Smokestack EDP 50ml

A strange, rhythmic night. The muted sound of jazz drifts through the streets, carried from a smoky den where shadows keep their secrets. There’s an itch in the air – trouble waiting just out of sight. The feeling is evasive, impossible to hold, yet it gnaws with persistence. A hunger for the unknown, for something that refuses to be named. Its truth speaks louder when day gives up to night.

This is Smokestack. In the stillness that hums with anticipation. In the edge where elegance meets defiance. In the fragrance of a feeling, bottled and held close.

NOTES
Top: Aniseed, Narcissus
Middle: Pepper, Black Currant, Mahogany
Base: Juniper, Smoke, Sandalwood

PERFUMER
Prashant Khanna

HOW IT WEARS
For us, Smokestack opens with a peaty, almost savoury smoke; a smoke of spellwork, the scent of burning handfuls of dried juniper, pepper, and other magical ingredients while reciting an incantation. As it begins to dry down, the smoke dissipates a little bit, making way for a boozy, warm, sweet heart of the fragrance. Here arrives the sweet spice of aniseed, rich, juicy blackcurrant and the honeyed hay-like quality of narcissus. In the base notes, an overdose of sandalwood and mahogany houses the other notes in deep, mysterious woodiness. 

LORE LOVES
Prashant, the founder and perfumer behind Vararoha, told us that Smokestack was inspired by a trip of his to New Orleans, Louisiana. There, on one of her streets, he had swig of juniper moonshine passed to him by a local. In that moment he felt himself present in all of Nola’s timelines… her prohibition speakeasies, her mardi gras jazz parades… each moment, each experience imbued with culture and tradition. Hoodoo practitioners making up their spiritual blends, poets writing their prose, chefs making their food. Smokestack is the culmination of all of these things at once, and is an incredibly moving fragrance as a result. Moonshine is a hard thing to suggest in a formulation that’s already mainly made up of perfumer’s alcohol, but Prashant has managed to do it! 

ABOUT THE BRAND
Vararoha is an independent Australian artisanal fragrance house based in the Macedon Ranges. Named after an old Sanskrit word, one translation of which is “ready to offer boons or gifts”, the concept of Vararoha is meaningful in many ways to founder and perfumer Prashant’s ethos and heritage.
Each Vararoha fragrance is presented as a gift to those curious enough to receive them, to those who seek beauty not as an ornament, but as an inheritance of experience. Those who engage in quiet rebellion – honouring individuality in a world that often pushes us towards homogeny. Standing out, for Vararoha, isn’t about being louder or brighter or bolder. It’s about recognising that acceptance crafted for everyone rarely fits anyone. It’s about about standing out by standing true.
Vararoha fragrances are born from experimentation, intention, and a deep respect for an ancient craft. Each creation begins with observation – a fleeting mood, a subtle tone, a fragment of memory. What starts as stories and notes in a journal slowly becomes an olfactory structure, a composition of rare ingredients and carefully chosen accords. Every fragrance is developed by the perfumer and founder, working with ethically sourced ingredients to create scents that are both timeless and unapologetically individual.