ROMANCE & PRESENCE

Bold As Love by Thameen is a leather aromatic cologne elixir for women and men - Jimi Hendrix, who lived at 23 Brook Street, next door to Handel's 25, two centuries later. Pierre Negrin built it from a photograph of Hendrix in a purple costume and wanted smoky leather to carry the raw energy he had on stage. Mandarin, ginger, apple and pineapple open it strangely bright, lavender, juniper berry and geranium run through the middle, and smoky leather, patchouli and vetiver do the rest. It is the most divisive fragrance in the house's line, and deliberately so. "Fruit and lavender crashing into burnt leather - challenging, and not remotely safe."

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Cullinan Diamond by Thameen is a powdery rose extrait de parfum for women and men - named for the largest clear-cut diamond in the world, a 3,106-carat rough found in South Africa in 1905 and now set across the Crown Jewels. Black pepper opens it with a spark, vanilla absolute, orris and rose make the powdery heart, and cashmere musk, cedarwood and amber hold it close for most of a day. Reviewers reach for Oud Satin Mood as the comparison, with more pepper and more leather in it. "Spicy rose held in vanilla and orris - quiet, and it lasts almost eighteen hours."

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Rivière by Thameen is a leather rose extrait de parfum for women and men - named for the necklace of a single graduated line of diamonds, and for Queen Mary's, which held thirty-four old-cut stones. Julia Rodriguez Pastor opens it on Persian saffron, Indian black pepper and lemon blossom, runs Turkish rose, clary sage and carnation through the heart, and finishes on a clean grained leather with cypriol, oud and amber. The leather here has no oil and no weight to it, which is the whole trick. "Saffron and Turkish rose on clean leather - it smells expensive, because it is."

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Use Abuse by Jusbox is a floriental eau de parfum for women and men - a tribute to Queen, to Freddie Mercury and to the excess of the 1980s, composed by Antoine Lie in 2016. White tuberose, mandarin and incense open it with what one reviewer called a nuclear blast, jasmine sambac, white peony and sandalwood fill the heart, and opoponax and musk carry it down. The tuberose is deliberately overdosed and given a metallic edge meant to stand in for a voice. This is a full 78 ml bottle, the size the house uses as a nod to the 78 rpm record. "An overdose of tuberose, and a symbol of an excessive generation - the house's own words."

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Night Flow by Jusbox is a leather fruity eau de parfum for women and men - the New York blackout of 13 July 1977, twenty-five hours of darkness that the house frames as the night hip-hop was born. Julien Rasquinet opens it on saffron, raspberry and pink pepper, runs osmanthus, davana and jasmine sambac through the heart, and lands it on leather, Indonesian patchouli, tolu balsam and ambergris. If the raspberry-over-leather structure sounds familiar, reviewers make the Tuscan Leather comparison constantly - this one keeps more of the fruit. "Raspberry and saffron over dark leather - the best performer in the house's line."

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Can't Stop Loving You by Kilian is a floral honey eau de parfum for women - Alberto Morillas's declaration of love, built on orange blossom, the flower that has stood for lasting devotion since long before perfumery existed. Paradisone lifts the opening, honey, labdanum and styrax give the middle its resinous weight, and oakmoss, Madagascar vanilla and olibanum keep it from ever turning simply sweet. The house describes it as luminous and sombre at once, which is the honest reading. "Orange blossom in honey, with something darker holding the bottom of it."

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Good Girl Gone Bad by Kilian is a floral fruity eau de parfum for women - half innocent and half not, composed by Alberto Morillas around what the house calls the three sirens of flowers. Apricot-lit osmanthus, peach, neroli and bergamot open it soft, Indian tuberose, jasmine, narcissus and May rose absolute take over the heart, and amber, cedar, sandalwood and patchouli hold it down. It is the most loved fragrance in The Narcotics, and it wears far quieter than its name. "Tuberose and peach at close range - the good girl is still doing most of the talking."

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Dangerous Complicity by Etat Libre d'Orange is a woody floral eau de parfum for women and men - rum and coconut poured over leather and sandalwood by Violaine Collas, built on the house's reading of Adam, Eve and the forbidden fruit as the smell of skin on skin. Ginger and rum open it warm and faintly boozy, Chinese osmanthus, Egyptian jasmine and ylang-ylang give the middle its apricot-lit floral, and leather, cashmere wood, sandalwood and patchouli hold it in place. The provocation is all in the name; the fragrance itself is quiet. "Rum and coconut on warm leather - it never raises its voice, which turns out to be the point."

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Cuir InfraRouge by Maison Crivelli is a leathery fruity extrait de parfum for women and men - a bright raspberry accord crushed into grained leather, composed by Jordi Fernández from the house's memory of a neon-lit electronic party: red cocktails, strobe light, leather seating. Italian bergamot and Laotian cinnamon strike first, Moroccan orris and Chinese osmanthus give the leather a powdery apricot edge, and oud, Indonesian patchouli, Madagascan vanilla and Venezuelan tonka carry it into the small hours at 32% concentration. "Raspberry crushed into black leather, still glowing after midnight."

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French Flower by Matière Première is a white floral fragrance for women built from tuberose Aurélien Guichard grows himself on a hectare outside Grasse, captured twice - as absolute and as enfleurage pomade - to hold both the green solar side of the day flower and the creamy side of the night one. Pear and Nigerian ginger keep the opening juicy, orange blossom and Chinese tea keep it from turning heavy, and ambroxan pushes the whole field outward. "The intoxicating smell of a tuberose field at night - creamy, never camphorous, never indolic."

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Falcon Leather by Matière Première is a leather fragrance for women and men built on birch tar - the tanning material itself, smoky and almost tarry - with saffron and labdanum lifting the opening and agarwood and benzoin turning the base resinous and sweet. It smells like a new leather jacket in a room where incense has just been put out, and it does not move far from that idea for the rest of the day. "Smoky, dark, smooth leather that smells expensive."

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