Fragrance Finder Selection

The Most Aesthetic Fragrances on Instagram

Instagram has created an entirely new form of desire in perfumery — not only an olfactive desire, but a visual desire, a desire to belong to an aesthetic, to a lifestyle, to a way of seeing oneself and being seen. "Instagram" fragrances are those whose bottles photograph well, whose houses have a strong visual identity, and whose prestige is recognisable at a distance in a well-framed photo. Byredo excels here — its cylindrical, minimalist bottles, photographed on white marble or natural wood, have become visual icons as much as olfactive ones. Tom Ford's Rose Prick, with its golden thorns on a black background, is one of the house's most photographed. Le Labo's Santal 33 in its raw American apothecary bottle is the image of an elegant counter-culture. These fragrances exist on two simultaneous levels: in the bottle one sees and in the fragrance one can only imagine.