Ex Nihilo
Fleur Narcotique Extrait
Fleur Narcotique Extrait by Ex Nihilo opens with litchi, osmanthus and bergamot, turns to peony, orange blossom, freesia and jasmine, and dries down to musk, sandalwood and moss.
The Nose
Composed by Quentin Bisch for Ex Nihilo, also behind Marc-Antoine Barrois Ganymede, Parfums de Marly Delina and Carolina Herrera Good Girl (with Louise Turner).
Floral
Petals in soft full bloom
The rounded, dewy scent of flowers in bloom, soft and slightly sweet with a powdery, nectar-like glow. It reads romantic and gentle, conjuring a garden in late spring and a feeling of lightness against the skin.
Fresh
Clean air after cool water
A crisp, transparent brightness that suggests cool water, washed skin, and open air, often laced with a zesty or aquatic lift. It feels clean and weightless, instantly cooling and uncomplicated, like stepping outside after a rain.
Fruity
Ripe orchard flush of juice
The succulent sweetness of peach, pear, apple, or berry, soft and dewy with a nectar-like ripeness distinct from sharp citrus. It brings a playful, mouthwatering roundness that feels youthful, juicy, and lighthearted.
White Floral
Heady blooms, narcotic and creamy
Lush, creamy petals that turn heady and almost narcotic, with a ripe, indolic sweetness edged in green and a hint of overripe fruit. It feels sensual and intoxicating, the kind of bloom that fills a room and lingers on warm skin.
Citrus
First bright zest of morning
The juicy, rind-snapping brightness of lemon, bergamot, and orange peel, tart and effervescent with a clean bitter edge. It opens a scent with instant lift and sparkle, fresh and energizing, evaporating quickly like sunlight on water.
Tropical
Sun-warmed fruit and creamy bloom
A juicy swell of ripe mango, pineapple, and overripe banana laced with coconut milk and sticky white petals. It smells of heat on bare skin, suntan lotion, and fruit left to soften in the sun, breezy and indulgent at once.
Litchi
Pink-skinned fruit that smells of roses and rain
What it is
The fruit of Litchi chinensis, a subtropical evergreen tree native to southern China, bearing rough red shells over translucent white flesh. Its high water content makes meaningful distillation impossible, so the litchi note is a synthetic reconstruction built from aroma-chemicals.
How it smells
Juicy, sweet and floral: ripe tropical fruit shot through with rosy-metallic freshness and a cool, watery transparency. It opens bright and candied, almost rosewater-like, then softens to a delicate fruity-floral hum carrying faint green and dewy facets.
In perfumery
A top note driving fruity-floral and fresh modern blends, valued for sparkling juiciness. Its rose-oxide chemistry makes it a natural partner for rose, peony and freesia. It anchors the fruity-rose accord at the heart of many modern rose bouquets.
Good to know
Litchi and rose share the molecule cis-rose oxide, which is why the fruit smells faintly floral and folds so seamlessly into rose accords. The same compound, alongside geraniol, gives the Gewurztraminer grape its surprising lychee-like aroma.
Osmanthus
Apricot and soft leather in a tiny gold flower
What it is
Osmanthus is an absolute from the tiny orange-gold flowers of Osmanthus fragrans, an evergreen shrub native to China. The hand-gathered blossoms are solvent-extracted into a waxy concrete, which is washed with alcohol to yield the absolute. Most production remains in China, with Guilin a noted center.
How it smells
A fruity-floral with vivid fresh apricot and ripe peach, wrapped in tea-like delicacy and a surprising suede or soft-leather undertone. It opens jammy and candied, then dries toward dried fruit and raisin with a faint smoky, animalic warmth lingering beneath the flowers.
In perfumery
A heart note bridging fruit, flower and leather, lending natural fruitiness without added sweeteners. It pairs with black tea, rose, leather and apricot accords. It defines refined fruity-floral and leathery-tea compositions, and colors many soft, powdery floral blends.
Good to know
It takes more than three tonnes of the minuscule flowers to yield a single kilo of absolute, ranking it among perfumery's more precious florals. In China the blossoms have flavored tea and wine for centuries, and the tree carries associations with love and the harvest moon.
Bergamot
Sparkling citrus light with a bittersweet edge
What it is
Bergamot is a small citrus fruit, Citrus bergamia, grown almost entirely along the Calabrian coast of southern Italy. The aromatic oil sits in glands in the rind of the unripe green-yellow fruit and is cold-pressed mechanically from the peel rather than distilled, preserving its fresh brightness.
How it smells
Bright, zesty and green, a sweet citrus sparkle softened by a floral, almost tea-like smoothness. Underneath runs a faintly bitter, balsamic warmth that sets it apart from lemon or orange. It flashes lively on opening, then fades quickly into a soft, slightly spicy hum.
In perfumery
The classic top note, bergamot adds freshness and lift while blending sharp citrus into the heart. It defines eau de cologne and the fougère family, harmonizing with lavender, neroli and oakmoss. It opens countless modern fresh-floral compositions, and its oil gives Earl Grey tea its scent.
Good to know
Natural bergamot oil contains bergapten, a furocoumarin that makes skin highly sensitive to sunlight and can cause burns. Modern perfumery uses bergapten-free (FCF) oil to meet IFRA safety limits, so most contemporary bergamot in fragrance is purified rather than raw cold-pressed oil.
Peony
Dewy ruffles, fresh and quietly green
What it is
Peony is the spring bloom of Paeonia species, both herbaceous and tree peonies, grown widely in China, Europe and North America. The living flower yields no extractable oil at usable scale, so its scent is reconstructed by perfumers from rosy, green and watery aroma-chemicals built around a chosen accord.
How it smells
Fresh, dewy and translucent: a soft rose heart lightened with crisp green stems, a watery petal coolness and a faint honeyed sweetness. It feels airy and modern rather than heavy, more pale pink than red, with a clean, just-opened-bud transparency that never turns jammy.
In perfumery
A heart note delivering luminous, romantic floralcy and a contemporary lightness. It pairs with rose, lychee, freesia, magnolia and white musks in pink fruity-florals. Pink peony opens the modern Chloe Eau de Parfum and shimmers through countless fresh feminine bouquets and spring-toned compositions.
Good to know
Because no natural peony extract exists at usable scale, every peony note is a perfumer's interpretation, so two peonies can smell quite different. The flower is also prized in Chinese culture as a symbol of honor and wealth, and was long called the king of flowers.
Orange Blossom
White petals between honey and bitter green
What it is
The flower of the bitter orange tree, Citrus aurantium, grown mainly in Tunisia, Morocco and across the Mediterranean. Hand-picked white blossoms yield two materials: neroli, steam-distilled from the fresh flowers, and orange blossom absolute, solvent-extracted from the same petals into a richer, waxy concrete and then absolute.
How it smells
A sweet white floral with honeyed nectar at its core, lifted by a clean bitter-green edge and a faint metallic coolness. Neroli reads brighter and slightly soapy; the absolute is warmer, more animalic and indolic, carrying a soft, almost musky depth underneath the sweetness.
In perfumery
A heart note bridging citrus tops and floral or musky bases, adding radiance and fresh sweetness. It anchors classic colognes and modern florals alike, from diffusive, sparkling neroli accords to the plush, indolic blossom threading through bold white florals.
Good to know
Neroli reportedly takes its name from Anna Maria de La Tremoille, 17th-century Princess of Nerola near Rome, who scented her gloves, gloves and bathwater with the oil. Distilling one kilogram of neroli takes roughly a tonne of freshly picked blossoms, making it costly.
Freesia
Peppery petals with a citrus-cool whisper
What it is
A flowering plant native to South Africa, of the iris family (Iridaceae), growing from a corm and prized for its slender one-sided spray of funnel-shaped blooms. Freesia yields no usable natural oil, so its scent in perfume is reconstructed from aroma-chemicals like ionones, linalool and rose-citrus molecules.
How it smells
Light, fresh and delicately sweet, a watery floral with a peppery snap and a cool citrus-green edge. Soft rosy and violet facets sit over a faintly soapy, dewy cleanness. It stays airy and transparent throughout, never heady, fading like a breeze off a spring garden.
In perfumery
A top-to-heart note adding sparkle, freshness and a modern clean floralcy to fruity-florals and white bouquets. It lifts heavier flowers like jasmine and tuberose and pairs with pear, peony and musk, becoming a defining accent in many bright contemporary feminine and unisex scents.
Good to know
Despite being one of the most beloved florist flowers, freesia is impossible to extract for fragrance, so every freesia note ever smelled is a perfumer's invention, an imagined scent calibrated to match the living flower people remember from bouquets.
Jasmine
The heady white flower at perfumery's beating heart
What it is
Jasmine is the blossom of climbing shrubs in the olive family, chiefly Jasminum grandiflorum, grown in Egypt, India and Morocco, plus Jasminum sambac from India. The fragile flowers are hand-picked at dawn, solvent-extracted with hexane into a waxy concrete, then washed with ethanol to yield the absolute.
How it smells
A warm, lush white floral, sweet and honeyed with an animalic underside. Sambac leans fruity, tea-like and dense; grandiflorum reads creamier and greener on top. Both carry a heady, narcotic richness over a green-fruity opening, drying to a soft, skin-warm, faintly mushroomy-musky base.
In perfumery
A heart-note cornerstone, bridging citrus tops and woody bases while lending volume, sensuality and rounded floral body. It pairs with rose, tuberose, ylang-ylang, sandalwood and musk. Jasmine anchors many of the great classic florals and can stand alone as a radiant soliflore.
Good to know
Roughly eight thousand hand-picked flowers yield a single gram of absolute, ranking natural jasmine among the costliest perfume materials. Much of its depth comes from indole, a molecule smelling of mothballs or decay when concentrated, yet radiant and living in the trace amounts the flower naturally holds.
Musk
Clean warmth that stays close to the skin
What it is
The quiet foundation of the base, felt more than noticed. It is the note that makes a fragrance feel finished.
How it smells
A clean, skin-warm musk that softens the base and makes it linger. It reads as warm skin and soft, airy comfort.
In perfumery
Musk rounds sharp edges, binds the other notes together and carries the drydown for hours. It is the engine of longevity in a base.
Good to know
Musk sits closest to your own skin scent, so it wears a little differently on everyone. That intimacy is its charm.
Sandalwood
Creamy meditative woods that breathe in slowly
What it is
Sandalwood oil is steam-distilled from the heartwood and roots of slow-growing Santalum trees, classically Santalum album of Mysore, India. As the wild Indian source neared collapse, plantations of the same species in tropical Western Australia now supply much of the world's perfumery-grade oil.
How it smells
Soft, creamy and milky, with a smooth woody warmth and a faintly sweet, rosy, almost buttery edge. It carries no sharpness, only a rounded balsamic depth. It stays remarkably steady on skin, glowing quietly for hours rather than opening and drying in distinct stages.
In perfumery
A base note valued as both scent and fixative, sandalwood lends creaminess, warmth and a meditative softness that binds compositions together. It pairs beautifully with rose, jasmine, vetiver and spice. Many meditative woody and incense fragrances celebrate it at their heart.
Good to know
Genuine Mysore sandalwood was so overharvested that India tightened export controls and the wild tree became vulnerable, with oil prices reported around two thousand dollars per kilogram. Plantations of Santalum album grown near Kununurra in Western Australia now sustainably recreate the original creamy profile.
Moss
Damp forest floor pinned into a bottle
What it is
Perfumery moss is not true moss but lichen: oakmoss (Evernia prunastri) and tree moss (Evernia furfuracea), grey-green growths scraped from oak and conifer bark in the Balkans, Morocco and central Europe. The dried lichen is solvent-extracted into a dark, sticky absolute.
How it smells
Deep, earthy and forest-damp, oakmoss smells of wet bark, leaf litter and cellar stone, with inky, slightly leathery and marine-green facets. Tree moss leans drier, more resinous and tar-like. Both bring a shadowy, ancient greenness that feels cool, soft and unmistakably outdoors.
In perfumery
The classic base of the chypre, moss supplies depth, earthiness and a shadowy dry-down, traditionally bound with bergamot, labdanum and patchouli. It forms the backbone of the great vintage chypres, anchoring countless green, leather and fougere structures.
Good to know
Oakmoss contains atranol and chloroatranol, potent allergens the EU banned outright in 2017, so modern oakmoss is sold as a low-atranol cleaned fraction. This rule forced the reformulation of nearly every great vintage chypre to chase the original effect with synthetics.
Fragrance Character
A floral-fruity composition led by litchi and osmanthus, resting on musk and sandalwood.
Longevity
how long it stays on skin
This gauge reads the expected wear time, how many hours the fragrance keeps speaking on skin before it fades. A marker near the low end means a few fleeting hours, while a marker pushed to the far end promises a scent still present from morning into night.
Sillage
the size of its scent trail
This reads how far the fragrance reaches beyond you and the trail it leaves behind. Low sits soft against the skin, an intimate whisper noticed only up close; high climbs through moderate and strong toward enormous, filling a room and lingering in the air after you have left it.
Experimental
For the bold and curious
Unconventional, boundary-pushing scents for someone who wants to provoke a reaction and stand apart. Suited to artistic, challenging compositions: inky tar, rubber, fermented fruit, metallic or animalic facets that defy easy liking. On this wheel a glowing coin means it rewards the adventurous nose, a dim one means it plays things safe.
Office
Polished but never overpowering
Close-quarters professional settings where a scent should be noticed only by those near you. Suited to restrained, clean compositions with modest projection: tidy citrus, soft musk, pale woods that read competent and considerate. On this wheel a glowing coin means it works in shared workspaces, a dim one means it carries too far.
Evening
After dark, turned up
Dinners, drinks, and nights out when a fragrance can deepen and project with confidence. Suited to richer, warmer compositions: ambers, resins, smoky woods, or plush florals that bloom under low light. On this wheel a glowing coin means the scent comes alive after sundown, a dim one means it stays better suited to daytime.
Romantic
Close enough to be felt
Intimate moments and date nights meant to draw someone nearer. Suited to warm, sensual compositions that hum against skin: creamy florals, vanilla, soft musk, a touch of spice or amber that invites closeness. On this wheel a glowing coin means it sets an alluring mood, a dim one means it leans more practical than seductive.
Formal
Refined for the occasion that matters
Weddings, ceremonies, galas, and dressed-up affairs that call for composure and elegance. Suited to polished, structured scents with quiet authority: smooth woods, refined florals, soft leather, nothing loud or playful. On this wheel a glowing coin means it carries the right gravitas, a dim one means it feels too casual for the room.
Casual
Easy comfort for unhurried days
Everyday wear with no agenda: errands, coffee, friends, a slow weekend. Suited to soft, approachable scents that feel clean and natural, like fresh citrus, light woods, or a gentle skin warmth. On this wheel a glowing coin means the fragrance fits these laid-back moments, a dim one means it asks for more.
Day to Night
where its mood naturally falls
This slider reads the hour the fragrance was made for. A marker to the left leans luminous and bright, easy in daylight and open air; slide it right and the character turns deeper and warmer, the kind of presence that belongs to evening and candlelit rooms.
Winter
Warmth that carries through cold air
Cold air mutes and slows a fragrance, so winter rewards the dense and the warm: resins, smoke, vanilla, leather, and ambered spice that radiate heat against the chill. The bar shows how strongly this particular scent holds up and glows in cold weather.
Spring
Fresh blooms in mild, rising warmth
Mild, humid air lifts lighter compositions beautifully, so spring favors dewy florals, green stems, soft powder, and transparent citrus that feel alive rather than heavy. The bar shows how well this particular scent matches that fresh, gently warming season.
Summer
Bright and airy in real heat
Heat amplifies and projects scent hard, so summer calls for cool, crisp, breathable things: sharp citrus, salty marine air, aromatic herbs, and watery freshness that refresh instead of cloy. The bar shows how comfortably this particular scent wears in real warmth.
Fall
Spiced warmth for cooling days
As temperatures drop, richer materials read clearly without smothering, so autumn suits dry woods, warm spice, tobacco, amber, and golden fruit that feel cozy and contemplative. The bar shows how naturally this particular scent settles into crisp, cooling days.
Best Worn
Equally suited to the workday and to easy off-hours, this bright floral-fruity carries through spring and summer from daylight into the going-out hours after dark, led by litchi and osmanthus over soft musk.
Why the Fleur Narcotique Extrait Decant
A decant is the considered way to live with Fleur Narcotique Extrait across a few wears before the full bottle.
Official Notes
Litchi · Osmanthus · Bergamot · Peony · Orange Blossom · Freesia · Jasmine · Musk · Sandalwood · Moss
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The Vibe
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