5 Ink-Inspired Perfumes

(...That Are Not YSL Muse)

Maybe I should be writing this post with pen and paper, rather than a laptop keyboard.

Thanks to a recent news-post on Now Smell This (my internet mothership), I’ve just learned that YSL Beauty has launched a new fragrance named Muse, inspired by iris, incense, and…ink.

As someone who gained most of her formal education before the digital revolution, and who has always loved to write (and, in earlier years, to draw), I wore a black-and-blue stain of ballpoint pen ink down the side of my left hand throughout most of my youth and teens. We don’t live in such an ink-y world anymore, thanks to technology. Despite, or because of, this shift, ink has accrued new layers of meaning. Who doesn’t love receiving a hand-written note these days? It’s retro, it’s personalized, it’s tangible evidence of time and effort.

And yet, how does ink smell? We all know what ink is, yet most of us don’t experience the real thing — liquid, in bottles! — frequently enough to be familiar with its scent. That gap in our sensory knowledge allows perfumers some latitude.

The signature photo for YSL Muse (Inspiring Ink), with that single crumpled flower lying on a marble plinth and those streams of ink dripping down from the perfume bottle (plus the black nail polish and leather pencil skirt!) is the kind of upscale-goth visual that catches my eye and tells me to make a mental note for my next visit to Bloomingdale’s or Bergdorf.

I love the history of Yves Saint Laurent and his namesake fashion house, and the idea of him making rapid pen-and-ink sketches of his “muses” (Victoire, Betty Catroux, Loulou de la Falaise, et al.) is a nice departure point for a perfume. Perfumer Marie Salamagne says, in a press release, "The ink reveals enigmatic woody notes, intimate and elegant smoky facets. It veils the skin in subtle dark, metallic tones, slightly iris-y, earthy. For me, the ink takes on the colors of creativity and mystery. It stimulates the imagination.”

Yves Saint Laurent at home in Paris, 1978. © Martine Franck/Magnum Photos

In a somewhat bumpier quote for Glossy, Marie Salamagne remarks, “The idea was to work around this ink idea, which is quite exceptional because it hasn’t been made that way. I thought this could be really different for Saint Laurent, very couture also. It’s a blend of how to be couture, unique, super elegant and addictive.”

“Really different for Saint Laurent” seems to be the key idea here, because (again, via Glossy) we learn that Muse is the latest addition to YSL Beauty’s revamped and repackaged Vestiaire des Parfums line, a higher-priced collection within YSL Beauty’s fragrance catalogue. “But,” as Emily Jensen of Glossy reminds us, “going for more niche trappings also means competing with the true indie brands, whose more unique scents have been taking market share from conglomerate-backed releases. According to March data from Nielsen IQ, indie brands now command 23% of the U.S. fragrance market, versus conglomerates’ 77%. That’s compared to 19% in 2023. YSL is betting that Muse, with its distinct ink note, can attract a consumer looking for a more daring scent profile.”

A YSL x Dubai Duty Free counter, surrounded by other luxury beauty counters, in 2023.

Overall, this feels like yet another case of a global luxury brand trying to maintain an existing customer base that loves the perfume brand for its label (i.e., name recognition) and has mainstream taste in fragrance, while attracting new customers who might be younger, edgier in their style choices, more willing to experiment in their perfume tastes and habits, and less typically attracted to legacy fashion/beauty brands. I wouldn’t want to be tasked with figuring out how to square this particular circle, but hey, that’s why I’m an online writer and semi-academic lecturer, not a fragrance industry mogul.

[Tangent: I remember attending a panel discussion on niche perfumery in 2009. Although it was ostensibly marketed to Barneys customers like me, it was attended by more than a few fragrance industry professionals who were trying to decode niche fragrance’s specific appeal so they could apply it to their own work in mass-market perfume. Years later, we’re still seeing headlines about the growth of niche scent, yet Big Fragrance still seems to be struggling to capture that lightning. Maybe it’s time for another approach…?]

In any case, back to our topic! I have no idea whether a Muse’s ink note will lure in a new demographic of shoppers, but I’d argue that it is not “unique.” here are five ink-fantasy fragrances created over a span of twenty years, any of which could have been on a “mood board” for YSL Beauty’s Muse.

The early niche ink: Comme des Garçons 2 (1999, Mark Buxton)

Probably one of the first ink-prompted fragrances on the market, Comme des Garçons 2 was eagerly anticipated by fans of this avant-garde fashion brand’s first fragrance, which had launched five years earlier. (Does anyone else miss the days when we’d wait and anticipate a new scent from a favorite company, rather than being barraged by constant new releases? Just me?) Robin reviewed CdG 2 on Now Smell This, quoting a 2003 article by Women’s Wear Daily stating that the fragrance was “based on two olfactive categories: technological, which contains notes of ink and new aldehydes, and natural, which comprises incense, magnolia, patchouli, cedarwood, amber and labdanum.”

The new-classic ink: Lalique Encre Noire (2006, Nathalie Lorson)

Encre Noire (“Black Ink”) is an earthy, vetiver-heavy composition packaged in a timeless square black bottle with a wooden cap; Lalique (the legendary crystal-and-glass manufacturer) sells it as a masculine fragrance but that shouldn’t deter anyone else from trying it. Robin of Now Smell This described it as “dark and spicy and dirty, with…an appropriately inky feel” and Victoria at Bois de Jasmin named it as one of the Best of 2006. In general, Lalique offers some really enjoyable, grown-up scents, and they can often be found at discounted prices; just a tip.

The contemporary design ink: Fzotic Lampblack (Bruno Fazzolari, 2013)

I’ll let Bruno Fazzolari speak for himself here: “Lampblack launched my career as a perfumer. I created it for an exhibition of small ink paintings that featured opaque, black India Ink contrasting with transparent, vivid colors…Lampblack gets its name from Lampblack pigment which is used to make India Ink. Historically, it was made with soot collected from oil-burning lamps. For the fragrance, I developed an accord that smelled like ink. I used the essential oil of nagarmotha, a root related to vetiver, which has a slight petroleum odor. I wanted it to have the almost industrial smell of a printmaker's workshop.”

The cult favorite ink: Perfumer H Ink (Lyn Harris, 2015)

I never really found a favorite fragrance in the old Miller Harris line, back when Lyn Harris was the brand’s perfumer, but I love many, many scents from her newer company, the London-based Perfumer H. Ink, a composition of notes including elemi (a kind of tree resin), black pepper, papyrus, vetiver, and cedar, is an elegant balance of smoky and mineral aspects that happens to be one of Perfumer H’s bestsellers. The blue bottle pictured above is the beautiful hand-blown version; a smaller, mass-produced black bottle is another (more affordable) option.

The true indie ink: Blackbird Mizuchi (2012, reformulated and relaunched in 2021)

Seattle-based Blackbird has quietly been offering excellent incense and offbeat perfumes for more than a decade, and I’ve long had a hunch that their work “inspires” many other (less creative) brands. Blackbird launched Mizuchi in 2012, reformulated it about a decade later, and now sells it exclusively though the Blackbird website. The “details” for Mizuchi read like a short poem or an entry from a travel diary: “Shinto monks in black robes smoking Seven Stars. Sumi ink paintings of black cats and water dragons. A 1991 Mitsubishi Delica's old car diesel smell. Blackwing pencil shavings and dusty books.” (Other than the Mitsubishi, that description might have intrigued YSL himself…)

Do you have any favorite ink-y perfumes? Tell us! And have you ever tried anything from the YSL Vestiaire collection, including Muse?

Image: Eugène Grasset, advertisement for Marquet inks, 1892 (cropped). Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Public domain.