MISKEO Parfums: The best minimal scents?

Hello, Fragrant Friend 👋,

Did you know? August is one of the secret best months to launch a fragrance — as summer winds down, shoppers discover new scents just in time for the pre-festive season and holiday wish lists.

🗓️ Contents of this Issue

1. Note Worthy: Extrait de Parfum, olfactory travel, and instant scents
2. Story: MISKEO — Minimalistic Scents from Berlin
3. Quiz: The world’s most expensive absolute
4. Fragrance Spotlight: Mimosa

Note-Worthy 🔎🌸

Extrait de Parfum (>20% concentration) is challenging Eau de Parfum as consumers seek stronger, longer-lasting scents — brands like Nishane and Amouage are capitalising. Olfactory travel is engaging smell as a way to explore new places, including “smellscaping.” And The Perfume Shop partnered with Deliveroo to deliver 1,000+ perfumes in as little as 25 minutes.

Story: MISKEO Parfums 📖

An interview with Marie-Pierre Blancette, founder and perfumer behind MISKEO Parfums in Berlin. Originally from Montreal, she moved to Berlin eight years ago after working as Head of Design at Zalando. The name MISKEO derives from the Latin miscere (“to mix”), with the ‘C’ changed to ‘K’ for a modern touch. Her first collection embraced a minimalist philosophy — perfumes as straightforward interpretations of single ideas like “leaf” or “spice.”

The Collection

Brume — mineralic green fruit (juniper, mastic, aldehydes, vetiver): walking in thick fog. Daim — animalic aromatic floral (suede, blood orange, hay, castoreum): a homage to her grandparents’ dignity. Épices — spicy woody gourmand (mandarin, cardamom, myrrh, patchouli): cooking as alchemy. Feuille — green earthy floral (tomato leaves, chamomile, mimosa, linden): a garden in early summer. Pistil — floral animalic green (galbanum, raspberry, jasmine, costus): the convergence of dualities.

Her upcoming collection embraces a more maximalist, playful and exuberant approach. She works with evaluator Pep (The Scentinel) and faces challenges around regulation, IFRA certificates and the cost of shipping perfume internationally — “sending a discovery set costs the same as a full bottle.” She balances select physical retailers (15 West Berlin, Brooklyn, Porto) with online sales.

Fragrance Spotlight: Mimosa 🌼

Mimosa (Acacia dealbata) is native to Australia, also cultivated in India, Morocco and southern France (the Riviera between Grasse and Cannes). Its bright yellow, fluffy flowers give a powdery, downy scent with floral, green and warm straw tones. Each tree blooms for ~10 days between February and March. Mimosa absolute is ~€3,500/kg; ~1 tonne of flowers yields ~1 kg of concrete, then ~250 g of absolute.