After the magnificent summer we’ve had, a move towards colder months will feel slightly jarring. But after countless heatwaves and enough sticky, sweaty Tube journeys to last us a lifetime, we’re not exactly going to complain about a slight drop in temperature, a bit of rain and finally having an excuse to reach for the light jacket.
A change in perfume might make the transition a little easier —-and considerably more stylish. The good news? Some of our favourite fragrance houses have beaten us to it. The newest woody scents are arriving without the dusty, overly masculine baggage the category can sometimes carry. Instead, we’re getting green apple with peppery woods, dark chocolate with tobacco, blackcurrant with oud, salty vanilla and spice-soaked leather. They’re richer, but still incredibly wearable right now – particularly as the summer evenings become shorter and cooler.
Here are our favourite new launches that we think you’ll fall head over heels for.
The best new luxury warm and woody scents at a glance
- Best date-night, seductive scent: Tom Ford Tobacco Chocolat
- Best alternative to the usual fruity perfumes: Matière Première Black Currant Extrait
- Best transitional scent: AllSaints Sacred Sands
- Best for spice lovers: CONTES DE PARFUMS Marrakesh
- Best statement fragrance: État Libre d’Orange Nihilismus
- Best for your first woody fragrance: Maison Noir Icarus 967 Extrait
The best new luxury warm and woody scents: full list
Maison Noir Icarus 967 Extrait
Akigalawood is appearing everywhere in newer niche fragrances. The Givaudan-created woody material has become one of the ingredients to know in contemporary perfumery, prized for the way it can give a fragrance a peppery, patchouli-like warmth without making it feel old-fashioned. Maison Noir has built its new Icarus 967 Extrait around it, taking the Swiss house’s bestselling Icarus 347 and turning the intensity up considerably. Created by Givaudan perfumer Nisrine Bouazzaoui Grillié, it keeps the original’s green-apple signature but gives it a much darker, more substantial base.
There is something very appealing about a fragrance that starts out so fresh – with green apple, raspberry, lavender – and then gradually becomes woody and musky on skin. It feels like the sort of perfume for someone who has exhausted the usual fruity-floral rotation but isn’t ready to go completely into woody, darker tones. A very unique yet wearable day-to-evening fragrance.
- Top: Green apple, pink pepper
- Heart: Red apple, raspberry, lavender, patchouli
- Base: Akigalawood, vetiver, musk
Price: £245 (100ml)
Tom Ford Tobacco Chocolat
Tom Ford has been mining the tobacco theme for years, but Tobacco Chocolat makes the Private Blend house favourite considerably more indulgent. Instead of another variation on the spicy, vanilla-heavy formula of Tobacco Vanille, this 2026 release puts dark chocolate and cocoa at the centre, built around the brand’s Cocoa Smoke™ accord – a co-distillation of cocoa and tobacco. Orange essence cuts through the richness, while Indonesian patchouli, Peru balsam and Ambrofix give the composition its darker, resinous backbone.
And it smells addictively alluring. The opening is rich, dark chocolate with that slightly bitter edge you get from proper cocoa. As it settles, the tobacco becomes more noticeable, bringing a dry, smoky quality that gives the chocolate some grit, while the balsam and patchouli add warmth underneath. If you like fragrances that are decadent, rich, enveloping and a little bit hedonistic, this is a very easy one to fall for.
- Top: Orange essence
- Heart: Cocoa Smoke™ accord – cocoa and tobacco
- Base: Indonesian patchouli, Peru balsam, Ambrofix™
Price: £320 (100ml)
CONTES DE PARFUMS Marrakesh
Contes De Parfums is built around a lovely idea: every fragrance is a portrait of a place, created through the personal experience of the perfumer who knows it. Marrakesh comes from Nelly Hachem-Ruiz’s walks through the city’s souks, where she was struck by the layers of scent in the air – spices, leather, amber and the smells coming from the tanneries. It gives the fragrance an actual sense of place, not just a “Moroccan-inspired” label that gets attached to so many warm, spicy perfumes.
Cardamom and saffron lead into cinnamon, cumin and nutmeg, creating something warm and slightly earthy before the leather and amber-like base takes over. There is vanilla here, but this isn’t a sweet perfume; the spices and leather keep it dry and refined. Instead of becoming dense or aggressively leathery, the dry spices soften into suede-like leather, vanilla and labdanum, giving this sophisticated, luscious fragrance a surprisingly smooth finish.
- Top: Cardamom, saffron
- Heart: Cinnamon, cumin, nutmeg
- Base: Vanilla, leather, labdanum, cedarwood
Price: £195 (100ml)
État Libre d’Orange Nihilismus
État Libre d’Orange has always been the perfume house for people who find the idea of smelling simply nice a little boring. Its fragrances tend to arrive with stories, provocations and occasionally peculiar references, and Nihilismus is no exception. The new Harrods exclusive takes its inspiration from Empress Sissi’s horse and the animal’s strength, freedom and instinct, while also drawing on Nietzsche’s philosophy – which is quite a lot to ask one bottle of perfume to carry. Created by Jordi Fernández, it has been described by the house as an ambery-leathery scent.
Fortunately, you don’t need to understand the philosophy to enjoy the perfume. Vanilla, incense and pink pepper make the opening warm and slightly smoky, before leather, orris butter, rose and ambergris give it a much stranger edge. Oud and tonka deepen it further on the skin. This is not the perfume we’d choose when we want to smell pretty; it’s the one for black dresses, late dinners and occasions when you want somebody to ask what you’re wearing. If you have a collection full of clean musks and pretty florals, Nihilismus will shake things up nicely.
- Top: Vanilla, incense, pink pepper, Safraleine
- Heart: Leather, orris butter, Damask rose, ambergris
- Base: Oud, vanilla, tonka bean
Price: £230 (100ml)
Matiere Premiere Black Currant
Blackcurrant is having something of a perfume rethink, and Matière Première’s new Black Currant Extrait is a good example of why. The French niche house has always built its fragrances around a single natural ingredient used at a high concentration, and for this new Harrods exclusive, founder and perfumer Aurélien Guichard has chosen blackcurrant absolute from Burgundy. He describes cassis as a link between French and British culture – a particularly fitting choice for a fragrance created for Harrods – and the aim here is to show the fruit’s darker, deeper side.
The cassis is gloriously vivid – tart and almost startlingly realistic – but there’s something darker lurking underneath it, with the green bite of the fruit giving way to smooth leather, earthy patchouli and a shy animalic oud. It has that delicious contrast between something bright and almost edible and something much more sensual underneath. It’s seductive, opulent, and has the sort of unmistakable presence that makes you keep lifting your wrist back to your nose.
- Top: Blackcurrant absolute
- Heart: Indonesian patchouli, rose oxide, leather accord
- Base: Assam oud
Price: £360
AllSaints Sacred Sands
AllSaints has always treated fragrance as part of its fashion identity – something you’re supposed to put on with the rest of the outfit – and its latest collection makes that particularly clear. Sacred Sands arrived alongside Naked Woods to complete the brand’s Eau de Parfum wardrobe, created with perfumer Gabriela Chelariu. The idea is a very AllSaints sort of contradiction: cool mineral salt against rich, addictive vanilla, with the brand describing it as “untamed” and “elemental”.
Bergamot, cypress and the slightly strange caviar accord give the opening a salty, coastal feel, but the fragrance quickly becomes softer and warmer as iris, mineral vanilla, patchouli and incense milk appear. It has enough freshness for the farewell to summer, but the creamy, smoky dry-down makes it feel more substantial than your average summer scent. At £80, it’s also a smart entry point if you’re curious about richer, less conventional perfumery but aren’t quite ready to spend three figures on a niche scent.
- Top: Bergamot, caviar accord, cypress
- Heart: Peru balsam, iris
- Base: Vanilla, milk accord, salt, patchouli, incense
Price: £80 (100ml)
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