L'Artisan Parfumeur
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The triple-pepper blast hits immediately—white pepper's sharp, almost citric pungency meets black pepper's dusty warmth, with pink pepper providing a brief, peppery sweetness that dissipates quickly. Your first breaths carry an almost peppercorn-grinding quality, as though you've leant directly over freshly cracked peppercorns.
As the initial peppery assault mellows, the beeswax emerges with a subtle, slightly grainy sweetness, whilst liquorice introduces a savoury-spiced character that complicates matters beautifully. Cinnamon settles into the composition, warmer and earthier now, creating a fragrance that smells vaguely gastronomic—like a high-end spice blend rather than a traditional perfume.
The myrrh takes prominence, lending a resinous, incense-adjacent quality as vanilla and honey quietly deepen the base into warmer, woody tones. Sandalwood cradles everything in creamy smoothness, the pepper now merely a distant memory, the fragrance settling into a sophisticated amber-spice hum that clings close to skin.
Poivre Piquant announces itself as a pepper enthusiast's manifesto—not a timid spice dabble but a full-throated declaration. Bertrand Duchaufour constructs something deliberately peppery without artifice: the white pepper's sharp bite immediately pairs with black pepper's deeper, almost woody grain, whilst pink pepper adds a fleeting brightness that refuses to sweeten the composition. This is where most fragrances would soften, but Poivre Piquant doubles down. The heart layers liquorice and beeswax in a genuinely unusual coupling—the liquorice brings an anise-tinged spiced warmth that threads through cinnamon, whilst beeswax contributes a waxy, slightly dusty amber undertone that prevents any honeyed cloying.
The brilliance here lies in the base's restraint. Rather than suffocating the peppery top with vanilla and honey, Duchaufour uses them as anchors: myrrh introduces a resinous, slightly medicinal quality that grounds the sweetness, and sandalwood provides creamy structure without softening the composition's angular edges. This is a fragrance for those who find comfort in pepper's bite, who appreciate liquorice's herbaceous complexity, and who don't confuse sweetness with softness.
Add fragrances to your collection and unlock your personalised scent DNA, note map, and shareable identity card.
3.6/5 (227)