THE JOURNAL

Scent often seems too intangible to describe but, like our clothes and hairstyles, it’s also a brilliant indicator of who we are. Ms Oprah Winfrey, for instance, reportedly smells like diamonds. We’re not sure that diamonds even have a scent, but we assume that this means Ms Winfrey smells good in the way only the obscenely wealthy can.
Also see Mr Kanye West. Last year, Ms Kim Kardashian West told New York Magazine’s The Cut that her husband “smells rich”. When asked what that actually meant, however, she couldn’t quite articulate it: “I can’t explain it, but like a rich person. Like… money, I don’t know! He smells like what you think a really expensive Saint Laurent fragrance campaign would be.”
The goal for the rest of us, of course, isn’t to smell pungently rich. It is to simply smell like the best versions of ourselves. And while we wouldn’t posit that the five fragrances below smell like wealth, exactly, they all certainly have an air of sophistication that are, well… let’s just say they’re more at home in business class than economy.

Frederic Malle
Monsieur
Frederic Malle’s Monsieur fragrance might almost be described as pungent if it wasn’t also strangely captivating. According to its press release it’s intended “for the polished womaniser”, which goes some way to describe its masculine layers of frankincense, cedar and rum, but we think that doesn’t quite do justice to its seductive qualities. Perhaps we’ve been womanised.

Byredo
Sunday Cologne
If you’re in the market for something that smells timeless, a scent you can wear day in, day out but is nonetheless distinguished, go for Byredo’s Sunday Cologne. It’s awash with woody scents of bergamot, vetiver and cardamom but any heaviness is buoyed by star anise and geranium. By turns spicy, fresh and earthy, it is a fragrance that is well-lived and makes an invariably brilliant gift.

Jo Malone London
154 Cologne
Jo Malone London might have built an international reputation for brilliant fragrance, but fame hasn’t diluted the brand’s sophistication. Its 154 Cologne is a great example of this: it is named after the Walton Street address that housed the brand’s first boutique in 1994. It’s a bright, breezy scent full of grapefruit, mandarin, lavender and nutmeg, and smells like a well-heeled summer in the south of France.

Maison Francis Kurkdjian
Grand Soir
If you’ve ever wondered what the “radiance of a magnificent Parisian evening” smells like, well, Maison Francis Kurkdijan’s Grand Soir has captured it in a bottle. The scent is rich, smoky and warm, full of amber and vanilla – think cocktails at Loulou followed by a tipsy stroll on the Seine. A word of warning: this is strong stuff; it will linger on your skin for hours. Which is fine by us.

The Perfumer’s Story
Tuscan Suede
According to Ms Azzi Glasser, she created her Tuscan Suede perfume because she “always wanted to smell the delicious finesse of expensive suede on men and women and think of the closeness of skin.” Gosh. As you may expect from that description, this is an opulently seductive fragrance that is lifted by fresh top notes of white suede and bergamot that later settles into a darker, sumptuous territory of resin and musk. Kind of like a very expensive leather chair, but exponentially more charming.