Nissaba Berbera courtesy of the brand

 It’s not every day that a brand’s philosophies mesh perfectly with a handful of your own – that’s why I just kept quietly smiling and smelling my forearm(s) when I met Nissaba co-founder Sebastien Tissot late last year. Formerly of Swiss giant Firmenich, where he headed up the department devoted to sustainable sourcing of natural ingredients, Tissot quietly launched his Nissaba brand in 2022 releasing a clutch of fragrances that were dedicated to and wholly defined by their places of origin. The perfumes are all housed in lightweight glass with a wonderfully designed wooden cap. The bottles are fully refillable and recyclable, the perfumes are made with high quantities (90%) of natural materials and the brand gives 5% of their revenue to the local communities responsible for the harvesting of natural materials.

Working closely with small rural societies and farmers from around the world for over ten years enabled Tissot to learn all about native terroir, about which plants grow well together and the “hows and whys” of which plants thrive in each climate. For example, Nissaba Provence, is a reimagining of a cologne style fragrance – made by Sebastien Cresp – which only uses natural materials grown in the Provence region of France. We might already be familiar with the iconic rolling purples of Southern France’s lavender/lavandin fields but the perfume uniquely uses clary sage, hyssop and coriander too because that is what grows there and that is what makes up the olfactive ecosystem of the area.

 Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, courtesy of Nissaba (wikipedia)

Such a unique, natural material led approach yields dynamic and unassuming fragrances that have been made by perfumers who truly do have carte blanche to create. Nissaba does not give any of them a ‘brief’ in the conventional sense, rather they give them a list of premium materials to work with, hoping for the perfumer’s passion and experience to take over and guide the creation process and assembly.

In the case of Nissaba Berbera (a fragrance excitedly included in ÇaFleureBon’s Best of 2024) the focus is on gum extracts and resins – more precisely the frankincense, myrrh and opoponax that flows through the Somaliland port of Berbera.

“What inspires me most is the vertical aspect of the fragrance,” offers Firmenich perfumer Fabrice Pellegrin on one of the promotional videos on the brand’s website. “The backbone of the fragrance is built around frankincense at all levels: top notes, heart notes and base notes. We used the same grade of incense but extracted it in three different ways: the associations of these incenses make up the verticality of the scent and the narrative flow of the perfume.”

Perfumers Fabrice Pellegrin & Coralie Spicher, courtesy of DSM-Firmenich

 Even with the high percentage inclusion of resins and gums, Nissaba Berbera isn’t a heavy wear; it’s the opposite. The three different extractions of frankincense work to create layered characteristics of the same material, with each one showcasing a slightly different facet. The characteristic, hauntingly green woodiness of a premium quality olibanum is, as a result, omnipresent but there are darker, drier and almost chalkier, more archaic tones that meld in the base of the assembled ambrox woods.

Myrrh & Opoponax resin, courtesy of Nissaba

I don’t often fall for incense fragrances – the big, intense, catholic church connotations just aren’t my thing and I often find modern incenses can smell a bit too clean and green like a Badedas shower gel – but Berbera – much like the brand’s outlook itself – just feels refreshingly different. Thanks to its Comme des Garcons Wonderwood-esque connotations, its pencil sharp spicing (peppers and nutmeg) and that haze of cryptic incense that lingers, Berbera feels lithe, mysterious and so, so woody. It’s a fragrance that retains a shroud of ancient, other worldly mystique while saying, yes, I do own multiple saws, I do drink my whiskey neat and I only wear my Carhartt workwear to do Carhartt worthy chores.

 

Courtesy of Nissaba

Notes: Frankincense C02, molecular distillation & Vulcan extract, myrrh C02, opoponax C02, elemi, black pepper, pink pepper C02, nutmeg, iris, amber woods, ambrox

 Disclaimer: a sample of Nissaba Berbera was first provided by the brand. Several more have been provided unwittingly by Jovoy Mayfair.

-Oli Marlow, Contributor

Courtesy of the brand

Thanks to the generosity of Nissaba and through UK distributor Agence de Parfumerie, we have a bottle of Nissaba Berbera available in the U.S. and E.U. You must register or your entry will not count. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what sparks your interest based on Oli’s review and where you live. Draw closes 3/8/2025

photo by Karl at Esxence 2025

Please see Karl’s Esxence 2025 report Part 1, which included 2023’s Nissaba Grande Isle which was a Fragrance Foundation France awardee.

Coralie Spicher was awarded Rising Star of 2024 by Ermano

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