THE GOTHIC HORROR ::: TABAC ROSE by BDK PARFUMS (2020); COEUR NOIR by HERETIC (2016/24) + NOSFERATU EAU DE MACABRE (2024)

Nosferatu is a clever marketing tie-in with the same-named and fonted Robert Eggers directed vampire film currently riding high in the world’s box office. Creating what is surely the first ever ‘eau de macabre’ – although I could have done without the ‘de’ – the house of Heretic, usually focusing on all natural plant based fragrances, here veers off in far more synthetic territory in the name of fashioning a very specific olfactory apparition: a bush of wet, wilting lilacs outside Count Orlok’s castle as the centuries old nosferatu appears, blood starving in the cold, stony mists..

The results are interesting. I am still waiting for the film to come out here in Japan, as I am sure an epic goth horror of this standing will merit the proper big screen treatment, even if I am not really, in truth, a big fan of the director. I found his Big Norse Mythology Blockbuster THE NORTHMEN laugh out loud terrible; we watched half of it on the plane and were rolling in the aisles; The Lighthouse, starring Willem Dafoe – who I can’t stand – and Robert Pattinson – nice to look at – was alright, if a little self serious with all the tiring foggy black and white; ; ; though I do have to confess that his first film, The Witch – insidious as they come – was rather brilliant : stark, laboured ( but horribly convincing – let’s not talk about the goat ) —- – … .. it was just too scary for me personally, striking obscene levels of satanic terror, in my punily palpitating heart.

Nosferatu the perfume might have a similar impact on those around you. While some talk of soft, spectral musks; heart-tugging violets, a plaintive orris concrete all set against a glistening petrichor – all I really smell is

H A L I T O S I S. I don’t know if it is the oud in the base or the indoles used to create the ‘lilac’- always a difficult note to replicate authentically : Pure Distance’s opalescent but overpoweringly soapy Opardu bears some similarities to this vampiric hallucination with its high powdered florality – but the menace of really, really bad breath being exhaled from old / / young lungs , irrefutably hangs, icily, despite the lacy filigree, ( deliberately ?) over the entire (de)composition. The spectre of worm-tongued Nosferatu himself, lord of the malignant undead, hovers stinkingly above; eager, ready, to French kiss his fevered lover.

As such, the scent is strangely effective. It is repulsive, and yet perfect (like, say, Zoologist Tyrannosaurus Rex which makes me want to run for the hills but is undeniably very sexy; or vintage Guerlain Mouchoir De Monsieur with its overdose of faecal civet that smells filthy yet ultra refined and horny simultaneously): there is a lightness and vulnerability to the scent; a plangency that certainly emotes – I can imagine it bewitching on younger, less contaminated skin – so hats off to Heretic for not surrendering to the tedious blood and smoke tropes you might expect from such a project. Nosferatu is original; arresting —— and genuinely strange.

For those still after a semi- gothic vibe but who do not want to smell as though they haven’t cleaned their teeth since birth — just feasting on carrion — Coeur Noir is a welcome alternative. A familiar warm patchouli melange based on a soft and powdery heart of quality labdanum and vanilla Madagascar, the more unusual element in the scent lies perhaps in the (over)application of sharp rosewood up top that lifts the petticoats out of too much fresh-bottomed talcumed complacency; and confers a certain vibrancy.

One can imagine the object of the vampire’s affections beginning the film like this : subdued, but subtly, unconsciously emanating erotica. Later, when her all consuming passion for the count takes over, I see her succumbing instead to an overdose of Tabac Rose: a devouringly sweet, thick, rich and chocolatey Bulgarian rose that really seized my attention at Yokohama Nose Shop yesterday and had me glued to the nozzle (I shall have to go back). Like all the best perfumes that inspire deep ambivalence — that intoxicating mix between hate and love, Nosferatu included,, – this fetishistically suffocating floral: : : too much, but kind of gorgeous, easing its way slightly too forcibly into the oesophagus, immediately sunk its claws right into me ….. ….. … …… … …. 。。。and I was unable to turn away.