Scents That Serve: The Perfume Edit

A scent speaks louder than words. Offering a whisper of a person’s personality and tastes, a perfume or cologne is a deeply personal signature. Intoxicatingly intimate, carefully considered, and enchanting, the right fragrance can bring out a person’s inner expression of self during the day and transform them into another character for a night. Any master perfumer will tell you that perfume making is an olfactory experiment deeply rooted in mystical memory and detailed science. From timeless favorites to more unconventional flavors, we searched to curate a collection of scents across many seasons. Here are our current favorite fragrances.

Synonymous with Italian olfactory tradition and excellence, Carthusia is unmistakably linked to the history of Capri. Their values of precious craftsmanship and artisan detail are evident in every bottle, capturing the essence of the magical island. With scents deriving from the nature of the Italian jewel, these fragrances transport you to the heritage company’s beautiful location. From a sunset with a limoncello to a beach day on blue waters, each fragrance evokes a story and memory. A’mmare captures a blue horizon spent day on the beaches of mystical Capri.

Nothing is more memorable than a Chanel fragrance advert. Who could forget Nicole Kidman’s walk up the red carpet or Keira Knightley racing through Paris on a motorcycle? With house ambassadors spanning cinema icons from Marilyn Monroe to Margot Robbie, Chanel scents continue to set the luxury standard in olfactory practice and storytelling. Mademoiselle is a fresh modern composition which honors a spirited young Coco Chanel. Mischievous, light, sensual, and daring, this scent is the perfect fragrance for the modern woman.

At the heart of luxury haute couture house Maison Margiela is an ethos of nonconformity and authenticity. With a focus on self expression, challenging tradition, and community, the artisanal atelier has developed a cult following and never fails to lead the fashionable into innovative directions. Experimentation and philosophy meet with the house’s Replica fragrance.

Can you capture a person, place, or thing in a scent? With the unisex Replica fragrance, the house has found out how to bottle memory. With By The Fireplace, Replica transports its wearer to the sensation of a warm crackling fireplace amidst a winter landscape. Warm and spicy notes like roasted chestnuts, red berries, and burning wood magically encapsulate the world of a cozy winter or fall respite.

Jazz Club, one of Replica’s colognes for men, evokes the smoking cigars and smooth cocktails of a sleek and toasty private club. Spicy notes of pink pepper meet rum and tobacco leaf to capture liquor filled nights of leather bar stools, piano notes, and unfinished whiskey.

With Afternoon Delight, master perfumer Carlos Benaïm lets you indulge in a sandalwood and vanilla memory of an afternoon eating warm madeleines at a Parisian café. Sweet and ambery, this is a light ode to Marcel Proust describing a soft and comforting moment in time in his writing. If bottling memory is not enough, the Replica bottle’s iconic design as a classical apothecary jar makes this unique fragrance stand out amongst the crowd in true Margiela spirit.

There is something to be said about tradition and originality with Officina Profumo Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, the Italian powerhouse considered the oldest pharmacy in the world. Founded in 1221 by Dominican friars who cultivated garden herbs and plants in a small botanical space near their church for medicinal purposes, the Italian house carries a history of revitalization and invention. Using natural ingredients is a long standing principle of the pharmacy, which uses garden flora from the Santa Maria Novella garden to this day. Think lemons meeting centifolia roses. Made in Italy, these hand crafted wonders are luxurious and elegant. Indulge in history with a Santa Maria fragrance.

There is no need to second guess the fact that Merit’s Retropect lives up to its namesake. From visual design to olfactory experience, this high quality fragrance deserves all the points. As a highly concentrated extrait de parfum, the highest concentration and retention on the perfume scale, this scent is a long lasting blanket of musk, vanilla, and moss that will cover you in divine fragrance for over 12 hours. Influenced by jewelry, the organic shaped bottle is an objet d’art itself.

Dries Van Noten’s Soie Malaquais offers a poetic fragrance that balances dualities. Physically, the unmistakable bottle is a refined combination where glass unexpectedly meets porcelain to become a transcendental piece of art. The parfum itself is a silky combination of bergamot, blackcurrant, rose, silk, chestnut, and cocoa. Known for curating scents that are silky and intimate, Dries Van Noten’s perfume masters craft an olfactory arc that drapes over the wearer in what they like to refer to as a second skin.

You cannot make a fragrance list without mentioning Byredo. Just the mention of Mojave Ghost sends perfume lovers into a flurry of words to compliment it. The minimalist sculptural bottle speaks for itself, but do not let it fool you. A simple name like Tulip is actually a sensory experience waiting to unfold. A complex floral adventure of rhubarb, cyclamen, and freesia unfolds in even the most simple of stories. Freshly clipped tulips picked from the park and placed in a small white vase.

LORE commits to craft and connection. It is evident in their ecological commitment to conservation and biodiverse harvesting as well as community events and artisan one of a kind bottles. Their compelling perfumes are made to be experienced as part of a daily ritual filled with meaning and friendship. Cool radiates from their slick packaging, which is made with sustainability in mind. Even the bottle cap turns into a candle holder, inspiring evening lit dinners with loved ones. Complex, rich, and nostalgic, the refillable scents evoke American desert landscapes (Somwhere but Nowhere) or Malibu surf days (Sublimity) with state of the art creative direction and storytelling. We are literally compelled to the lore of each scent.

Have a fragrance fetish? Heretic Parfum collaborated with the Queen of Burlesque Dita Von Teese on a scent that is as sensual and visionary as its creator. Described as a soft red lipped whisper with all consuming allure, Scandalwood is an unabashedly provocative ode to the mysterious and glamorous showgirls of Hollywood. A blend of exotic coriander, Bulgarian rose, labdanum, white musk, and sandalwood, this speakeasy coded scent is perfect for a night out in the city of angels.