Metallic

Metallic fragrances are among the most avant-garde and challenging in all of perfumery, capturing the cool, sharp, slightly chemical smell of polished metal, wet iron, struck coins, or the inside of a new car. This accord is built using materials like Iso E Super (at high concentrations), violet leaf absolute, certain synthetic musks, and labdanum facets that read as chrome-like or mineral.

The metallic accord is almost exclusively a niche fragrance territory, where experimental perfumers like those at Comme des Garcons, Le Labo, and Etat Libre d'Orange have used it to create deliberately unsettling or conceptually interesting compositions. A metallic note in a fragrance tends to read as futuristic, industrial, and strangely intimate.

Metallic accords pair well with ozonic, violet, woody, and musky notes. If this strange, modern territory intrigues you, explore ozonic, aldehydic, and violet accord families.