Trudon Mortel Noir is a gothic new fragrance inspired by art and the abyss

Trudon Mortel Noir is an intensified version of the original Mortel scent by the French house, best known for its luxury candles. The original Mortel blended frankincense, myrrh and benzoin to create a sensual fragrance inspired by skin warming up against skin. The new iteration, takes the same amber and spicy notes of its predecessor but amplifies them to the extreme, with an intensely more potent kick of black pepper, in particular, and an intriguing addition of Somalian incense.

Trudon Mortel Noir and its artful inspiration

While the fragrance itself is interesting, the story behind it is perhaps even more so. Before perfumer Yann Vasnier (also the nose behind the original Mortel) started formulating the fragrance, Trudon’s creative director Julien Pruvost invited him to the Perrotin art gallery in Paris, where artist Pieter Vermeersch had painted the walls in an atmospheric blue gradient.

While Vasnier sat in the space, a licensed therapist took him through a guided meditation session before reading him the brief for the scent, which, in the words of Pruvost, 'related a simple story of an artist dying in his studio after having been consumed by his work and contained many olfactive clues the perfumer could relate to’.

Thus we have the potent and gothic Mortel Noir, an olfactory equivalent to the shadowy and strange figures of Swiss painter Henry Fuseli, or the spooky majesty of ancient castles. To drive home the ambiance, each matte black bottle of Trudon Mortel Noir comes in a black box adorned with an artwork by Bastien Coulon that shows an artist driven into the abyss by his otherworldly, creative demons.

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Trudon Mortel Noir eau de parfum, £220 for 100ml, also available from selfridges.com