The Dark Heart of Old Havana

$155.00

The scent
The artist
The inspiration

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Sometimes we envy perfumers' ability to capture memories in scent. That's what perfumer UK Sarah McCartney has done with The Dark Heart of Old Havana, in which she recreates an evening walk through Cuba's Old Havana from the Hotel Sevilla to the Caseon del Tango for a dance lesson. "Wafts of coffee and tobacco, sweet, sugary desserts cooked with baskets of oranges and mangoes," Sarah remembers. "The scent of peaches beginning to turn overripe, and citrus peel going squishy in the gutter. From a dark doorway a handsome man in white whispers, 'Do you want a Cuban boyfriend?' and I speed up a little, squeaking 'No! Thank you very much for asking all the same!' And then the old Cubanos at the tango club greet us with smiles, songs, rum, and kisses."

The Notes

Notes include orange, peach, grapefruit, sugar, tobacco, bergamot, tonka, jasmine, vanilla, musk, and black pepper.

Try a sample first!

Sometimes we envy perfumers' ability to capture memories in scent. That's what perfumer UK Sarah McCartney has done with The Dark Heart of Old Havana, in which she recreates an evening walk through Cuba's Old Havana from the Hotel Sevilla to the Caseon del Tango for a dance lesson. "Wafts of coffee and tobacco, sweet, sugary desserts cooked with baskets of oranges and mangoes," Sarah remembers. "The scent of peaches beginning to turn overripe, and citrus peel going squishy in the gutter. From a dark doorway a handsome man in white whispers, 'Do you want a Cuban boyfriend?' and I speed up a little, squeaking 'No! Thank you very much for asking all the same!' And then the old Cubanos at the tango club greet us with smiles, songs, rum, and kisses." Notes include orange, peach, grapefruit, sugar, tobacco, bergamot, tonka, jasmine, vanilla, musk, and black pepper.
We've met a lot of people in the perfume world, and Sarah McCartney of 4160 Tuesdays is one of our very favorites. Want to know why? Sarah, in her own words:
"As a little girl, I did not make perfumes from rose petals. That was for softies. I made magic spells and wanted to be a witch when I grew up. When I was 16 I bought a bottle of Diorella. I studied maths and sciences, practised music and French, wrote books on brands and their evil twin—counterfeiting—and online marketing, and learned to dance Argentinean tango.

For 14 years I was the head writer for Lush while the company grew from four shops—one in Poole and three in London—to 700 worldwide. I was writing 50,000 words every three months for the Lush Times, aiming to encapsulate the products' scents in their descriptions. During that time, I bought and read 200 books on essential oils and herbalism and learned the essential oils the founders gave me to educate myself.

At the end of the 14 years, I took some time off to write a novel featuring a problem-solving perfumer. In it, I described the scents that she made and I wanted to have them available for people to smell. So I set off on a quest to see if I could buy them. This turned out to be impossible - and pretty expensive - because no one was making exactly what I wanted, so I started another quest to see of I could make them instead. Of course that turned out to be even more difficult, but once I'd started, I just kept going. 4160 Tuesdays perfumes is the result."
The Dark Heart of Old Havana was inspired by the perfumer's trip to Havana and the scents she encountered there.

Size:

50 ML

Concentration:

EDP

Variant

Overall rating: 4.0 / 5 from 11 reviews.

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Reviews

One of my favorites

"I just recently have been reintroduced into the world of perfume after about a 20 year absence. Should not have come back into it because I have discovered 4160 Tuesdays and I cannot get enough. This one reacted odd on my skin, but I absolutely LOVE it. So, how can you wear a perfume that inhalation alone is not even enough to satisfy your senses, your skin hates it, and also the fact that my coworker is sensitive to perfumes. The answer my friends is a diffuser necklace. I found a stainless steel one on Amazon, cut and placed into it thin pads of felt from the craft store, spray the perfume on it and presto! Now I can suck all that unadulterated intense fruitiness aroma to my hearts content. I have purchased the full bottle and quite a few smaller bottles of this one as well as many others. Sarah McCartney is a GENIUS. It's a good thing I don't live in England or near her shop, I'm going broke as it is. . ."

— Este (5/5)

Tobacco

"Today’s scent : The Dark Heart of Old Havana, by 4160 Tuesdays Tobacco is what I smell, right off the top, and it lasts. Unfortunately, when I want this to go all rum and cigars, it doesn’t. There is a good dose of vanilla, then caramelized white sugar, and musk. Any fruit or floral is too muted to identify, although there is some there. Ultimately, this evokes a hot and humid evening, with unlit damp cigarettes, sugar-rimmed black coffee, and just a touch of something medicinal. I have the sudden urge to swat mosquitoes."

— Alexia N. (4/5)

Something Very Special

"This is a very beautiful fragrance. Sits on the top shelf of my fragrance collection."

— FP (5/5)

Loved it, purchased it

"I kept sniffing and applying this one through a very cold, rather depressing time. It saved me, I think. I ended up purchasing it. It's great. Sweet, warm. Peachy. I don't get any rotten fruit or ash or stank at all. Everyone loves it on me. It's like burrowing under the blankets with a hot cup of chocolate and a warm hug. Yum yum. I might be slightly anosmic to some of the notes, but the compliments speak for themselves!"

— Larkin S. (5/5)

Rich with depth....but a tad too sweet on me....

"I finally realized what this scent reminds me of: A pitcher of sangria at the end of the party, where the fruit is totally saturated with wine, and it's not ice cold anymore. The fruit has warmed up sitting at the buffet all evening. Smells sooooo good! :) Unfortunately on my skin, this is a bit too cloyingly sweet. I'll enjoy the sample thoroughly, but can't justify buying a FB. 4 stars for a beautiful scent (last night I wore it to bed!). Another beauty from 4160 Tues!"

— Jada G. (4/5)

Sensual storytelling

"This is definitely the perfume out of this collection that most matches the theme -- between the name and the scent. it's very nearly possible to craft a complete story. It opens with a splash of citrus that shifts almost immediately into a sweet faded tobacco. It could very easily be too noxious, but the tobacco is modulated just enough by the softer sweetness of the vanilla. There's definitely something evening tropics about this scent, and having been to Havana, it rings startlingly true to the sometimes-claustrophobic, always-thrilling experience of nighttime in the city. There is a definite flavour of night and sensuality in this. It's just shy of being masculine -- it smells like the trip home after an impulsive intimate encounter, when her soft floral fragrance has smudged together with his smoky tobacco even after they've parted. Personally, I'm not this sexy or mysterious, but there are women on whom this would be absolutely ravishing."

— KT (4/5)

Rotting Oranges

"This smelled to me at first like moldy oranges. Really, really unpleasant. I thought maybe that note would fade and the drydown would be better, but there was hardly any drydown that I could smell, just moldy oranges and then nothing. Disappointed by this one, I'm afraid."

— SadieMae (1/5)

Captivating

"This is such a bright, warm scent, and it really does smell like what I imagine an evening walk through hot Havana would smell like. I think the peach is the only fruity note that I get, but it's so well blended that you have to know it's there to register it. Otherwise, you just get hot, sultry, tobacco-y sweetness. Gorgeous."

— Amy (5/5)

Doesn't work for me at all.

"I typically love the different notes included in this scent, but there's just something about it that reeks like a person with periodontal disease! It could just be reacting that way with my chemistry. I'm so sad about this one because I always enjoy 4160 Tuesdays."

— M.Moore (1/5)

Warm, dark, and enchanting

"I can't seem to remove my nose from my wrist so I think I may have found a new favorite. The tobacco is dominant, but not aggressively so. It's warmed by vanilla and coconut, and is sweet without being sugary. The orange, bergamot, and grapefruit are strangely invisible in this perfume -- there's a subtle brightness that can't be attributed to citrus (perhaps the jasmine and peach?) -- whatever it is lends a bit of airiness and keeps the scent from wearing heavy. This reminds me very much of Bond No. 9's Chinatown, but with less smoke and incense. It is also reminiscent of L'Artisan's L'Eau d'Ambre, but brighter and softer. As romantic as it is, a man could easily wear this scent as well."

— JM (5/5)