Three Kinds of Smoke

Three fragrances in Chapter One put smoke in the foreground, each in a different place: against fruit, beneath dark sweetness, through tea. Read in order, they make a short course in what smoke can do in a perfume.

01 Before The Crown: smoke against fruit

01 Before The Crown opens with pineapple and citrus, cool and bright, and sets them straight against ashen birch. The smoke keeps the fruit from reading as juice. It gives the brightness something to push against.

05 Plum Beneath Snow: smoke as weight

05 Plum Beneath Snow is the darkest of the three. Syrupy plum and spice sit over smoked oud and resin. Here the smoke is the floor the fruit rests on, and the reason the sweetness never turns soft. Opulent, and a little severe.

Oud carries more legend than any other material in perfumery. What it is, and what it isn't, is in Oud Without the Mythology.

08 Beyond The Horizon: smoke as distance

08 Beyond The Horizon closes the chapter. Sparkling citrus dissolves into smoky black tea and warm amber woods. The smoke arrives through the tea, and it is what gives the fragrance its haze: distance, motion, the pull of somewhere else.

How tea became a perfume note at all is its own story, told in How Tea Got Into Perfume.

Choosing between them

If you already know you like smoke, the useful question is where you want it. Against bright fruit, 01. Under dark fruit and resin, 05. Carried through tea toward amber, 08.

All three are extraits de parfum at 30% concentration or more, made to last and to carry. Dave aims for six to eight hours on skin. Each comes in 10ml, 30ml and 50ml, and the 10ml is the sensible way to find out which smoke is yours. Blind Buying Is the Most Expensive Habit in Fragrance explains why.

Or write to Dave. He answers every email himself, and he will tell you which of the three sits closest to what you already wear, for yourself or for someone else.

What comes next

The next releases are for fall, and some of them go further this way: darker, fruit-forward, with smoke and incense. Each is a small batch made by hand in La Conner, Washington. People on the list get two full days to buy before each release opens to everyone.