The Purple BarSpicy Vanilla Extrait de Parfum

The Purple Bar by Cherigan is a niche, spicy, vanilla, and gourmand perfume extract, unisex, made with 97.5% natural ingredients—the atmosphere of a subdued cocktail bar, the kind where Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller used to meet.

A 1929 house risen from the dead

Cherigan was founded in 1929, at 120 avenue des Champs-Élysées. Its name already hints at its era: chéri and gant, back when people still perfumed their gloves. The house opened a boutique in Havana, won over movie stars, created about fifteen fragrances—including a Chance long before Chanel, in a horseshoe-shaped bottle—and then disappeared around 1966. Luc Gabriel, CEO of The Different Company, rediscovered it in 2016 in the perfume archives, bought back the name, and relaunched the house in 2021, in the spirit of Roaring Twenties Art Deco. The catalog is divided into two ranges: Les Iconiques, reconstructed original formulas, and Inspirations, new creations born from the spirit of the era. Everything is an perfume extract, made with between 90 and 99% natural ingredients, and available in 100 ml and 15 ml sizes.

An opening of orange, davana, almond, and candied fruit

Orange opens round and sweet, while davana—an Indian herb with facets of macerated fruit and rum—gives it an alcoholic edge. Almond brings its milky sweetness, and candied fruit its thick sugar.

A heart of clove, cinnamon, and labdanum

Clove and cinnamon add spice to the whole, while labdanum—a leathery, honeyed cistus resin—creates an amber warmth.

A base of benzoin balm, vanilla, and patchouli

Benzoin balm brings its vanilla resin, vanilla its roundness, and patchouli its dark earthiness. The trail is balmy and lasts a long time.

The house's signature touch

Davana in the top notes. This Indian plant, with its facets of dried fruit and rum, is one of the few ingredients that changes depending on the skin that wears it—it is what gives the opening its macerated, alcoholic quality, like fruit that has been left in a jar for too long. The clove and cinnamon in the heart prevent the whole from turning into jam. The theme justifies it: this is not a fruity fragrance but a bar, the kind from the 1920s when cocktails from the United States revived the Parisian nightlife—the setting of the pages of Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller. In fact, the house describes the scene exactly like this: the glass arriving at the counter, then warm, animalic, vanilla-scented skin where a drop of patchouli is still diffusing.

For whom, for what occasions?

Spicy, vanilla, and gourmand, this extract is for those who love balmy orientals and macerated fruits. It gives its best from autumn to winter, in the evening, and is equally suited to women and men. The 15 ml size has an applicator cap, with no atomizer: it is applied drop by drop, and the bottle is refilled each time it is closed.

With The Purple Bar Cherigan, the house puts a counter rather than a fruit in a bottle.