BEAUTY
Growing up we always looked to the classic fragrances as iconic. Chanel N°5, Dior J'adore, Guerlain Mitsouko, Issey Miyake L'Eau d'Issey or any of the other numerous IT fragrances. but when we got a little bit more in our own identity, we didn't really want to smell like everyone else. Iconic is one thing, identical is another. So we went looking for the fragrances nobody else in the room is wearing. Here are the five currently living in our rotation, none of them boring and all of them will have people asking what fragrance you're wearing.
Hayam - Ahwak
Top notes: black pepper, saffron. Heart: Turkish rose, carnation, sage. Base: leather.
Named after obsessive love and it does not ease you in. Black pepper and saffron open bold and a little addictive, the floral heart getting an herbal edge from the sage that keeps the rose from tipping sweet, and the leather base gives it staying power without ever feeling heavy. At 30% extrait de parfum, this is one of the most concentrated scents on the list, which means one spray does the job that three sprays of anything else would. Out of everything here, this is the one we keep reaching for.
Who it's for: anyone who wants sweetness without smelling girly. Elevated, a little obsessive by design and worth every bit of the hype.
Babylon - Penhaligon's
Top notes: nutmeg, saffron, coriander. Heart: cypriol. Base: vanilla, sandalwood, cedar.
Part of Penhaligon's Trade Routes collection, Babylon opens with a hit of spice that's warm, delicious and immediately makes you want to smell it again. The saffron does the most alongside a nutmeg note that smells as though a bakery was added to the bottle. Give it twenty minutes and the cypriol kicks in, smoky and a little leathery, before it all settles into a sandalwood and vanilla drydown. Unisex, very easy to wear and dangerously good at making people lean in closer than they meant to.
Who it's for: anyone who wants a scent that feels expensive but with some unusual notes.
Female Christ - Nineteen Sixty-Nine
Top notes: patchouli, eucalyptus, pimento. Heart: rhubarb, wintergreen, red thyme, geranium. Base: amber, cashmere wood, benzoin, vanilla, cinnamon.
The name alone is a lot before you even open the bottle. It's named after a 1969 performance art piece where a naked woman carrying a cross walked through the Copenhagen Stock Exchange as a protest against capitalism, and the fragrance was built to keep that story alive. The scent itself is patchouli-forward with a rhubarb note in the heart that gives it a tangy, fruity lift before the amber and cinnamon base pulls it back down to earth. It made us reconsider rhubarb as something elegant and unique. It's a conversation starter, just be ready to explain the name
Who it's for: the friend who's already bored of everything else. Not for the faint hearted.
Dominican Tobacco - Ibrahim AlQurashi
Top notes: tobacco, cinnamon, lavender. Heart: guaiac wood, orchid. Base: bergamot, neroli, saffron.
This is the one that walks into the room a few seconds before you do and leaves a trail long after you are gone. An extrait de parfum, so the concentration is high and the projection matches it, opening with a rich tobacco note that's sweeter than usual tobacco perfumes, cut with cinnamon and an unexpected pop of lavender. The guaiac wood and orchid heart is where it gets interesting, smoky but soft, before the citrus and saffron in the base stop it from tipping into anything too heavy. Very unisex, very long-lasting, very much one to decant into a travel bottle because you'll want it everywhere.
Who it's for: the one who wants to be remembered long after they have left the room.
Oud for Happiness - Initio
Top notes: bergamot, ginger. Heart: licorice, oud, cedarwood. Base: vanilla, musk.
Part of Initio's Black Gold Project and perhaps the most stand out of them all. This one opens fresh and a little green, ginger and bergamot doing a good impression of citrus and grass, before the licorice comes through with a sweetness that's closer to aniseed than candy. Oud purists will definitely find it a little light for their taste, and that's rather the point, it's oud reimagined for people who want the depth without the intensity. The vanilla and musk base is where it earns the name, warm, soft, the kind of scent people describe as smelling "happy" without being able to explain why.
Who it's for: Anyone who loved the banana medicine when they were a child, it has that note in all the right ways.
