More thoughts on tobacco scents and ingredients

I’ve been thinking about some fragrances with tobacco notes that I’ve tried and how they relate to my goals and ingredients for Tabac Aurea. I admire Hermes Ambre Narguile with its smooth, gourmand, ambery base, its subtle soft tabac note, its warm spices, and its interesting apple note for contrast. I wanted to do a tabac with a gourmand aspect too, but without the strong apple note. To me, the apple accord in Ambre Narguile smells like it has damascones it it. Damascones have rosy aspects but also fruity tones of plum, blackcurrant, and apple, and subtle tabac nuances too. I’ve used beta damascone in Tabac Aurea because it has more plumy and rosy notes and less apple; delta damascone and alpha damascone seem less rosy and plumy and more appley to me.

I like Serge Lutens Fumerie Turque with its rich sweet base, tobacco note, rose note (always a favorite for me), and smoky notes that for me are not quite cigarette, though they flirt with cigarette smoke and results on your skin may vary on that. It’s a bit too sweet for me to wear often, but it’s fun to wear my decant from time to time. I also like the tobacco scent Parfum de Luxe by Dawn Spencer Hurwitz; it is rich and warm with a strong but not overpowering honeyed tabac absolute note, and though it is sweet it seems less so than the SL. (It’s the DSH scent I’ve liked the best so far, and it’s in her Parfum Beaux Arts Collection.) I’m not fond of strong cigarette smoke notes like the ones I get from Habanita and Fifi Chachnil, though those scents work beautifully for many people so you might give them a try if you like tobacco.

I’m trying to avoid cigarette smoke notes in Tabac Aurea, and instead I’m focusing on soft pipe tobacco in a warm and woodsy gourmand setting. Tonka bean and coumarin have tabac undertones, so they make nice companions for tabac; I’ve used tonka in Tabac Aurea, but I need to use a light touch because tonka and coumarin do push scents in the sweet direction. Tobacco absolute is sweet to begin with, and it has interesting green/herbal nuances that let you know it came from a leaf. For a drier tabac scent with hay notes, Patricia de Nikolai’s Vie de Chateau is wonderful and more masculine.

I’ve worked the new labdanum into Tabac Aurea and like it, and I’ve increased the tabac note. I think the next mod is about ready. I keep thinking I’m done and then find something else that I decide to adjust…

I’m just about done working the new labdanum into Rose Musc too and can get that back onto the site. I’m pleased with the new kilo of labdanum from France; it’s quite nice.