Rouge Smoking

Rouge Smoking is the olfactory equivalent of a velvet smoking jacket worn over bare skin—simultaneously louche and refined, with a hedonistic cherry-almond accord that skirts the gourmand category without tumbling into saccharine territory. Amélie Bourgeois has crafted something that feels decidedly French in its approach: the cherry here isn't the bright, sour maraschino of typical fruity fragrances, but rather a darker, more nuanced interpretation that materialises when pink pepper prickles against bitter almond (emerging from that telltale heliotrope-tonka pairing). The Turkish rose provides just enough floral structure to prevent the composition from becoming a simple dessert fantasy, its slightly spicy, honey-tinged character weaving through the cacao-spiked base like smoke through a dimly lit salon.

This is for the person who finds most mainstream cherry scents insufferably juvenile but can't resist the pull of that stone fruit's plush, ambered facets. The powdery quality—likely amplified by heliotrope's inherent almond-marzipan tendencies—sits atop the skin like expensive face powder, never fully matting down the fragrance's underlying warmth. There's a retro quality here, reminiscent of those confectionary-lipstick compacts from the 1950s, yet the woody undertones and mandarin's citric bite in the opening keep it firmly planted in contemporary niche territory. It's best worn when you want to feel put-together but slightly dangerous, perhaps on evenings when you're the most interesting person in the room without trying to be.