d'hermes but I find it more organic, warmer/spicier and less smooth polished in comparison. Also it does not have the flint note of terre which anyhow only lasts a short time on me.The opening citrus and the cedar are very lifelike here, not like in terre where the edges are so smooth polished that the notes lose their identity somewhat and become something else. Also it does not have the floral impression terre has to me in the drydown.Both are totally unisex, this one is my favourite because I prefer natural/familiar over synthetic/imagined. However both are slightly hard for me to bear in the long run. If that was not the case, this one would definitely be on my like list and to try list.

I'm a female and I am obsessed with this fragrance. It doesn't particularly read masculine on me -- just deliciously spicy. I can't do a whole treatise on why it smells so good, I can only say it is spicy, warm, and delicious.

This perfume is a real gem, perfect combination of citrus notes, pepper and patchouli. Similar to TDH but less sharp, this is a great Mediterranean summer night scent. Longevity could be better though, but it is still fascinating.