Stéphane Humbert Lucas
Stéphane Humbert Lucas
255 votes
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The first spray is a violet-nougat collision, all almond paste sweetness and powdered petals, with resins already warming beneath like coals preparing to glow. There's an almost edible quality, but the iris introduces its waxy, lipstick-like sophistication immediately, preventing this from smelling like simple confectionery.
The sandalwood emerges creamy and slightly vanillic, whilst the amber swells into full honey-resin richness that envelops the iris at the centre. The florals take on an old-fashioned quality—not dated, but decidedly classical—like face powder in a gilded compact, spiced gently and layered over balmy woods.
What remains is a skin-like musky sweetness, all balsamic warmth and powdered amber, with just enough resinous bite to keep it interesting. The individual notes have melted into a unified glow, somewhere between incense residue and the inside of a leather glove that's been stored with dried flowers.
Khôl de Bahreïn arrives like a velvet-lined jewellery box opened in a Manama souk, where powdered iris meets the sticky-sweet pull of nougat-laced resins. Stéphane Humbert Lucas has orchestrated something decidedly opulent here: the violet in the opening isn't fresh or green, but rather dusted with confectioner's sugar and pressed into amber, creating an effect that's both gourmand and incense-tinged. The Florentine iris lends its characteristic lipstick-waxy texture, but it's softened by sandalwood that's been steeped in balsamic warmth rather than left to show its dry, woody bones.
This is unabashedly sweet—a fragrance that wears its dessert-like qualities with aristocratic bearing rather than teenage frivolity. The resinous backbone keeps it from toppling into simple prettiness; there's something ceremonial about the way labdanum and benzoin anchor the composition, their smoky edges preventing the nougat from reading as purely edible. The spice that threads through is gentle, more suggestion than statement, perhaps a whisper of cardamom or the natural pepperiness of iris itself.
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4.3/5 (210)