The scents of twilight
Could it be that the night is a perfumer’s closest friend? In recent months, the finest perfume houses have launched some truly beautiful evening fragrances. From La nuit tombée by Serge Lutens to Impedia by BDK, ALL I C showcases the finest pieces from the nocturnal olfactory wardrobe. Valérie Donchez
La nuit tombée by Serge Lutens
‘It is a chypre that dares not speak, a shiver in the night, a pact between intimacy and self-containment. When night falls, the shadow speaks, like a mist upon the Earth,’ writes Serge Lutens.
At Serge Lutens, roses speak at night, a gown is conjured up to traverse the darkness, and jasmine becomes a sleepwalker. For Serge Lutens, the night is more than just a beauty whose facets sparkle like stars. It is an old acquaintance, with whom he loves to play, navigating between illusions and revelations. From *Nuit de cellophane* to *A la nuit*, he has explored its most desirable facets.
With *La nuit tombée*, the latest addition to the ‘black’ collection so dear to him, he has bottled the memory of a night of deep, inky black, tinged with olibanum. Does *La nuit tombée* reveal the wearer or those around them?
It is a night of deep, inky black yet terribly alluring that Serge Lutens has imagined. Oliban stands out in the top notes (even though it is meant to be in the heart notes), radiating so intensely that one forgets it is not light. It plays on sensuality with patchouli over a final drink.
Beneath, an animalistic quality unique to darkness emerges, mingling with notes of cedar. ‘La nuit tombée’ wears like a thriller right against the skin. The nose quivers, the senses are on high alert, yet the patchouli is so inviting that it draws in even the most cautious. It is a black chypre, composed of frankincense essence, patchouli and cedar, which makes you want to draw a little closer, just a little, a little more still – even if it means getting burnt in the dark.
Sleep No More by Dissident Parfums
Love at first sniff for a unique fragrance that takes you, at first, to Comme des Garçons before propelling you, quite unexpectedly, into George Sand’s study.
A burst of radiant energy hits you right at the start, evoking an era when boldness was worn like an unbuttoned shirt. It then softens, taking on an almost fawn-like quality, reminiscent of a fragrance that certainly didn’t go unnoticed when it was first launched: *George*, Anaïs Biguine’s debut fragrance, a truly daring tribute to George Sand in her most creative hours.
The inspiration behind this fragrance? A famous New York play, as Alexandre M explains – he was the first to mention the term ‘twilight’ fragrances
to me when I was telling him about my desire to explore the scents of the late afternoon, fragrances to wear when the promises of the night still clash with the modesty of the day.
“For me, it’s a very nocturnal fragrance,” he explains. “The experience I’m paying homage to in this fragrance took place in a very subdued atmosphere – that of an immersive theatre production staged in New York. But I didn’t want to create something sombre.
I also wanted to inject a little brightness into the fragrance to make it a pleasant experience. The idea was to capture that feeling of intense excitement that grips you at the start of the play. When you arrive, you’re thrown into an absolutely incredible setting without knowing what’s going to happen or what you’re supposed to do.
With spicy notes and rum, I then wanted the scent to linger on the skin with something much softer, very enveloping – like a caress with a touch of sensuality – to create the effect of a protective olfactory cocoon that would accompany you right through to the end of the experience.”
Sleep No More is, however, a fragrance that summons our inner demons. “Indeed, I do want it to present a challenge on the skin; I want Sleep No More to provoke a little. I’m looking for a dialogue between the senses and the fragrance. Because there are already so many creations on the market that we end up getting bored if nothing happens between the fragrance and us.”
Les femmes du Khédive by Créateur Olfactif
One of perfumer Mustafa Moneir’s (Olfactory Creator) most beautiful creations, Les femmes du Khédive, evokes a delightful nocturnal fragrance. “The story is set in the early 20th century, in a tobacco factory located at 61 Route des Chênes in Geneva,” explains perfumer Mustafa Moneir. “Only women worked there, rolling tobacco into cigarettes using their dexterity, amidst a social hierarchy that was very different for men and women. Yet they were forbidden from smoking the very cigarettes they rolled. In the society of the time, between 1913 and 1915, smoking was very frowned upon, as was the case for women in the early 20th century. So I wanted to pay tribute to these women who worked in that factory, creating luxury cigarettes without being allowed to smoke them. Tobacco fragrances are generally quite sweet, with a hint of vanilla, like Tom Ford’s Tobacco Vanille, for example. I wanted to create a sensual fragrance, a tobacco scent that exudes this sensuality. I added a note of tobacco flower, a nocturnal bloom. It’s sensual, perfect for twilight.”
Les nuits by Voyages Imaginaires
Comme un gant ushers in the night with an explosion of natural notes and evokes a twilight tinged with desire and tenderness. “This is what’s known as green chemistry,” explains Camille Goutal, co-founder of the Voyages Imaginaires brand alongside perfumer Isabelle Doyen. “These are molecules derived from natural sources, but which have been transformed.”
On the skin, Comme un gant evokes a shirt stolen from a beloved man. Inspired by a work by visual artist Claudine Drai, Camille Goutal and Isabelle Doyen sought to capture in Comme un gant her desire to bring light into a kind of intimate darkness.
“Claudine Drai calls her paper works ‘her angels’. She creates a multitude of small, somewhat ethereal figures that are imbued with a sense of soaring,” enthuses Camille.
“When I look at them, I sense an air of mystery, something a little darker, by contrast. And that’s what Isabelle and I have tried to capture in the fragrance with a very luminous, very gentle quality. We wanted to create a very luminous sandalwood to express what we felt when standing before this artwork, full of gentleness, a sense of soaring, and emotion. We worked with slightly milky notes to convey the whiteness of his works.”
Camille rightly points out that *Comme un gant* is a twilight fragrance that plays on the contrast between light and shadow. “To bring light, you need a touch of shadow. There is no light without shadow. I love the night, and twilight always strikes me as very gentle.”
In *La couleur de la nuit*, another of their sublime creations, the two designers sought to capture the essence of a night in Asia. “It’s a fragrance full of contrasts. It’s not for everyone,” explains Camille. In the humid air of an Asian night, the streets shimmer under neon lights, and lanterns cast their reflections on the ground. It feels like being in a Wong Kar-Wai film. A mysterious atmosphere accompanies our steps whilst mist rises from the streets.”
Captivating from the very first sniff, *La Couleur de la Nuit* is spellbinding. As it settles, the fragrance takes on an amber note, becoming darker, just like the night.”
The ‘Dans le noir’ night-time fragrance collection
Over at ‘Dans le noir’, let’s dive into an immersive experience with perfumer Suzy Le Helley: a scent journey guided by people with visual impairments. Perfumer Suzy Le Helley likes to point out that there isn’t just one night, but many possible nights, and as many night-time fragrances as there are nights to experience, with the brand’s first three olfactory creations: Dans le noir, Cocon de nuit and Nuit insolente.
Too powerful to be an intimate fragrance, Dans le Noir is a fragrance of… darkness. Of a dark night. Or a dark day. In the darkness, Suzy Le Helley sees a return to one’s true self. To create it, the perfumer faced a major challenge: allowing herself to be guided by sensory experts with visual impairments. For Tiffany, one of them, it was absolutely essential to “use this tool – absolute darkness – throughout the entire creative process.” Yet *Dans le Noir* is a fragrance of glances. Of glances that speak of desire better than words.” An embrace during which bodies do not touch. “We think we know darkness, but in fact we don’t know it at all,” admits Suzy Le Helley after such an experience.
Camille Léveillé, the brand’s CEO, envisaged Dans le Noir as a night-time fragrance to be distributed in luxury hotels and resorts, a feminine fragrance intended to be shared at night with a man. To achieve this, the perfumer crafted an inviting, fresh effect with notes of lily of the valley, evoking the moment after a shower before bedtime. With green notes and cardamom at the top, she infuses this composition with an almost vegetal sensuality. “I wanted to move towards a woody, musky scent to reinforce the idea that skin scents mingle at night and, at the same time, create an androgynous nod,” explains Suzy Le Helley
In *Cocon de nuit*, the second instalment, she renders the night voluptuous.
With jasmine and tuberose, Suzy Le Helley creates a moment of total surrender amidst an explosion of white flowers. Osmanthus and orange blossom create the ‘cocoon’ effect – a mattress and pillow into which one sinks. An animalic note, lurking in the base, stirs the sensuality.
*Une nuit insolente*, the third fragrance in the collection, possesses the elegance and masculine strength of the original, *Dans le noir*, whilst adding a touch of madness, a gentle boldness and an addictive sparkle. The formula contains pheromones (Aldron) that become noticeable after the boldness of the opening moments.
Slow Burn Desire & Here We Belong, Abstraction Paris
Dark and mystical, this pair of fragrances was created by perfumer Amélie Jacquin for Abstraction Paris. Designed for a couple (each with their own) as part of a unique collection conceived by Sébastien Plan, Slow Burn Desire certainly lives up to its name.
“The basic idea was incense – the scent of hay and dried herbs that I wanted to capture in both fragrances,” explains Amélie Jacquin. “My aim was to create a pair of fragrances centred around incense.” In Slow Burn Desire, desire smoulders gently, textured by sylkolide, a captive musk from Givaudan, for an almost silky effect. “I wanted light to filter through from the base,” she continues.
With Here We Belong, we are immersed in a night of elegance and the mysteries of a man. The sylkolide musk lends such texture that the fragrance evokes the touch of hands rather than words. Beneath the layers of fabric, one is drawn to unbutton his jacket and shirt until reaching a man’s skin, itself textured by its grain. An incredible masculine sensuality emanates from this fragrance, which treats the skin as a layer rather than an end in itself. Beneath the skin, one senses a path still unfolding.
The first evening fragrance that Amélie Jacquin adored was Fracas, created by Germaine Cellier in 1948 for Robert Piguet, with its opulent blend of night-blooming flowers. “It’s one of my favourite fragrances. It has been with me throughout my career. It’s always been there. I love tuberose. I find it a signature scent – voluptuous and very present.”
Rock The Myrrhe by Dries Van Noten
For Dries Van Noten, Amélie Jacquin has created another fragrance that captures the texture of the night on the skin: Rock The Myrrhe. A very warm, reassuring fragrance. “There’s something mystical about Rock The Myrrhe,” she says enthusiastically. “The star ingredient isn’t frankincense this time, but myrrh, which evokes the night. You almost feel as though you’re stepping into a boudoir with this myrrh, adorned with resins and leathery notes, with pink pepper and cypress at the top.”
…and Myrrh Shadow de Bon Parfumeur
In ‘Myrrh Shadow 403’ for Bon Parfumeur, which she co-created with the highly sought-after perfumer Quentin Bisch, Amélie Jacquin reaffirms the virtuosity she has honed over many years in the art of working with resins.
The sacred is not ceremonial; it becomes sensual. The perfumer has mastered the art of creating sensuality with dark notes that transport you into the night, a sense of surrender, with bitter orange and grapefruit at the top to create an addictive quality, underpinned by timur and cinnamon at the heart. Benzoin and vanilla in the base also lend this myrrh – which isn’t quite as ‘shadowy’ as one might think – a boudoir-like quality, a desire to slip into pretty lingerie and wear red lipstick.
Iris Cartagena 502 Extrait by Bon Parfumeur
This nocturnal fragrance celebrates the romantic encounter between Ludovic Bonneton, founder of Bon Parfumeur, and his future wife under the skies of Colombia on 31 December. Iris and sandalwood were the first choices for this richly textured composition.
The perfumer Clément Marx, who created it, worked on an impressive interplay of textures, featuring woods and a cocoa with dark undertones, “to evoke the atmosphere and the jungle-like ambience that accompanied this first encounter – an unforgettable meal shared by two,” he explains. Iris Cartagena Eau de Parfum could well have been worn amidst the sultry atmosphere of a Conrad novel, save that here it is not a question of the darkness of the soul but of two hearts racing as they discover one another whilst sinking into the night over a couple of glasses of rum. That night, they do not yet know that they are about to commit to each other for eternity, but the Iris Cartagena 502 fragrance does. A fragrance that captures the night and intimacy in a generous trail.
Palissandre Night by Mizensir
It is a different tale of seduction that perfumer Alberto Morillas tells in Palissandre Night. One can almost sense the fervour of a man wearing a mask, ready for a not-entirely-innocent courtship in a king’s gardens, by night, amongst the groves.
An elegance from another era dusts this fragrance, which settles on the skin like a velvety gaze in search of a stolen kiss (and more, if the mood takes it). Its 28 per cent concentration gives it an intriguing staying power. A sleepless night told through scent, whilst nature keeps watch, a silent witness to stifled bursts of passion.
A beautiful story unfolds on the skin as the hours pass with this fragrance—a story that sets our imagination free, caught between the seduction of a determined man and a young woman who is not quite as innocent as she seems. To achieve this, Alberto has enhanced the woody notes for their air of mystery, accompanied by ambrox to create a shiver-inducing effect, as if the surrounding foliage were rustling as bodies entwine.
“When creating a fragrance for the night, the hardest part is finding the right balance,” explains the master perfumer. “The night naturally calls for more depth, more sensuality, but I believe that a great fragrance must always retain a sense of airiness, movement, a kind of breath. Sandalwood and guaiac wood are dressed in their finest attire.
With Palissandre Night, I didn’t want to create a dark or ostentatious woody scent. Rosewood already possesses this natural, almost creamy richness, with very elegant spicy and velvety nuances. My work consisted mainly of revealing its texture, bringing it to life on the skin, like a substance that evolves as the hours pass. I love the idea of a sophisticated night that is never static. A night filled with contrasts: wood and light, warmth and coolness, shadow and transparency. Even in more sensual creations, I always feel the need to bring in a touch of freshness. It’s almost instinctive for me. It gives the fragrance momentum; it prevents it from becoming too heavy or stagnant.”
Palissandre Night is less about darkness than about the trail left behind in the night: something elegant, calm, deeply sensual yet always in control.
Night by Akro
“In Night, the rose appears, but it is almost minimalist, stripped bare,” explains Olivier Cresp, its creator. You can smell the rose but you can’t see the thorns. It is enveloped in musks and aldehyde notes. The idea was to give it a clean edge by placing it almost on fresh, clean sheets. It then suddenly shifts towards something warm, spicy and very sensual thanks to cumin, saffron and agarwood. It’s a rose that becomes a little naughty once night falls.”
Indeed, one gets the impression that Olivier Cresp’s rose is having a great time. “She’s very self-assured,” he continues. “She’s grown up. ” Glamorous, it does indeed shift from a cool, slightly metallic note to an overdose of warmth that rises, rises, rises on the wrist without ever losing the softness of the musks and aldehydes. It is a dancing rose, with a self-assured, assertive, playful femininity. Richly textured, it avoids the pitfall of evanescence.
She is a mature woman, confident in her charms as night falls. One senses a few thorns, or even brambles, as her sensuality unfolds, yet paradoxically a great generosity emanates from her femininity, which rubs shoulders with a few animalic notes. By the end of the night, the sheets are no longer so fresh, but Night has lost none of its splendour.
L’Amour Pourpre l’Osmium by Infiniment Coty
In L’Amour Pourpre from the Osmium collection, lavender and vanilla – a nocturnal pairing – dance on velvet in a most infectious abandon. The original fragrance, part of the refined amber family, had a perfume oil concentration of 21 per cent. Lavender oil, sandalwood essence, vanilla and resins celebrated the refinement of twilight on the skin.
In this extract from the Osmium collection, the perfume oil concentration has been increased to 41 per cent. Dora Baghriche has accentuated its texture, creating an almost powdery effect. “The perfumer has heightened the masterful tension between aromatic freshness and amber warmth,” explains Coty.
Diva Essence lavender is elegantly elevated by sage, geranium and bergamot. Its intimate character is warmed by vanilla, AMBRÉINE S, rockrose, patchouli and a Triple Infusion Amber accord, making it a fragrance of paradox – an intimate scent with a lingering trail.”
A stranger’s nose is captivated by it, feeling as though they are sharing a nocturnal secret with the person wearing this fragrance.
Impadia by BDK
The latest addition, hot off the press, is Impadia by BDK in its hair fragrance version. The epitome of twilight, it has the texture of a cloudy sky at nightfall. Created by perfumer Jordi Fernandez, Impadia is an olfactory portrait of the Parisian skies so dear to David Benedek, the brand’s founder, illustrated with Turkish and Bulgarian roses against a vanilla base. A symphony of petals symbolises the orange-tinged pink hues of twilight. A warmth emanates from it, enlivened by a few citrus notes.
The perfumer explains how he recreated the nuances of the setting sun olfactorily in this creation. “I used mandarin integral. Orpur™1 Mandarin Integral has fresh and juicy citrus notes that bring a sense of happiness and liveliness. Combined with rose, it captures the soft pink hues that evoke the gradation of colours at sunrise. Notes of bergamot enhance the luminosity, whilst the warm, sweet nuances of vanilla represent the golden warmth of the sun at the end of the day.”
