Fumée Vanilla

Kyse Perfumes’ 2018 release Fumee Vanille, “vanilla smoke,” is an aptly-named smoky vanilla fragrance created by owner/perfumer Terri Bozzo. Its notes are only vanilla, oakmoss, and coffee, so while sweet, it’s also plenty smoky and a bit dark, with the bitter sides of coffee and oakmoss serving as welcome counterpoints to the dense and rich vanilla. It’s a bit like a smokier version of her Vanille de Cedre, which I sampled recently, with the added hint of coffee. It’s a great performer and has the now standardly-awesome Kyse pricing of $100 / $54 / $34 / $23 for 100ml / 60ml / 30ml / 15ml, so I’m going to give some thought to buying a bottle, perhaps after I compare it to Vanille de Cedre, and compare both to Imaginary Authors Memoirs of a Trespasser, of which both Kyse Vanille de Cedre and Fumee Vanille remind me, somewhat. Overall, like Vanille de Cedre, Fumee Vanille is a great offering at a great price, really a nod to fans (like me) of dark and sweet fragrances, but not without their own spicy and smoky undertones. 8 out of 10

probably my favourite vanilla...it has a little bit of vanilla cheesecake to it, including the base and it lasts over 12 hours. This is rich, buttery and not overly sweet but not dry like reminiscence. Really yummy and you can even get away with it on a warm humid day. This and kyse vanille bon bons and vanille benjoin all deserve attention. I get 0 coffee and 0 oakmoss.

If you love Vanilla Extract, then you will enjoy this scent. I get a smokey vanilla extract. Very nice!

This is my second outing with Kyse Perfumes. I purchased several samples from a house that is as obsessed with vanilla as I am. It’s a mild Seattle spring day so I thought I would test a freebie that the perfumer threw in with my order. Fumes Vanille was not on my radar, but it is aptly named as I pick up a smokey, nutty vanilla in the opening. The other notes come in after, reminding me of a flavored coffee drink with hazelnut. It’s a gourmand vanilla that’s not sweet. And Landshark321 is correct: for a niche offering, this line is a steal. I like everything about it because I love vanilla, maybe not the most sophisticated note but I’m not too proud to admit it just makes me feel good. My only criticism — and this is the “designer” in me coming out — I don’t love the bottle design. It looks like a perfume that a California hippy at a yoga retreat would use. Nothing inheritantly wrong with that, but I wish Kyse had a more modern sensibility, and feel the label art and unsophisticated typography is holding this brand back. With a more simple approach, this line would be more popular. If things like this don’t matter to you, and you love vanilla, then purchase this gem or at the very least buy a bunch of samples, you won’t be disappointed. At the end of the day, I’d much rather have quality juice over good packaging.

Fumée Vanille is a typical Kyse scent, and I mean that in the best way possible: their kind of marvellously straightforward delicious gourmands is exactly what the doctor ordered for these dreary autumn weeks spent in lockdown, working from home and not doing much else. Luckily I'd ordered a new batch of their samples earlier this year, and put them aside for the colder seasons! This one is a simple but really good vanilla, with a nice dose of coffee, and just enough oakmoss to keep it all from becoming toothachingly sweet. The effect is warm and just sweet enough, kind of smoky, a little earthy, slightly chocolatey without really going there. Very cosy! And it sticks around all day as well. Of course there's not much complexity here, no real development - but that doesn't matter at all, this is just another kind of scent, the comforting kind that's just for you and just for when you need it. Another one for my wishlist - maybe I'll order a little bottle with next year's sample order?