Dear Shaded Viewers,
There’s something undeniably transportive about the right fragrance—a scent that doesn’t just sit prettily on your wrist, but one that flings open the doors to another world entirely. Enter Havana Gold, the latest addition to Dries Van Noten’s perfume lineup, and perhaps its most hypnotic yet.
Picture this: licorice laced with tobacco, swaying to the slow heat of a Cuban bar after midnight. That’s the vibe perfumer Jordi Fernandez wanted to bottle—a place humming with music, laughter, and a touch of rebellion. Havana Gold is exactly that: a warm, ambered cloud that feels at once familiar and entirely exotic.
Dries Van Noten is known for “impossible combinations,” and here, the rich syrup of licorice wraps around the deep smoke of tobacco in a way that feels surprisingly natural—inevitable, even. Sweet and sinuous, then spiced and musky. Cinnamon and benzoin ghost in the background, while roasted tonka and bold leather anchor everything with languid sensuality.
Let’s talk packaging, because with Dries, it’s never an afterthought. Havana Gold arrives housed in a sculptural bottle—the first in the line crafted from molten brass and smoky amber glass. It looks less like a perfume flacon and more like a collector’s objet d’art, patinated and gleaming, ready to be displayed (or quietly hoarded).
Conscious of its footprint, the fragrance relies on ethically sourced tonka beans and benzoin, and the sleek bottle is happily refillable—luxury layered with a conscience.
Havana Gold isn’t a summer fling. It’s a scent for boarding trains late at night, for drawn-out talks under low-lit chandeliers, for letting go. In its luminous bottle, it’s less a fragrance, more a mood—a promise to escape, just for a moment, into smoky warmth and golden light.
Welcome to the next chapter in sensorial storytelling. Let yourself get lost.
Later,
Diane
