Velvet VendettaWoody Vanilla Extrait de Parfum

Velvet Vendetta by Sarah Baker is a liqueur-sweet woody vanilla extrait de parfum, unisex, created by Margaux Le Paih-Guérin. “Soft as velvet, hard as lead,” the house summarizes.

An unrefined and ruthless vanilla

Sarah Baker is a multidisciplinary artist — film, photography, installation — and the founder of the house, based in an East London studio. She entrusts each fragrance to a different nose and accompanies each with a mini-scenario. This one is a western: “An unrefined and ruthless vanilla. Forbidden vanilla rides in at a gallop, a flask of bourbon at its hip, its sweetness pierced by gunpowder smoke and sparks of pink pepper.” Three words: “rough, gunfighter, velvety.”

An opening of gunpowder smoke, pink pepper, nutmeg and dried fruits

The gunpowder smoke opens the fragrance — dry, sulfurous, metallic. The pink pepper sparkles, the nutmeg warms, and the dried fruits bring “a juiciness” that barely softens it.

A heart of vanilla, bourbon and black olive

The vanilla — the house calls it “forbidden vanilla” — arrives in the heart, not the base. The bourbon intoxicates it. And the black olive, a salvaged and unrefined material, “gives it a salty edge”: it is the detail that prevents the vanilla from becoming comfortable.

A base of tobacco, dead wood, molasses, resins and black vanilla

The dead wood and the resins form “a whip-cracking cavalry charge through the mist.” Then the scene “settles into a dusty sunset of tobacco, molasses and black vanilla.” The sillage is warm, dry and very long-lasting.

The house’s approach

Two vanillas, on two levels and in two forms: the “forbidden vanilla” in the heart, clear and alcoholic, and the black vanilla in the base, dark and tarry. Between the two, a salty black olive. This is what distinguishes Velvet Vendetta from gourmand vanillas: here, sweetness is a backdrop, not a goal.

For whom, for what occasions?

For those seeking a vanilla that does not reassure. Autumn and winter, evenings. A 50 ml unisex extrait de parfum. The house does not test any products on animals and formulates in compliance with IFRA, without nitromusks, colorants, phthalates or halogenated organic compounds.