Best Havana Gold by Dries Van Noten Alternatives & Similar Perfumes

Sun soaked dayz and disco nights, this scent captures the character of Ibiza with white florals and aromatic star anise. Chic, cool, joyful!

From the heart of the Mediterranean scrub, where the air hums with resin and sun-drenched leaves, Ladano rises — a fragrance shaped by the slow pulse of Cistus ladanifer. For centuries, this golden resin has been gathered from the wool of animals, breathing its scent into fabric and skin. Here, labdanum glows rather than burns — thick, balsamic, embracing. It’s animated by tickly aromatics: licorice, celery seed, cinnamon leaf and immortelle.

Cool herbs, the sweetness of anise, the warmth of a boozy flame at the bottom of a glass. Blue Flame begins in that glass. It opens bright and bitter, like lemon peel twisted between the fingers. Mint leaves and dry coriander seed steadies it. Then comes sambuca, the anise liqueur that lingers with chilly sweetness, shadowed by bitter/herbal Mugwort. Vetiver and cedarwood trace the outline of dry wood, and benzoin resin adds a low hum. Finally, white musk emerges, turning this cool customer into a warm, languid skin scent, its sweet herbs still held within.

Inspired by an Art Deco skyscraper and the paintings of Tamara de Lempicka, Tabac Rouge is a striking androgynous fragrance, conjuring up curling tendrils of incense and tobacco smoke. Turkish tobacco absolute is warmed by ginger and cinnamon, with a luxuriant hint of honey. Tabac Rouge dries down to a lush base of Siam benzoin and musk. 

Stercus never lies.
A part of the essential body functioning and a natural way to fertilize the soil.
It is the secret sweetness that attracts, and the animalic side that offends.
A sign of an infinite life circle.
The smell of an end and the beginning.

“Živeli” (ZHEE-vuh-lee) is a common Serbian toast used to wish good health and a long life. In this extrait, a juicy burst of plum brandy melts into a leathered tobacco, encapsulating a celebratory night out with friends. Giddy joy is further fluffed by cherry and raspberry notes, while the leather aspect is warmed by honey, saffron and labdanum.

This composition is 24% parfum concentration, with 70% natural ingredients. Capped in Mexican Riviera Gray marble in a delicately etched glass bottle.

Feret Parfumeur, a French family business producing toiletries and perfumes since 1865 are launching a classic theme of patchouli and spices but with a contemporary linear architecture and lovely playful licorice twist.  

“In rifleing the closet of the ladie, they found a pipe of oyntement, wherewith she greased a staffe, upon which she ambled and galloped through thick and thin, when and in what manner she listed”
– Proceedings Against Dame Alice Kyteler, Prosecuted for Sorcery, 1324

Hexensalbe, also known as witches’ flying ointment, was a hallucinogenic salve used in witchcraft in the middle ages. It was a mixture of extremely poisonous ingredients that produced an ecstatic trance with powerful sensations of flying, images of otherworldly creatures and a primal sexual hunger. 

But where did the witches’ broomstick come in? The ointment was too poisonous to eat, so instead it was applied to other soft membranes, commonly the genitals. Because of the erotic effects of the high, the salve would often be rubbed directly onto a phallic object like the end of a staff or a broomstick. (Now that’s what we call “riding a broomstick”!)

Given which aspects of the history of hexensalbe have been suppressed, it would seem that the one thing more terrifying than witches is female sexuality. This fragrance celebrates the forbidden rituals of personal power, summoning the ancient ways with dark aromatics: wormwood, liquorice, belladonna and black hemlock. Voluptuous tuberose and vibrant patchouli ensure a long and blissful trip.

Vanilla’s in the name, but it’s not the name of the game, here. Instead, vanilla’s a team player with sticky, resinous labdanum, enigmatic orris and dark’n’dirty vertiver and patchouli. White chocolate smooths out the rough edges, while a lick of licorice adds an exclamation point!

The name of the perfume is a reference to the ancient port of Darin (located on the Tarout island/جزيرة تاروت‎ in the modern day Saudi Arabia).This port was famous in the Middle ages as the musk exchange hub, where merchants from everywhere would come to buy deer musk.

Darin’s musk was legendary (top quality and genuine). Swedoft are treating us to that fabled musk aroma in a poetic modern perfume way. Darin’s Musk is a bright, voluminous fresh musk cloud. It’s not animalic. It’s white musk, clean and exquisite. It did however inherit the outstanding longevity and diffusiveness of the original deer musk traded centuries ago in the port of Darin.