Ex Nihilo
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The bergamot and neroli emerge with surprising delicacy, all bright pith without harsh citral bite—like pressing your nose into a silk handkerchief that's been scented rather than doused. Within minutes, the creamy iris begins its ascent, softening the citrus into something almost powdery.
By the hour mark, the ambrette has bonded with the orange blossom to create a distinctly skin-like warmth, neither distinctly floral nor entirely abstract. The fragrance settles into a velvety, second-skin quality where individual notes blur into a creamy, almost aldehydic sweetness—as though you've applied expensive face powder mixed with a touch of almond milk.
The musk and cedar arrive without fanfare, deepening the creamy base into something warmer and more anchored, though never woody in any conventional sense. What remains is predominantly the sandalwood-softened musk and powder accord—a barely-there whisper that clings closer to skin with each passing hour, increasingly intimate and less distinct.
Honoré Delights occupies a peculiar territory between skincare and fragrance—it reads as though someone has liquified the powdery warmth of expensive face cream and bound it with silk threads of white florals. Nathalie Gracia-Cetto has crafted something deliberately restrained, where the bergamot and neroli opening doesn't announce itself with vigour but instead settles into a creamy iris-and-ambrette heart that feels more tactile than olfactory. This is a fragrance that whispers rather than declaims.
The iris performs the crucial work here, offering that slightly soapy, pencil-shaving quality that anchors what could otherwise become saccharine. Ambrette—that underrated musk-adjacent note—amplifies the creamy sweetness without tipping into gourmand territory, whilst the orange blossom refuses to be merely decorative, adding a subtle almond-like warmth that threads through the composition. What makes Honoré Delights distinctive is how the base musk and cedar eschew the typical woody-amber narrative; instead, they emphasise creaminess and powder, creating an intimate second skin rather than a statement piece.
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4.0/5 (122)