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, perhaps whilst reciting an incantation. As it begins to dry down, the smoke dissipates a little bit, making way for the boozy, warm, smooth 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 herbal blends, poets penning their prose, chefs perfecting their dishes. 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!
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