Perfume may feel like it exists outside of the world—a crystal bottle sitting on some timeless mirrored vanity, an extra, fantastical gloss on top of our stressful, busy, ever-more-anxious and hyper-connected lives. But the truth is, fragrances are never created in a vacuum. Perfumers are always responding to the underlying moods undulating through the zeitgeist. To stay current, you must keep updating your fragrance as often as you do your phone’s OS. Last year, over 2,000 new perfumes hit shelves—more than ever before. Cut through the olfactive noise to find the truly relevant and revolutionary by focusing on these essential categories.
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Gender-Neutral
In 1994, perfumers Alberto Morillas and Harry Fremont made history when they formulated CK One for Calvin Klein, the first androgynous designer perfume. At the time, the scent—which smelled like fresh-squeezed lemonade and sea kelp and came in a simple frosted glass flask—became a bonafide phenomenon, speaking to the ennui of disaffected Gen Xers who wanted nothing to do with flashy, gendered marketing campaigns. Two decades later, the unisex perfume craze is back, but with a different energy. Where CK One focused on minimalism, the new class of gender-neutral perfumes is all about heady exploration. While these perfumes smell equally beautiful on men and women’s skin, they’re not understated. Instead, they suggest that today, both gender and perfume are all about play and self-definition.
“I was a young perfumer when CK One came out,” says Parisian nose Francis Kurkdijan, who recently released two fragrances in his line, both called Gentle Fluidity and designed to work with both male and female body chemistry. “That scent was not about gender at all. It was genderless. My new scents aren’t genderless. Instead, it’s about making your own choice.” Kurkdijan used the same 49 ingredients—spicy, herbal notes, such as nutmeg, coriander, musk, and juniper berry—in the two fragrances, just mixing them differently. “It’s about finding your way to what works for you,” he says. Other fluid offerings include Louis Vuitton Ombre Nomade, which smells like a new leather jacket with a touch of single-malt scotch, and Hermès Eau de Citron Noir, which combines pulpy citrus rind with a hint of Earl Grey tea.
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Designer
Designer perfumes have been around al- most as long as designer clothes, but for many years, they represented the snooziest, safest corner of the fragrance market. Not anymore. This year, the crop of high-fashion scents is as adventurous and creative as its sartorial inspirations. Witness Gucci Bloom Nettari di Fiori, the third scent from the house since Alessandro Michele brought his maximalist vision to the brand. An explosion of boozy tuberose and potent jasmine, it’s perfume born in a hothouse, redolent of a sweaty summer night in a botanical garden. The opulent scent perfectly complements the busy prints and jeweled-toned colors of Michele’s fall collection.
Perhaps these perfumes are getting bolder because the designers behind them are also taking more risks. Calvin Klein Women is the first fragrance to come from Raf Simons, who took over as the brand’s creative director two years ago. The idea for the scent, which combines cedarwood, eucalyptus, and orange flower, was to celebrate collective femininity, or the power of women working together. Honorine Blanc, one of two female perfumers who collaborated on Women, says this vision came directly from Simons. “He brings optimism and structure at once,” she says. “We’re bringing back the identity of the designer in the bottle, so I wanted Women to show this tension, both beautiful and structured.”
Indie
Before the Web, if you wanted to buy a new perfume, you had to trot down to your local department store and smell whatever mainstream mists you could find. But the Internet has completely changed the way consumers discover fragrances. Now you can order thousands of samples from thou- sands of independent perfumers with the click of a button. The new digital scents- cape has led to a rise in weird, challenging fragrances, the kind you’d never find at a mall. Their creators have pushed into ever-stranger territory as a way to capture the hearts (and noses) of millennials, who want to smell truly unique. Sixteen92, a four-year- old house from a self-professed “spooky ’90s goth kid” named Claire Baxter, has thrived online. She started with 15 scents, and now makes more than 200 for her loyal fanbase. Baxter’s perfumes are often witchy and avant-garde. For Necromancy, inspired by “a Victorian funeral parlor,” Baxter included notes of “ancient spirit boards” and “ceremonial incense,” in addition to more traditional ingredients, such as balsamic resin. If smelling like a haunted house isn’t your thing, there’s still something (strange) for everyone this fall: I am Trash from Etat Libre D’Orange uses recycled materials to conjure up the aroma of ripe fruit and cement; Imaginary Authors Whispered Myths smells like eating flambeed peaches in a log cabin; and Zoologist Tyrannosaurus Rex features sticky pine, tart geranium, and smoldering juniper oil.
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Cult
There are some perfumes that have a waiting list even before they’re on shelves. The power of brands such as Le Labo, Glossier, and Kim Kardashian West, is so strong, people line up to purchase their latest creation without even knowing what it smells like. One such brand, Byredo, with its squat, round bottles and clean lines, seems to be popping up on every fashion influencer’s feed these days. “Byredo is modern and timeless at once,” says Franco Wright, an owner of the online fragrance boutique LuckyScent.com. “Its fragrances are consistently sexy and very strong sellers.” Byredo’s newest, Eleventh Hour, is a creamy fig perfume, softened by tonka bean and a hint of baking spices (think very elegant eggnog, perfect for the holidays).
Another line with worshipful followers is Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle, a Parisian atelier that hires the world’s best perfumers to craft their fantasy scents. This season, the founder asked two master noses to play with the concept of Middle Eastern oud, a rare material from the heart of the agarwood tree. Carlos Benaim came up with Dawn, a smoky ode to raw oud, which smells like a bonfire raging in a mountain cave. “I want my perfumers to dream,” Malle says. “I’m like a coach. I don’t tell them what scent to make. I just push them to give their best.”
The famous faces that give life to four designer perfumes.
This article originally appeared in the December 2018 issue of ELLE.
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