Last month, the Cartier Les Heures Voyageuses collection welcomed Oud Vanillé, a new luxurious fragrance for the discerning individuals.
Derived from the resinous Agar trees of Southeast Asia, oud – the essential oil that imparts a smoky and woody scent to fragrances – is one of the world’s most expensive raw fragrance ingredients. Despite being too costly to harvest, oud has been used a fair bit.
Brands including Dior, Jo Malone and Tom Ford are no strangers to this cherished essential oil. Cartier, especially, is well acquainted with oud; the French Maison has a whole line specially dedicated to it.
“Les Heures Voyageuses, a precious collection of olfactory cultural tributes devoted to Oud resin, an emblematic and historical ingredient of the East whose natural origin is treated by the Maison with the utmost care,” Cartier highlights.
While oud takes the protagonist role in the series, the creations in the Les Heures Voyageuses collection are all distinctively different. Cartier Perfumer Mathilde Laurent ensured variety by differentiating them with “the entire olfactory repertoire of legendary ingredients, from rose to sandalwood, from jasmine to amber, from mint to musk”.
In April, Laurent continued her exploration of fragrance ingredients, launching Oud Vanillé. Taking cues from her exquisitely sweet fragrance inspired by childhood, l’Heure Perdue launched in 2015, Laurent tapped on vanillin to work alongside oud.
The result? An unparalleled, epicene olfactory portrait composed of powdery sweet, woody, animal and naturally musky notes, which reveal themselves through every spritz. A hedonistic dream – the complex concoction, encapsulated in a 75 ml gold-tinted bottle adorned with Cartier’s historical Moucharaby motif, exudes a discreet elegance, one that only the discerning can appreciate.
(Images: Cartier)
