Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille Review

 A Unique Fragrance Experience

Sweet, sensual, and sophisticated, Tobacco Vanille by Tom Ford is a unisex amber spicy fragrance. It is one of the many treasures in the Tom Ford Private Blend collection and one of my personal favorites! This collection's other well-known fragrances include Tuscan Leather, Neroli Portofino, and Noir de Noir.

I hope you will enjoy our Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille review!

Tobacco Vanille was inspired by Tom Ford’s impressions of an old-world London gentleman’s lunch club. And spraying it on for the first time, one can certainly understand the connection. Picture well-worn leather chairs smelling lightly of pipe tobacco smoke mixed with vanilla liqueur. Tobacco Vanille is dark, rich, and decadent!

The Aroma

Most people who wear Tobacco Vanille would agree that the two prominent notes are tobacco and vanilla. Vanilla is one of the most pleasing scents used in perfumery, and Tobacco Vanille is one of the best vanilla fragrances on the market. The combination of tobacco and vanilla works really well as a unisex scent. 

Tobacco Vanille opens up with sweet tobacco, vanilla, cocoa note, and tonka bean. The tonka bean lends a creamy feel to the mixture. The combined effect is not unlike the smell of rum n’ raisin ice cream. It is relatively strong and sweet at the start, with just a touch of leather. But the sweetness is offset by a blend of lovely spices - cardamom, cinnamon, and clove. This fragrance creates a warm, enveloping cloud of tobacco and gourmand notes around you.

The sweetness has a dry and powdery quality to it. The cocoa smells like cocoa powder, and the dried fruit accord adds its own sweet magic to the scent.

Tobacco Vanille becomes less sugary sweet and develops more of a rich dark aroma as it dries down. The wood sap gives it a resinous undertone. This is a very thick fragrance but smooth overall. 

The tobacco comes to the fore, now less overpowered by the gourmand notes as it dries down further. The tobacco is green and leafy rather than cured and toasted. The spices and woody notes surround the tobacco beautifully. Thanks to the edgy spice notes, the sweet cocoa and vanilla combination also remains present for the rest of the wear but never becomes cloying. 

If you like rummy, boozy fragrances with many spices, then the Tobacco Vanille smell will definitely appeal to you.

I shied away from sampling Tobacco Vanille on me for a long, long time. The reason is that I tried MAC Velvet Teddy first, which is considered a dupe for Tobacco Vanille, and absolutely could not stand it, it smelled like a sickly candle to me. But this was such a reference fragrance that I finally gave in and got a sample.

Luckily in this case the original is much better. It definitely has a waxy texture, like a beeswax candle, but the spicy and aromatic notes balance it out. Now that I have tried this I can smell this sweet, waxy base in many other fragrances - this was really an inspiration to many perfumers, or more critically said: Every brand wants a slice of the Tobacco Vanille cake.

I actually don't think that this smells all that much like tobacco or vanilla. Sure, both are noticeable, but I get more tonka than vanilla and lots of other unlisted herbs and spices like mint and cinnamon intertwined with the tobacco.

On my skin, I find the scent okay, but a little too aromatic and waxy. I wouldn't wear it. On my husband, it smells wonderful though. He even considers buying a bottle, even though he's not a perfume junkie like me and usually doesn't spend that much on a fragrance. We tried a few similar cheaper fragrances like L'Occitane Eau de Baux and something by Zara, but nothing comes close. Spicebomb is good but completely different.

My theory is that the coarser, thicker skin that men usually have compared to women somehow softens the scent and makes it seem warmer, with more spices and vanilla instead of the aromatic, herby notes that pull stronger on my skin. On me it takes some hours to get to the good parts, on him it smells great right from the start.

This is obviously a modern classic that everyone should try once, but I especially recommend it as a winter scent for men who aren't afraid of a little sweetness.

The Main Notes and Accords

Notes: 

The top notes are tobacco leaf and spices. The middle notes are vanilla, cocoa, tonka bean, and tobacco blossom. The base notes are dried fruits and woody notes.

Main Accords:

• Vanilla
• Sweet
• Tobacco
• Warm spicy
• Fruity
• Cacao
• Dark chocolate
• Woody
• Powdery

Tom Ford rightly said of Tobacco Vanille: “Tobacco Vanille is opulent, warm and iconic. Reminiscent of an English gentleman’s club and blended with rich spice, vanilla, and tobacco flower. It leaves a powerful impression”.

Performance

The longevity is very long indeed (lasting up to two days). The projection is enormous for the first couple of hours and then settles down to more moderate for the rest of the wear. This is a very strong perfume so take care not to overspray!

When to Wear Tobacco Vanille

Warm Tobacco Vanille is definitely a cold-weather perfume. If you live in a hot, humid climate, this perfume may not be right for you. 

It is rich and thick and well suited to a date night or special evening event in the fall and winter. You can even wear it to the office, so it is very versatile. Or wear it at home when you need to lift your spirits!

Tobacco Vanille will get you many compliments as long as you don’t overdo it!

It’s an amazing scent. And lasts as long as any perfume of this price amount should. This shouldn’t be the rare exception with TF and Creed.
This scent is perfect for the Christmas season; I don’t know if anything is actually better for this time of year. Signature scent for December, for those who have many fragrances. All the ingredients represent this season and nothing is better.
December use only; in my mind, but that’s what makes it special and truly shine — any other month just doesn’t make sense or do it full justice, even though it technically could be worn in fall. But to make a fragrance REALLY work it’s magic, it HAS TO be casted correctly, much like the correct celebrity in a lead role.

As a man wearing this, women will lose their minds around you if you’re confident and have the masculine nature to balance and hold it up. It’s one of THOSE fragrances.

Who Should Wear Tobacco Vanille

This is possibly a fragrance for the more mature man or woman, positively retro-chic. Definitely not for most people under 20. I would say Tobacco Vanille leans more masculine, but a strong, adventurous woman can also pull it off!

Several celebrities are known to prefer the Tobacco Vanille smell - like Harry Styles, Ellie Goulding, and Vanessa Hudgens. That is great for marketing, but don’t let it sway you - you should try Tobacco Vanille for yourself!

Wow! Am.I late to the show on THIS one! It never was on top of my list to try, but it so happened that today I was considering what to wear on Xmas Eve and a sampleI had of Tobacco Vanille crossed my eye. I gave my self a spritz and almost immediately thought "Eggnog!" of all things, which I attribute to the vanilla and spices. I'm sure there is nutmeg in it! The tobacco combined with those two things made me think of bourbon, so this indeed conjured up eggnog and Christmas in my imagination.
There is a reason for the popularity of this fragrance that goes way beyond the Tom Ford signature. It's a mature vanilla, a vanilla bean, not a syrupy sweet, artificial vanilla one might associate with lower quality, teeny bopper scents. It's glorious, among the best I have ever experienced in a perfume. I was captivated. However, as much as I love and appreciate the fragrance, all I kept thinking was how phenomenal it would smell on my husband. I could easily see myself with my face buried in his neck and chest, inhaling the sexy and sophisticated elixir. For that reason, I see a full bottle in HIS future, not mine, with the understanding that I will be frequently "stealing" a spritz or two or myself.
As for myself and Xmas Eve, right now I'm leaning towards either my long guarded and reserved sample of Sahara Noir or my Estee Lauder Amber Mystique, unless I stumble across something else between now and then. As for hubby, he will be wearing Tobacco Vanille!

Cheaper Perfumes That Smell Almost As Good As Tobacco Vanille

Do you love the scent of Tobacco Vanille but cannot afford the price tag? Well, here are a few cheaper alternatives to consider. Although I must quickly say that nothing beats the real thing!  

Cremo Spice & Black Vanilla Cologne Spray

This affordable cologne (note: not as strong as a  perfume) has over 13 500 ratings and nearly five stars on Amazon! This warm scent blends spicy pepper notes with sweet vanilla, producing a beautifully well-balanced layered fragrance. It is suitable for men and women to wear.

L’Occitane Eau des Baux Perfume

This sweet and spicy fragrance has base notes of tonka bean and vanilla, with pepper and cardamom. The vanilla is quite heavy in this perfume, but the top notes of cypress and incense give it a lovely earthy quality. This oriental spicy fragrance is well-balanced with hints of tobacco leaf - just like Tobacco Vanille. 

 Squirtz Aromatics Tobacco Vanilla Fragrance

Etsy may be a strange place to buy perfume, but judging from the large number of positive reviews, this fragrance seems to be a good cheap alternative.

MAC Shade Scents in “Velvet Teddy”

This alluring fragrance features top notes of sweet honey, sensual amber, and creamy musk. The same aroma you'll find in Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanilla!

Closing Thoughts

Tobacco Vanille is unique, seductive, and charismatic, something that you would imagine an old-fashioned movie star in a 1940s film noir to wear. When wearing this fragrance, you can picture yourself in an elegant smokey English cigar room.   

The nose behind Tobacco Vanille is the famous Olivier Gillotin. This fragrance was launched in 2007 and remains very popular among fragrance aficionados today. 

Tom Ford scents are niche fragrances for people who want something special - these creations are not made for mass appeal. So, as you can imagine, they often elicit strong positive as well as negative responses. As it happens, Tobacco Vanille is almost universally loved for its strong spicy sweetness and delicate tobacco scent.  

One of the best and most highly regarded Tom Ford perfumes, Tobacco Vanille, is quite costly. But it is absolutely worth the investment! Besides, one spray goes a long way, so a bottle will happily last you for many years.