Noctuaire
Fragrance in its undiluted state.
The extrait moves toward warmth. Bring your cursor to it, and press.
Four extraitsFour, and no fifth until one is retired.
Each is sold as extrait and only as extrait. Choose one to see how it behaves — the four are not the same liquid in four colours.
Resinous and unhurried. Labdanum reduced over four days until it will no longer pour, then cut with benzoin until it will. The warmest thing in the range and the slowest to leave.
- Head Bergamot peel, pink pepper
- Heart Labdanum absolute, ambrette seed, immortelle
- Base Benzoin Siam, tonka, grey amber
Bought once, at harvest.
Every material below is bought in a single lot, once a year, and the whole of that year's production is macerated together in one vessel in Grasse. What comes out is what there is. When a batch is finished it is finished, and the next will not smell identical, because the orris will not be identical.
| Lot | Material | Origin | Harvest | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Labdanum | Sierra de Gata, Spain | July | Rockrose resin, still combed from the coats of the goats that walk through it. The spine of N⁰ I. |
| 02 | Orris butter | Chianti, Italy | August | Rhizomes lifted after three years in the ground, then dried for six more before anything is distilled. |
| 03 | Oud | Assam, India | Continuous | Twelve years in barrel. Bought from one family; we have never bought from another. |
| 04 | Neroli bigarade | Nabeul, Tunisia | April | Distilled at first light, while the blossom still holds water. The window is about nine days. |
| 05 | Ambrette seed | Manabí, Ecuador | February | Rested two years before use. Musk without the animal, and the reason N⁰ I sits so close to skin. |
| 06 | Benzoin Siam | Luang Prabang, Laos | November | Tapped bark, tapped by hand. It is what makes a reduced resin pourable again. |
We do not dilute.
Noctuaire makes four fragrances. Each is sold as extrait and only as extrait — there is no eau de parfum, no eau de toilette, no summer edition. A dilution is a different fragrance wearing the same name, and we would rather you knew which one you had bought.
The house was founded in 2016 by two people who had spent a decade reformulating other people's briefs downward, and wanted to see what happened if nobody was allowed to ask for it cheaper. The atelier is four rooms above a former glazier's on Rue Amiral de Grasse. The laboratory is one of them.
We publish the lot table above because we think you should be able to see what you are paying for, and because a house that will not tell you where its orris comes from usually has a reason.
A perfume that is polite at every distance is a perfume nobody remembers.
How to wear an extrait.
Extrait is not eau de parfum with a higher price. It is a different material and it wants to be worn differently — sparingly, close to the body, and left alone once applied.
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To the pulse, never the cloth
Wrist, the hollow of the throat, behind the ear. Fabric holds an extrait far too long and gives none of it back, which is how a scarf ends up smelling of it a season later.
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One point, not three
A single application is the whole dose. At 28% and above, the second point is not twice as much fragrance — it is the same fragrance, worn louder than it was built to be worn.
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Do not rub
Rubbing shears the top notes off and starts the drydown early. Apply it, and then leave it. The first fifteen minutes are the part most people destroy.
By appointment, or by post.
The atelier is open on Thursdays and Fridays for private appointments. Bring nothing; wear nothing. An hour is enough for two of the four, and attempting all four in one sitting is a waste of an afternoon.
The sample set
All four, 2 ml each, sent anywhere we can ship alcohol. €38, deducted in full from a subsequent bottle.