Ex Nihilo Honore Delights, Fleur Narcotique and Lust in Paradise + The 3 you should be Wearing Draw

August 14, 2021August 14, 2021

Ex Nihilo Honore Delights, Fleur Narcotique and Lust in Paradise collage by Michelyn using images from Ex Nihilo©

A gourmand with no food notes. A fruity-floral that fizzes in the middle with no aldehydes or bergamot. A garden bereft of greenery. Such tromp-nez creations are a playful hallmark of Parisian brand Ex Nihilo, whose name – “out of nothing” – perfectly describes fragrances that seem to spring from the inventive minds of their founders and creators. The line is inspired by avant-garde creativity, and this source material can take the line in different directions, such as riffing on classical construction (Honore Delights), an embodiment of look-but-don’t touch sensuality (Ex Nihilo Fleur Narcotique), or a trespassed garden in the South of France (Lust in Paradise). Want to know more? Here are the three you should be wearing as summer begins to wane, from a trio of talented Givaudan perfumers.

photo courtesy of Ex Nihilo©

Ex Nihilo Honore Delights (Natalie Cetto) 2021: The intriguing Honore Delights celebrates Paris’ continual renewal of itself with a reinvention of the gourmand. Call if the anti-gourmand gourmand, if you will, as there is not a single food note in this confection. Perfumer Natalie Cetto’s ‘deconstructed gourmandise’ commences with off-sweet, powdery notes, dominated by ambrette and iris, which contain facets of almond milk and pate sucree, respectively. Some sudsy neroli joins in, which aerates the fragrance the way butter puffs the layers of a mille-feuille as it bakes. Smelling Honore Delights right now, my mind flickers between registering this as a floral and as a gourmand. Further into the fragrance’s development, Ex Nihilo Honore Delights turns creamier with the addition of orange blossom and the soapier qualities of the neroli come out. There’s a touch of sharpness in here from the bergamot that cuts through the pastryish top notes just slightly, tilting the fragrance back toward fruity-floral. Iris plants itself in the perfume’s heart where it is joined by sandalwood and a generous helping of musk. All at once, I smell milk, nuts, crème patissiere, rice powder and sweet dough. But a few moments later, cedarwood begins to step forward, its sawdust aroma reminding me that this a Magritte version of a gourmand, smelling of dessert and entirely absent of it. Ceci pas un gourmand, n’est-pas? Whatever it is, I can’t stop smelling my wrist. I’ll be wearing this one to bed.

Notes: Bergamot, neroli, orange blossom, iris, ambrette, sandalwood, cedarwood, musk.

Fleur Narcotique photo courtesy of Ex Nihilo

Fleur Narcotique (Quentin Bisch) 2014: Ok, now, now it’s time to shimmy into a lowcut something, pout some cherry red lips and flirt your party-crashing booty into that private party on the Place de la Marie. Fleur Narcotique has its buzz on, and you are tonight’s date. The fun starts right off the top when a sparkly splash of bergamot and juicy peach bubble up like a sprayed bellini. Somehow, perfumer Quentin Bisch manages to impart the smell of the fruit without its skin: the sweeter, more floral aspects of the peach give way to its zestier, gold-orange flesh. The peach lingers, its fruitiness tempered by the tang of the bergamot and a creamy sweep of orange blossom, which keeps it from venturing into girly territory. There’s a petillant quality to the middle created by the ongoing interplay of peach and bergamot, joined by the Oolong tea-like floweriness of lychee. It’s sweet-tart, bouncy in the beginning, but the longer Ex Nihilo Fleur Narcotique wears, the more sensual it becomes. Peony becomes more obvious to me in the middle section than in the top; its lush, roseate odor fills out the perfume’s center and becomes its heart in both senses. A dose of light woods and furry musk in the dry-down ground the fragrance balance the fruity-floral dominant notes with some contrasting gender-neutral notes. Fleur Narcotique has a carefree, upbeat personality is perfect for rooftop soirees in the heat of August.

Notes: Bergamot, lychee, peach, jasmine, peony, orange blossom, transparent wood, moss, musk.

Lust in Paradise, photo courtesy of Ex Nihilo

Lust in Paradise (Louise Turner) 2019: If Gobin-Daude’s heartbreaking scented arbor, Sous le Buis, had a long-lost sibling, here she is. Louise Turner’s Riviera fantasy Lust in Paradise conveys the hedgy, flowerbed scents of a neoclassical summer garden, yet without, apparently using a single green note. And yet, I get the same impression of boxwood, of flowering trees nearby, and sweet air tinged with that diffuse gold of late summer afternoon as I do with Sous le Buis. But here, it is achieved not through galbanum, leaf accord and oakmoss, but with a trompe nez. From first spray, I get a distinct impression of green leaves and mown grass. It is clover-sweet, meadowy. There is plenty of peony in the top, which gives this fragrance a sense not of vintage but of past in the present; the gossamer drift of satiny peony in the top notes feels as if it visits from another time, when little girls in white crinolines and black velvet bows in their hair chased large hoops down the mansion avenues. After a time, I begin to realize that what strikes me as arboreal and grassy in the top and center of Lust in Paradise is the combination of lychee – with its sweet, flower-tea astringency – combined with a very light cedar. The sheer loveliness of Lust in Paradise belies its earth name, and its juxtaposition of modern touches like the lift of white pepper in the top give the fragrance a sense of juxtaposition of then and present, like a sepia photo of a distant relative superimposed over a contemporary portrait, a ghost smiling through its descendent. An enchanting fragrance made even more alluring by being worn in those forlorn moments when you realize summer soon will fade.

Notes: Pink pepper, white peony, lychee, white cedarwood, musk, amber.

At a time when niche perfumery is loaded with ouds, oddballs, and complicated compositions that sometimes offer more food for thought than wearability, Ex Nihilo renders refined, modern fragrances that add a twist to conventional perfumery without sacrificing approachability.

Disclaimer: Samples of Ex Nihilo Lust in Paradise, Fleur Narcotique and Honore Delights kindly provided by Indigo Perfumery. My opinions, as always, are my own.

Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

Thanks to the generosity of Ex Nihilo’s newest stockist in the U.S., Indigo Perfumery, we have a bottle of YOUR CHOICE of Lust in Paradise, Fleur Narcotique or Honore Delights for one registered reader in the U.S. only. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about any of these three Ex Nihilo perfumes, which is your choice should you win and whether you have a favourite Ex Nihilo perfume. Draw closes 8/18/2021.

Extra Credit: If you want your comment to count twice guess which is the favorite of our Editor-In-Chief

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