Best Winter Fragrances for 2024 image by Steven (Left to Right: INeKE Jaipur Chai, Neela Vermeire Creations Trayee, Nicolai Parfumeur Createur Cuir Cuba Intense
December 21, 2024 is the official beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere-the winter solstice and the longest night of the year. For this curation we chose the Best Winter Fragrances for 2024 that were smoky, spicy, and wonderfully warming. Although it was difficult to choose only three, we find ourselves returning to each, year after year. Here are Steven’s and Michelyn’s co-curated choices for three of the Best Winter Fragrances for 2024.
Neela Vermeire Creations Trayee (Bertrand Duchaufour): One of the three inaugural fragrances from the independent brand headed by the brilliantly talented Creative director Neela Vermiere, who grew up in India. Trayee, whose Sanskrit name refers to the first three Vedas (the oldest, most sacred books of India), is one of the most transporting and complex incense fragrances, I have experienced. Trayee is a CaFleureBon Modern Masterpiece) and is one of my favorite winter fragrances, twelve years since its debut in 2012. Perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour uses a high percentage of natural ingredients: cardamom, clove, elemi and ginger which create a sweet-spicy cloud. Creamy jasmine blossoms dipped in golden amber swirl around Laotian oud and incense. Steven picks up the green notes (the vetivers, patchouli, basil and ganja effects?), but I don’t pull that on my skin. Deeply contemplative and comforting-Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief
Top notes: blue ginger from Madagascar, elemi oil, cinnamon bark, ganja effects, blackcurrant absolute, basil, Heart notes: Sambac jasmine absolute, Egyptian jasmine absolute, cardamom absolute, clove, saffron, sandalwood, Base notes: Javanese vetiver, Haitian vetiver, incense, Mysore sandalwood oil, patchouli, myrrh, vanilla, cedar, amber notes, oudh from Laos, oakmoss
Nicolai Parfumeur Createur Cuir Cuba Intense (Patricia de Nicolaï) 2014: One of the most interesting and inspiring perfumers I have interviewed as Editor-in-Chief of ÇaFleureBon is Patricia de Nicolai, who I always refer to as “The First Lady (Boss) of Niche”. For those not familiar with her lineage Madame is a grand-daughter of Guerlain’s founder, Pierre Guerlain, and a niece of Jean-Jacques Guerlain. Here is what she had to say about one of Cuir Cuba Intense: “Although I hate smoking, I have always loved the scent of tobacco leaves used in the making of cigars.’ explains Madame de Nicolaï. ‘When I was a child, at my parents’, I appreciated when I was asked to go and collect the cigar box’. What a pleasure to open it and to smell these scents…It was a fragrance that really transported me! Many years after, I have found this scent in my lab thanks to the tobacco leaf absolute, starting point of Cuir Cuba Intense.” –Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief
P.S. Later on I found out that it is composed of 90.9 % all natural ingredients. -Michelyn
Notes: Aniseed, Liquorice, Sicilian lemon, Spearmint, Sage, Lavender, Pelargonium, Ylang-ylang, Magnolia, Coriander, Tobacco, Hay, Patchouli, Cedar, Musk, Civet.
Joyeux Anniversaire to Patricia de Nicolaï, whose birthday is today 12/5/2024
INeKE Jaipur Chai (Ineke Ruhland) 2019: Ineke Ruhland is a classically trained (she taught marketing to Givaudan’s Yann Vasnier at ISIPICA) artisan perfumer based in San Francisco and Jaipur Chai is to date, her first gourmand fragrance. Jaipur Chai is a cozy scent with traditional chai tea spices of cinnamon, cloves topped by frothy steamed milk. The ginger smells freshly ground and along with pepper adds piquancy so that the perfume never smells like it is from Starbucks. Rounded with rose wrapped in suede, and polished by smooth woods – the perfect scent to spritz during a blustery, freezing night when the lights are flickering and icy snow is piling on top of the window panes. –Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief
Notes: Black tea, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, pepper, clove, rose, cedar wood, guaiac wood, vanilla, cream, suede, musk.
Although it wasn’t planned, each of our perfume picks for winter 2024 are owned by women!-MC
Steven Gavrielatos aka Redolessence video reviews
Disclosure: Steven has received bottles in the past; Michelyn has them in her collection.
Best Winter Fragrances for 2024 for Giveaway Left: Jaipur Chai and Right: Trayee (Cuir Cuba Intense is NOT included) by Steven
Thanks to the generosity of Neela Vermeire, we have a 60 ml bottle of Neela Vermeire Creations Trayee for one random reader in the USA and EU. The draw is for registered readers only, so be sure to register if you have not done so. Try the discovery set as these beautiful fragrances are difficult to find (WHY?!) in the USA. Try the discovery set of six here.
INeKE Jaipur Chai 75m bottle (check out the special offer when you but the sample set of all 7 INeKE perfumes Deluxe Discovery Collection Volume 7 — INeKE Perfumes – San Francisco, California). in the USA and Canada ONLY.
Thanks to each of the two brands , we have a reader’s choice for one of two best winter fragrances of 2024 to two registered ÇaFleureBon readers and Redolessence subscribers. Country restrictions apply. To be eligible, YOU MUST REGISTER and leave a comment on this site with your choice should you win, what you thought of BOTH Michelyn’s written reviews and Steven’s video reviews and where you live. Draw closes 12/9/2024 but will be announced within 2 weeks after.
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