GUERLAIN
TOBACCO HONEY

2023

PERFUMER
Delphine Jelk

tobacco accord
sesame

honey
anise
clove

sandalwood
oud
vanilla
tonka bean

‘With the latest creation by L’Art & La Matière, Tobacco Honey, Guerlain pays homage to a mysterious and unknown ingredient in the world of perfumery: tobacco. The perversely sensual substance of raw tobacco reveals itself like a chord, revealing its most beautiful facets when touched by honey. A contrasting olfactory tension is created between the golden glow of honey and the intoxicating vibration of the tobacco accord. Leather, smoke, chocolate, wood, honey… All these olfactory notes were orchestrated by Guerlain Perfumers to reveal the golden melody of a resolutely Guerlain tobacco. Dried, crushed and burned, tobacco is naughty material tinged with the forbidden. Revealed as an accord, the raw tobacco exudes its most beautiful facets as it combines with the delicious honey to form a powerful meeting of opposites, as the enveloping roundness of the honey transcends all the harshness of the tobacco accord. A deliciously amber tobacco accord is enveloped by vanilla, tonka bean and sesame before being enlivened by the vibrant glow of intoxicating honey, then heightened by aniseed and clove. At the base, the precious accord reinforces its trail of woody notes, combining a blend of sweetly creamy sandalwood and powerful oud wood.’ – Guerlain

With Tobacco Honey, Guerlain adds one of the more popular niche styles to their collection. Instantly making this one of the biggest releases of the year, but also one that raised questions. In particular; can it do anything new or different from the hundreds of sweet tobacco scents on the market? Short answer: Maybe it can. At the very least, it tried and did well.

Tobacco Honey opens quite big. Loud, but thick and spicy at the same time; tickling my nose upon first sprays. It’s surprisingly ‘wet’ to me, although you get more and more of a dry Tobacco coming through as the wear progresses.

What’s prominent straight away is the honey. Real honey, not just sweet vanilla or tonka. The honey is not just sweet either, but rather heady, almost medicinal. Add to that the sesame, which is subtle, but clearly there when you look for it and it sets this apart a bit from any popular competitors.

There’s a natural quality to the honey. Even as it sweetens up during the wear, it doesn’t feel like straight up, cheap one-dimonsional sugary honey. It retains an aromatic quality. Which does not mean that it doesn’t get very sweet, because it also does. This is in the same vein as many popular sweet tobacco’s in that regards.

The tobacco, as mentioned, becomes more dry and it’s somewhat smoky, albeit not challenging. Spicy at times. It seems to get likened to Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille the most, but I find the clove overpowering in that. On my first wear, Tobacco Honey always retained more ‘wetness’ as well (somwhere in between dry Tobacco Vanille and smooth wet Herod). There’s a greenness here to my nose that’s hard to place and I’m not sure what notes are causing it or if it’s just the tobacco. Like there’s a fougere backbone hiding underneath it. But yes, eventually it moves towards Tobacco Vanille territory to some extent.

My least favorite part is the late drydown. I’ve worn it for about 8 hours now and the last 3 hours are very woody. Like a harsh, Westernized sweet oud. Almost nutty at times. Still with the honey, creating some softness, but overall, this part of the wear feels a bit rough. Performance on first impression is excellent, 8 hours in and it’s still quite strong.

Overall, Tobacco Honey feels a tad more mature than a Herod, Naxos, Tobacco Vanille, Triumph Of Bacchus etc. With the most focus on honey; if you don’t like honey, this fragrance is not for you. A fragrance that comes to mind for comparison is Lorga Nectar Cachete, but that has more leather, still it dries down not too far off from it.

I have been less than impressed with Guerlain’s quality and uniqueness in recent years, but this feels like a substantial and rich composition. Instantly, it gave me a better feeling as far as getting my money’s worth than many of their recent releases. Not to say that it’s overly complex; it develops as one would expect and the stand-out sesame, fades quickly. But the tobacco is elegant and the honey is in my opinion easily the star of the show.

In a crowded field of sweet tobacco fragrances, I must say, I was weary, but Guerlain/Delphine Jelk pulled it off with this one. It does just enough to stand out, but keep itself in the realm of smelling familiar, making this a serious alternative to all those popular fragrances. And I think it will be considered one of the better options for this style for years to come; with pricing being one of its biggest drawbacks.