The holidays don’t have to smell like gingerbread and peppermint. Here are four fragrances from independent perfumeries that evoke winter magic in unexpected, entrancing ways.
SANTA MARIA NOVELLA – INCENSO
A little bit of a wildcard here, this is a recent discovery for me and I fell for it immediately.
This is liturgical incense. This is like being in a historic cathedral for midnight Mass, with notes like cardamom and pepper and papyrus and resin. This gives the feeling of incense smoke without any tarry burning. It feels intimate and ageless.
The resin gives it a sweetness, and I definitely detect florals in the middle (although they’re not listed), but it’s not a sweet or flowery fragrance.
This one feels quiet and sacred and strong and leans more masculine, but I would still love wearing it out with a cardigan and heels.
THE MAKER – DREAM EAU DE PARFUM
I smelled this one in the middle of the summer and immediately knew this would be a winter full-bottle.
Put out by The Maker Hotel in New York, Dream is the elevated winter vanilla comfort fragrance you’ve been dreaming of. This is a buttery-sweet vanilla pastry scent with hints of cinnamon and spices, but it doesn’t feel immature like a lot of gourmands do, because the magnolia and sandalwood hold it down.
This is a pastries-in-the-morning cozy scent on its own, and is also great for layering. In the fall, I paired it with Dirty Peach by Heretic, which created a cobbler kind of aroma I could not get enough of.
More recently, I’ve been throwing it on with a sweater or wearing it to bed on cold night for the sweetest dreams.
RÉGIME DE FLEURS - BLOOD SPIDER ORCHIDS
This was released a couple of years ago and comes back in the fall during the Halloween ramp up — but despite that, I find this to be a really incredible winter holiday scent.
There are cinnamon and winter spices with a little bit of incense, but nothing overbearing: all over a juicy sweetness that is comforting but not edible. It gives more mulled wine than pastry, if you’re thinking in gourmand terms.
I love this one and went from a decant to a travel size, and it’s on the full-bottle short list for me.
SCENTS OF WOOD - PLUM IN COGNAC
This is a really elegant fragrance. There is sweetness, but it comes from tobacco leaf and plum, and is a little boozy in a warming, comforting way.
With the richness and the winter spices, it is similar to Blood Spider Orchids, but this leans heavier on woody notes and is a bit more gender-neutral and less gourmand.
As a cis-het lady who likes to be femme, I personally would feel fabulous wearing this to a classy holiday party. And at the same time, I have smelled it on a man, and it was really woody, luscious, and attractive.
Kate Holcomb is a New Orleans-based fragrance writer.