Best Labdanum 18 by Le Labo Alternatives & Similar Perfumes

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.

The dogged prospector strikes gold. Upon discovering a payload rich with nutrients, the scarab returns home. Face down, guided by the sun, it propels the tightly-packed dung backwards to a burrow lined with dusky spheres. Underground, it tunnels into the ball to deposit a precious egg. In time, the larva hatches and feeds, until it emerges, fully formed, and instinct drives it down the same dusty trail to repeat the cycle.

Like Egyptians entrusting sacred mummies to tombs for the journey to the next life, a scarab burying its treasure marks the dawn of new life. Zoologist Sacred Scarab captures the mystique of Kyphi incense, a blend of blue lotus, raisins, plums, olibanum, myrrh, and juniper. Once bound with wine and burned in ancient rituals, today this divine scent guides your spirit on a path to discovery and rebirth.

Perfumer: Sultan Pasha

Perfumer: Sven Pritzkoleit

It's a dramatic animalic dry leather. Smell the artistic take on the hyraceum aroma (a larger than life fantasy) in this perfume and also if you visit us at Covent Garden, you can discover how natural hyraceum smells. We have a piece of this ancient fascinating material for educational purposes.

Sven used natural hyraceum as obtaining this material does not involve any animal cruelty (please see below). However, the perfumer purposeley enhanced most of the nuances of natural hyraceum to dramatic proportions: animalic, urinous, leathery, ambery and barnyard.

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What is hyraceum?

Hyraceum is the fossilized urine of hyraxes Bloom's specimen (available to smell at our Covent Garden store) came from a mountainous area in South Africa and was harvested by local tribesmen from a hyrax’s urinal area in an ancient cave (as communal animals they have a designated communal loo - latrine). Hyraceum is exclusively fossilized urine deposits (no feces). As many desert plants and animals have water saving habits – hyraxes’ urine is not a liquid. They excrete jelly-like urine that dries in the sun to a stone.

The specimen was procured with the expert assistance of The Rising Phoenix Perfumery and could be thousands of years old.

In the aromatic universe, osmanthus sits somewhere between tart, punchy tobacco, strong tea, and animalic oud.

Perris is fascinated by nature’s fragrant treasures and make perfume materials THE story of each of their perfume. So much so, that they experiment with the same perfume material in different perfume architectures: eau de parfum and extait.

How does this work? In Absolue d’Osmanthe EdP, osmanthus is of course the main theme, but balance is shifted to the top (proportion-wise there is more pepper and jasmine in the blend). So the EdP is dry and spicy.

The extrait version of Absolue d’Osmanthe is heavier on the base notes of vanilla and labdanum. The extrait is creamier and more leathery compared to the spicy EdP.

A rich, smoky blend of honey, tar, vanilla and incense.

The perfumer leaves the perfume plot sketchy - to be completed by your imagination. Are you in your autumn apiary watching honey trickle into jars, smoke lingering in the air from bonfires of fallen leaves? Are you on the well-tarred deck of a merchant ship carrying huge barrels of honey? This beautiful, smoky fragrance will definitely take you somewhere.

Starring

(these fragrant materials reanacted the Honey and Tar story):

castoreum tinctura
benzoin absolute
birch tar essential oil
Himalayan cedarwood essential oil
sweet myrrh essential oil
vetiver essential oil
guayak wood
agarwood essential oil
Atlas cedarwood  essential oil
jasmin sambac absolute
hops CO2
lavender absolute
patchouli essential oil
cardamom absolute
tonka bean absolute
vanilla CO2 extract
orris root CO2 extract
Vanuatu sandalwood essential oil
Royal Hawaiian  sandalwood essential oil

Important notice:

Anna Zworykina’s blends are olfactive smellscapes (but neither aromatherapy, nor ‘spray-and-go’ perfumes). Her blends are sensory experiences, closer to works of art created in the scented plane (rather than, say, visual or audio).

Certain essential oils and absolutes that are used in her 100% natural perfumes may potentially cause allergies in some people. Please spray Anna Zworykina’s blends on fabric (on sleeves, scarves, etc.). This said, Anna Zworykina has acquired a huge fan base over many years and people interacted with her blends for quite a while now. We are not aware of any reports of any skin reactions so far.

However, Anna advises that those who are prone to allergic reactions, pregnant and nursing women, as well as people with chronic illnesses to be extra careful. Before trying natural blends, study the list of ingredients and consult with a doctor if you are not sure or a had a history of allergies. If you do decide to put these blends on your skin (unable to resist the temptation) always test the blend on the inside part of your elbow first and wait.

Do not spray these blends liberally as a cloud in the way you would spray a conventional perfume. Anna’s smellscapes need to be… carefully applied and experienced. Be mindful that some oils can also make your skin hyper-sensitive to UV.

As the sun sinks over the dense tropical forest, civets emerge warily from the thickets. Under a carpet of narcotic flower blossoms, a smattering of coffee berries peppers the ground. The moist air is heavy with mossy aromas that penetrate every crevice, but the musky scent of the civets dominates; their marked territory daring one to enter at one’s own risk.

Civet pays homage to the age-old ingredient, civet, as well as chypre perfumes of bygone days – perfumes that refused to be intimidated by raw, alluring, animalistic musks. Civet is a moody and complex brew entwined in mystery. It opens with a spicy floral accord, threaded through with dark coffee tones. Slowly it prowls forward, unraveling base notes of leather, moss and vanilla that combines with distinctive civet musk to create a bewildering, sophisticated scent with the promise of a sultry nighttime rendezvous.

Perfumer: Shelley Waddington

A sultry heat wafts across the land, lapped up greedily by the abundant flora that thrives in its midst. Trees soar to majestic heights and plants flower for the first time, their petals spreading to give birth to a world rich in diversity. The Cretaceous period comes of age against a backdrop scorched by wildfire and lightning strikes. Over this turbulent landscape, a massive predator looms. Giants rule the earth, but even giants can be cut down within the powerful jaws of the fearsome tyrannosaur. Standing tall, the terrifying beast fears nothing, until that pivotal moment when a fire in the sky signals the end of their deadly reign.

Zoologist Tyrannosaurus Rex is a gargantuan scent that sinks its teeth into the world of delicate fragrances and rips it wide open. Primitive woods and florals seize you and snatch you away to an ancient era. Smoky, charred wood warns of the danger of smouldering fire, setting your senses on edge, while droplets of metallic rose oxide offer a chilling premonition of blood-lust. The mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex is sometimes menacing, sometimes fascinating, but never, ever ordinary.

Some perfume magic, a perfume that captured the soul of autumn, complete with foggy cold mornings (orris), dry leaves (the effect of various balsams and resins), sleepy sun (played by vanilla absolute and Indian oud) and fireplaces (gaiac).

Important notice:

Anna Zworykina’s blends are olfactive smellscapes (but neither aromatherapy, nor ‘spray-and-go’ perfumes). Her blends are sensory experiences, closer to works of art created in the scented plane (rather than, say, visual or audio).

Certain essential oils and absolutes that are used in her 100% natural perfumes may potentially cause allergies in some people. Please spray Anna Zworykina’s blends on fabric (on sleeves, scarves, etc.). This said, Anna Zworykina has acquired a huge fan base over many years and people interacted with her blends for quite a while now. We are not aware of any reports of any skin reactions so far.

However, Anna advises that those who are prone to allergic reactions, pregnant and nursing women, as well as people with chronic illnesses to be extra careful. Before trying natural blends, study the list of ingredients and consult with a doctor if you are not sure or a had a history of allergies. If you do decide to put these blends on your skin (unable to resist the temptation) always test the blend on the inside part of your elbow first and wait.

Do not spray these blends liberally as a cloud in the way you would spray a conventional perfume. Anna’s smellscapes need to be… carefully applied and experienced. Be mindful that some oils can also make your skin hyper-sensitive to UV.

David Maruitte

“Nerosa is a perfume realized with David Maruitte in 2011, but at that time we believed that Laboratorio Olfattivo was not yet ready to launch a fragrance like this. Today instead, Nerosa can perfectly enter in our Black Collection, thanks to the depth, wealth and strength of its formula. A fragrance whose energy is noticeable and whose enveloping sillage is strong.”

Roberto Drago

Perfumer: Luca Maffei

The EdP option smells drier and more like a damp autumn forest (and has a peculiar mushroom effect). The extrait of Oud Imperial is more ambery (softer) and the smokiness of natural oud is much more pronounced.

Perris are rebalancing each composition for the extrait version. They shift the focus from the top notes to the base raising the amounts of base ingredients to achieve a richer, more opulent and luxurious effect. Pure indulgence in the theme.