Sowmya GibishEveryone knows Korean skincare. Far fewer people know that the same country has quietly built a handful of perfume houses worth clearing shelf space for. So which is best Korean perfume brands are actually worth it, and do the scents last longer than the trip home? A few now have K-pop stars as their face, and one or two have started turning up at the big niche fragrance fairs in Europe. Below are four picks, one brand each, that earn the attention.
Soft Everyday Wear Tamburins Pumkini
Unisex
Perfumer
In-house
Fragrance Family
Aromatic Gourmand
Notes
Top: White pumpkin, shiso leaf, blood orange
Middle: Ginger, coconut milk
Base: Sandalwood
Quiet Office Days Nonfiction Gaiac Flower
Unisex
Perfumer
In-house
Fragrance Family
Oriental Floral
Notes
Top: Wild rose, wildflowers
Middle: Guaiac wood
Base: Vanilla, amber
A colleague of mine wore this for weeks before she’d tell me what it was. Gaiac Flower opens soft with wild rose, then a warm woody note called guaiac settles in over vanilla and amber, the clean-but-not-boring kind of smell that reads as expensive. It stays close and quiet, so it is a safe pick for a shared office or for anyone whose skin reacts to heavier scents.
Your Skin But Better Borntostandout Dirty Rice
Unisex
Perfumer
Olivier Cresp
Fragrance Family
Woody, creamy musk
Notes
Top: Almond, bergamot
Middle: Basmati rice, milk, peony
Base: Sandalwood, vetiver, cedar, musk, cetalox
Don’t let the name scare you off. Made by Olivier Cresp, the nose behind Mugler Angel, Dirty Rice is one of the cleanest skin scents Korea has put out: warm basmati rice, milk and a little almond over soft woods and musk. It barely projects and turns into a “your skin but better” smell after an hour, which is why people wear it to bed and then end up wearing it everywhere.
Day to Night Paseo Mid Mountain
Unisex
Perfumer
In-house
Fragrance Family
Woody Floral
Notes
Top: Lemon
Middle: Rose, orchid, lily of the valley
Base: Patchouli, cedarwood, amber, musk
pesade flies more under the radar than the others, the kind of label you find in a quiet Seoul shop rather than on a duty-free wall. Mid Mountain is its day-to-night one: a clean lemon opening, soft rose and lily of the valley in the middle, then patchouli, cedar and amber that warm up as the hours pass. It reaches a little further than the rest of this list, so a spray or two is plenty.
Sowmya Gibish
