Elevated Classics

Designer fragrance is having a strong moment. These eight new releases come from major houses, involve some of the best perfumers working today, and still keep the 50 ml price below $200. They are not inexpensive perfumes, but they feel appropriately priced for the quality, talent and finish behind them.…

El Morocco has a great story, serious perfumers and some of the most elaborate packaging I have encountered this year. After buying the $135 discovery set, I am convinced the marketing is not simply the brand’s greatest strength. It may be the product. I bought the El Morocco discovery set…

Two of the greatest houses in French perfumery are confronting the same problem: what do you do with a masterpiece when the world around it has changed? Their answers could hardly be more different. Just when I thought Guerlain’s new L’Heure Bleue was going to be the most interesting perfume…

When I first reviewed this perfume in 2025, it was called Vanilla Mistral. Ormonde Jayne has since renamed it Vanilla Aube, but the fragrance itself remains the same. Created by perfumer Elodie Bernard with Linda Pilkington, it is still the dry, polished and unexpectedly restrained vanilla I remember. The composition…

I ordered my bottle of Guerlain’s new L’Heure Bleue directly from the house and had my name engraved on it. Why not? If I am going to buy a new release that I hope might become a classic, I like the idea of making the bottle personal from the beginning.…

I was going through my perfume collection recently, trying to identify all the British houses I own, when I realized I had somehow left one perfume off my spreadsheet entirely: Penhaligon’s Empressa. It was a slightly ridiculous omission considering that Penhaligon’s is not merely British, but one of the great…