What's That Smell? The Unusual Fragrance Notes Trending For 2023
Pimento. Pistachio. Peyote. Seaweed. Olive oil. Absinthe. Tiramisu. No, these are not the ingredients for a dish from The Menu, nor the inventory of an L.A. art party bar cart. These are perfume notes—all in new, fairly mainstream fragrances. They may not be as extreme as Elon Musk’s Burnt Hair cologne (billed as “the essence of repugnant desire,” it sold out—30,000 bottles—within days), but still, they aren’t smells you would normally elect to spritz on your wrists.
Diptyque’s newest perfume, L’Eau Papier, immerses you, initially, in the aroma of rice and sesame. By Far’s Daydream of Hopscotch, tagged a must-have on Moda Operandi, smells distinctly of Play-Doh. Cult favorite Vacation Eau de Toilette contains notes of “pool toy” and “swimsuit lycra.” Coconut and cannabis are everywhere, and evidently a lot of people want to smell like nuts. At a party thrown to celebrate D.S. & Durga’s Pistachio fragrance—first launched in a limited edition but back by popular demand—co-founder and perfumer David Seth Moltz said, “I usually come up with an esoteric description for every scent, but this one is just…pistachio. And people have lost their minds for it.”
Why such a preponderance of peculiar notes right now? One answer is that there is more competition, which offers breadth for brands to try something new. In 2003 only 581 fragrances were launched globally; in 2021 that number approached 3,000. Another reason is that our nostrils have grown more inquisitive. “I think because our senses were locked away for a couple of years, they have come back out in a big way,” says Michelle Feeney, the former Lauder exec behind Floral Street, a fragrance line replete with surprising—and truly lovely—olfactive juxtapositions. “Consumers are getting much more experimental. They’re interested in what they’re smelling and open to taking risks.”
This hunger for novel sniffs has been partly driven by the niche fragrance market, says Franco Wright, co-founder of Luckyscent, a mecca for unique-whiff obsessives. “Smaller brands don’t need to appeal to a mass audience. This allows them to push boundaries and play with unexpected notes. Experiencing these more unconventional perfumes broadens people’s tastes and perceptions of what a fragrance can be.” Zoologist, a brand that sparks particularly fervent reviews on #perfumetok, bases each of its scents on an animal, such as Bat, which founder Victor Wong says “smells like you are visiting a cave,” and Harvest Mouse, which boasts notes of beer and hay. “We want our customers to understand that fragrance can be thought provoking, fun, and audacious,” Wong says. People seek out Zoologist eaux for their strangeness, safe in the knowledge that if they walk into a party wearing, say, Rhinoceros, they will smell like no one else.
Of course, it’s important that non-perfume perfume notes aren’t so oddball that they make a scent unwearable. They aren’t there to be daunting, but rather to add richness and character to the perfume. In House of Bo’s beautiful El Sireno, for example, a scent inspired by the idea of a garden beneath the sea, salty kelp is paired with flowers. “The kelp is kind of mineral and, dare I say, a bit funky,” says founder Bernardo Möller. “But then you have an overdose of ylang ylang that gives the fragrance a narcotic effect.” Together they create a sense of seawater and flickering light. “It puts you into a trance when you first smell it.”
In the end, notes can be merely notions, providing new ways of describing a perfumer’s masterful derring-do. As Josh Meyer, founder of narrative-based perfume line Imaginary Authors, says, “You can see sandalwood and rose in a list of notes for 50 different perfumes and still not have any idea what they smell like. I wanted to help people by giving them distinctive, textural descriptions.” Hence, in synopses of Imaginary Authors scents, you will find tennis balls, mountain fog, orchard dust, and warm sand. Even as you read the words, you can sense the scents tickling your nose.
Let’s get back to Diptyque. L’Eau Papier was inspired by paper, symbolic of the creative impulse and space to dream. And, yes, at first spritz it smells like steamed rice—an effect designed by the perfumer specifically to evoke rice paper. For a moment you wonder if spraying this on your skin was a good idea. But then, suddenly, gloriously, the scent unfurls like petals opening on a flower—a sweet rush of golden mimosa, blanketed in a soft, inviting haze of musk. What began as a blank page is filled with a picture. Perfume is a dream, an illusion, a conjuring trick. Why not make it as vivid as possible?
This story appears in the May 2023 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
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