YUNG has the first look at Chloé Le Nectar, the new Parfum Intense from Chloé, and it leads a crowded week: five new LOEWEs, 10 Bottegas and 13 Diors returning for another round bring us to 39 perfumes across 13 releases. At this rate, fragrance counters will need a ticketing system and somewhere to sit. Rabanne has tested one perfume to last up to 48 hours, while Max Mara has made its first fragrance and described it as an invisible coat. There is plenty of vanilla, extremely considered glass and enough ingredient provenance to fill a small library. Somewhere between the 13 restored classics and the coat nobody can see, the wrist has never faced this much administrative pressure.
Chloé Le Nectar is billed as a neo-vintage gourmand, which is a long way of saying it smells edible. Perfumer Romain Almairac opens with bergamot, moves through neroli, orange blossom absolute and rose absolute, and lands on tonka absolute, an amber accord and patchouli, with ambroxan, cashmeran and sandalwood underneath. The pleated amber glass flacon is tied with a golden ribbon and is refillable in 30ml, 50ml and 100ml. He Cong fronts the campaign, photographed by Zoë Ghertner for print and Ilaria Orsini for digital. It is only available at Sephora from November.
The LOEWE Crafted Collection added five new fragrances in September, from in-house perfumer Nuria Cruelles: Field Diary, Sweet Woodland, Rosetopia, Smoky Rain and Verdant Grove. Field Diary mixes green mandarin, blood orange and lychee; Sweet Woodland brings rose, ginger and cognac; Rosetopia centres Damascene rose; Smoky Rain takes its cue from a summer storm; and Verdant Grove pairs pistachio with caramel and cedarwood. All share the resinous, ambery LOEWE Accord. Joaquín Laguinge photographed fruit bursting into syrup and pigment-dusted flowers. Handblown-glass-inspired flasks have granite caps. The fruit needs a holiday.
Guerlain’s new L’Heure Bleue gives the blue hour a matching lipstick wardrobe, which is ambitious for something that happens twice a day. Delphine Jelk revisits Jacques Guerlain’s 1912 fragrance for his wife Andrée with an ozonic accord, iris, orange blossom, vanilla and Ambroxan. Iris appears as butter and tincture, because one form would be insufficient. The refillable bottle reproduces the style of the 1912 inverted-heart design in graduated blue lacquer with golden lettering. Three limited-edition Rouge G cases follow: Bleu Iconique, Bleu Rêverie and Bleu Astral. Twice daily, and now with merchandise.
Les Eaux de CHANEL has gone to the snow. Paris – St. Moritz is the seventh in a collection that began in 2018 and the first with a winter destination, inspired by Gabrielle Chanel’s time in the Swiss resort: the slopes, the hotel salons and the writer Paul Morand. Perfumer Olivier Polge builds the eau de toilette around pear, rose and a musky-amber accord, aiming for comfort without heaviness, which is the correct brief for anything involving a ski resort. The bottle keeps the shape of the earlier Les Eaux and comes in 50ml and 125ml. A Holiday 2026 Le Voyage Collection of six 15ml bottles is also on the way. Paris – St. Moritz has been on sale internationally since early October.
Rabanne’s 1 Million Black arrives 18 years after the original 1 Million and has traded its gold ingot for obsidian black, keeping the gold logo because there are limits. Christophe Raynaud and Quentin Bisch pair pineapple and coconut with an ultra-rich vanilla trio and ebony woods from the “One Million Dollar Tree”. It has been tested to last up to 48 hours. That is two full days of commitment from a perfume, with no indication it expects a text back. Thatcher Thorton is the new face. The perfume seems determined to outlast the entire weekend.
“Red is the new gold,” says the press release for Rabanne’s Million Red For Her Parfum, which may come as news to Million Gold For Her Eau de Parfum. Its follow-up, also created by Christophe Raynaud and Quentin Bisch, runs through ylang-ylang, coconut and vanilla. The bottle is red lacquer with an oversized gold XL Link, so gold has not actually been dismissed from the premises. Shiny hardware remains compulsory. Should another colour be declared the new gold, this bottle will have excellent grounds for complaint.
With Creed’s Iris Debonair, even the lavender has a CV. It comes from Kent, where a cultivator has perfected it over 20 years. French iris pallida from Les Landes takes over three years to grow its roots, with a refining process perfected over 12 years. The fougère floral adds bergamot and absinthe co-infusion, pink pepper, cardamom, violet leaf, fig pulp, ambrette and amberwood. Inspired by fifth-generation aesthete Charles Creed, its name comes from “de bon air”. Light grey glass has an iris tint; a limited-edition leather-finished travel atomiser accommodates the lavender’s business trips.
Violet leaf and toasted sesame share billing in Dries Van Noten Beauty’s Velvet Violet, conceived by Gaël Montero. One is floral; the other is raiding the kitchen cupboard. Pink pepper opens the woody floral gourmand, followed by sesame and barley, then vetiver and tonka bean. The refillable, semi-transparent deep purple glass bottle has a sesame-seed-patterned base, in case you missed the ingredient. Three lipsticks arrive alongside it: Peach Punk, Grunge Plum and Rose Taboo. Lip blotting papers leave a violet-scented trace. The lips have been assigned their own perfume routine.
Bottega Veneta’s Alta comprises 10 Eaux de Parfum, its most expansive fragrance release yet. Each uses an “Intrecciato duo” pairing Italian and international ingredients: Always Now has basil and Madagascar vetiver; Montebello, blood orange and North African neroli; Balliamo, white fig and American cedarwood. Ricordami includes a stracciatella ice cream accord with milky vanilla and chocolate notes, for anyone wanting dessert with geographical credentials. Bare Morning, Slow Rise, Moment After, Night Sounds, Velvet Steps and Crepuscolo complete the collection. Refillable recycled-glass bottles come in 50ml and 100ml, with wooden caps and gold-finished rings. Bespoke woven leather accessories arrive alongside it. Available now.
LOOTAH Perfumes’ Desert Oud and Dolce Oud offer two very different interpretations of oud. Composed in-house by the Emirati-culture-inspired fragrance house, Desert Oud combines spices, dry amber, smoky incense and earthy vetiver. Dolce Oud, inspired by la dolce vita, adds strawberry, crisp apple, bergamot, creamy caramel, jasmine, vanilla, oud and leather. The second reads like a dessert order that wandered into a leather department. Both are 80ml Eaux de Parfum at USD 162 (AED 595) each, available at LOOTAH boutiques across the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman and online at lootahperfumes.com and ounass.com.
KAYALI has turned an April Fool’s joke into a perfume. In 2025 the brand teased a fictional fragrance called Kitten Musk | 41, and the response was strong enough for founder Mona Kattan to make a something suited to a real gourmand. Boujee Kitty Caramel Milk | 22 Eau de Parfum, by dsm-firmenich perfumers Clement Gavarry and Gabriela Chelariu, opens with salted caramel, caramel milk and coconut, moves to white chocolate, vanilla caviar and marshmallow fluff, and ends on soft musk and caramel santal. The pearlescent diamond-shaped bottle has a jewelled cap inspired by traditional crystal Middle Eastern oud bottles, and the 22 counts the rounds of formulation behind the juice. It launched globally on 25 July at USD 105 (AED 420) for 50ml, with a 100ml at USD 150 (AED 559) option arriving in December. In the region it is available at Sephora in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, and on kayali.com.
For Dioriginals, Francis Kurkdjian is restoring 13 existing Dior perfumes, from classics by Edmond Roudnitska to more recent creations. Working with his studio and the Dior perfume Creative Studio, the Perfume Creation Director revisits Diorama, Eau Fraîche, Diorissimo, Diorling, Diorella, Dioressence, Jules, Dolce Vita, Dune, Dune Homme, Higher, Forever and Ever, and Higher Energy. Supplier changes and ingredient legislation can subtly alter fragrances over time, so the aim is to recover their original brilliance. Available this month, the project spans almost 80 years of house history. Each of the 13 has a very specific memory of how things used to be.
Max Mara’s first fragrance, Le Parfum, is described as an invisible coat, which is a lot to ask of a liquid. It draws on the house’s 101801 Coat, created in 1981, as Max Mara marks its 75th anniversary. Perfumers Marie Salamagne and Fabrice Pellegrin build it around Australian sandalwood and cedarwood, with creamy tuberose from Grasse and Guatemala, vanilla and benzoin. It is certified vegan and 90 per cent natural-origin. The glass bottle wears a camel lacquered belt, in case the coat reference needed a visual aid, and is refillable in 50ml, 100ml and 150ml. Florence Pugh, photographed by Mario Sorrenti in a camel coat, fronts the campaign under the line “When you’re ready, you’ll know.” The Dubai launch event took place on 8 October at Someone’s House in Al Quoz. It is the only perfume here to arrive with its own outerwear.
After 39 perfumes, even the most dedicated fragrance collector might struggle to remember which wrist is free. Rabanne’s 48-hour claim means 1 Million Black could still be hanging around when the next launch arrives. Creed’s lavender has 20 years of cultivation behind it, and somewhere a bottle is wearing a camel belt. If these releases were all invited to dinner, the Rabanne would refuse to leave, the lavender would discuss its credentials and the Max Mara would have already taken everyone’s coats.
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