Smoking is something of a relic. Between heavy excises on tobacco, a public health campaign running almost three decades, and graphic anti-smoking ads a compulsory fixture on cigarette boxes around the country, smoking has officially become passé in Australia. And don’t get us wrong, that’s a good thing — smoking is bad. Seriously, don’t do it. However, it retains a certain allure—both emotive and sensorial—that the mango- and blueberry-flavoured air of the battery-operated vapes the kids are puffing on today simply can’t match.
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While some of the best tobacco fragrances are reminiscent of heady nights and conversations that seem deep in the moment but are likely just pithy alcohol-fuelled drivel, others are warm, comforting, and even cosy. Sitting within the same olfactory family as leather, tobacco adds a sense of depth to fragrances that may otherwise read as ‘basic’, with its nuanced blend of woody, spicy, smokey, and sometimes slightly sweet accords giving off a warm, intense scent. A multifaceted olfactory note, there are different types of tobacco fragrances; some will evoke the richness of pipe tobacco, while others look to the scent of wet tobacco leaves and will lean more herbal and vegetal. A select few will actually smell like cigarettes.
The best tobacco fragrances in 2024
Whether you want to smell like a sexy ashtray, evoke the aura of a distinguished pipe-smoking gent or are simply after a sweet yet sophisticated perfume, these are the best tobacco fragrances to try.
1. Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille
For those who want to smell like Harry Styles circa 2013. A good first foray into tobacco fragrances, Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille leans into the sweeter side of tobacco, blending both the root and leaf of the plant with dried fruits, baking spices, and vanilla to create a rich, sweet fragrance. The ideal scent for fall or winter, it’s reminiscent of drinking a chai latte or sitting by the fireplace with the scent of holiday baking (think fruit cakes or Christmas pudding) wafting through the air.
Price: $410AUD
Scent notes: tobacco leaf, ginger, spice notes, vanilla, tonka bean, tobacco blossom, cocoa, dried fruits, woods
Vibe: cosy, comforting, a little sexy
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2. Guerlain Tobacco Honey
Guerlain Tobacco Honey is everything a tobacco fragrance should be and more. Using honey and its derivatives across its beauty and fragrance lines and partaking in the conservation of bees, French perfume house Guerlian knows the sweet liquid well. The saccharine nature of honey means that many fragrances centred on the note veer on cloying, coming off sickly sweet and almost artificial. However, Guerlain Tobacco Honey features a hyperrealistic honey note, complementing its delicate, slightly floral sweetness with a hint of spice and using tobacco and oud to add a rich, dark intensity into the mix.
Price: approx. $590AUD ($395USD)
Scent notes: honey, cloves, anise, tobacco, vanilla, sesame, agarwood, sandalwood
Vibe: addictively sweet (and sweetly addictive), good enough to eat
3. Akro Smoke
If you’re one of the few people who likes to smell the scent of ash lingering on your fingertips after a cigarette (hi, it’s me), you’ll like Akro Smoke. While most tobacco fragrances tend to evoke the rich sweetness of pipe tobacco or the herbaceousness of wet tobacco leaves, Akro Smoke conjures up the sensorial appeal of smoking a cigarette. A little gritty and grungy while being warm, familiar, and nostalgic, it smells like the smoke lingering on your jacket after a night out or the dried ash that remains on your fingertips long after the last cigarette has been smoked. A hint of sweetness from the tobacco and tonka beans softens the scent, but make no mistake: this isn’t one for the faint of smell.
Price: approx. $130AUD (€80)
Scent notes: tobacco leaves, birch, benzoin, tonka beans
Vibe: standing on the sidewalk at 2am after dancing the night away, the return of indie sleeze
4. Etat libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette
This is another accurate cigarette scent. The olfactory notes don’t do Etat libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette justice. True to its name, it opens with a hit of grey cigarette ash and slightly stale tobacco, like stubbed out cigarettes in an ashtray or the smell of secondhand smoke blown down the street by a gust of wind. It’s layered with the softest, most delicate of jasmine scents; akin to passing by a jasmine bush on a breezy spring day. As it sits, the tobacco dries down on the skin, intermingling with apricot and tonka bean and leaving behind a subtle sweetness that doesn’t completely mask the lingering scent of ash. Much like cigarettes themselves, Etat libre d’Orange Jasmin et Cigarette is divisive but addictive.
Price: approx. $163AUD (€100)
Scent notes: galbanum, sage, tobacco, jasmine, cucruma, tonka bean, mate
Vibe: sharing a post-coital smoke, dousing yourself in perfume to hide the scent of cigarettes on your clothes
5. Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb
The spice is spicing here. Living up to its name, Viktor & Rolf Spicebomb opens with a blast of pink pepper. Layers of cinnamon, saffron, chilli, and paprika lend a warm spiciness that recalls the scents of a bakery (dialled up to 150%), but it’s the base of tobacco, leather, and vetiver that give it lasting power. Sweet tobacco, cinnamon, and leather stay on the skin the longest, making for a decidedly comforting, masculine scent.
Price: $90AUD
Scent notes: pink pepper, elemi, bergamot, grapefruit, cinnamon, saffron, paprika, tobacco, leather, vetiver
Vibe: a leather-clad biker pulling freshly baked cinnamon rolls out of the oven
6. Tom Ford Tobacco Oud
For those who don’t want to smell like Harry Styles circa 2013, Tom Ford Tobacco Oud is the sexy stoic older cousin to Tobacco Vanille. Darker, more intense and more masculine than Tobacco Vanille, Tobacco Oud is a dirtier take on tobacco; boozy and spicy notes are accented by sweet, slightly ashy tobacco and leathery, smokey oud. It’s a heavy hitter and is best reserved for cooler weather wear.
Price: $410AUD
Scent notes: whisky, spices, cinnamon, coriander, tobacco, oud, incense, sandalwood, patchouli, benzoin, vanilla, cedar
Vibe: mob boss smoking a hand rolled cigarette, whisky in hand, after a long day
7. Kayali Tobacco Oud
Kayali Tobacco Oud may share a moniker (and hero olfactory notes) with the Tom Ford creation, however the end result couldn’t be more different. Tobacco Oud is a bit of an anomaly in the Kayali range; the niche perfume house tends to specialise in sweeter, more feminine scents. The mandarin and honey opening is short and sweet, quickly settling into a smokey, almost animalic combination of tobacco and oud. There’s an undeniable dirtiness to this fragrance, which is balanced by the slightest hint of sweetness from the vanilla (a very non-gourmand vanilla) and benzoins.
Price: $225AUD
Scent notes: mandarin, clary sage, plum, white honey, geranium, clove, saffron, tobacco, patchouli, vanilla, benzoin, praline, oud
Vibe: smoking a hookah in a Turkish bazaar, the scent of freshly baked baklava in the air
8. Santa Maria Novella Tabacco Toscano
Smokey, sweet, and sultry, Santa Maria Novella Tabacco Toscano is a realistic tobacco scent that sees leathery woods wrapped in sweet pipe tobacco and accented with creamy vanilla and musk. The sweetness fades on the dry down, leaving behind a skin scent of dry tobacco, woods, and musk. Santa Maria Novella Tabacco Toscano sits in the rare Venn diagram overlap of being both sensual and comforting, a feat not many fragrances manage to achieve.
Price: $225AUD
Scent notes: bergamot, tobacco leaf, leather, amber, birch wood, cedarwood, guaiac wood, sandalwood, musk, vanilla
Vibe: reading a leatherbound book in the library of a country manor
9. Amouage Opus XIV Royal Tobacco
A rich, opulent aromatic take on tobacco, Amouage Opus XIV Royal Tobacco is a complex, layered gem. Like most Amouage creations, it’s bold and not for everyone, but if you like your tobacco fragrances to be refined, mysterious, and intense, this could be the one. Realistic sticky, sweet pipe tobacco meets cardamom, frankincense, and incense, with a touch of jammy rose. The drydown is smoky and woody, with amber and tonka bean enhancing the smoothness and sweetness of the tobacco. It smells like something a Middle Eastern sultan would wear; audacious, daring, and compelling. Spray lightly here — it’s a heavy hitter and lasts for hours on the skin (and days on your clothes).
Price: $599AUD
Scent notes: frankincense oil, elemi, cardamom, anise, basil, bergamot, tobacco absolute, liquorice root, lavender, prunol, fenugreek, orange blossom, osmanthus, rose, frankincense resinoid, peru balsam, benzoin, labdanum, myrrh, birch tar, tonka bean, vanilla madagascar, vetiver, guaiac wood, oud assam, musks
Vibe: dinner with the sultan of a Middle Eastern country; drinking cardamom coffee and smoking a pipe with the heir to an oil empire
10. Parfums de Marly Herod
A cosy, lush winter fragrance, Parfums de Marly Herod sees vanilla, cinnamon, and spiced fruits lent a dark, seductive tone courtesy of creamy tobacco. Parfums de Marly Herod inevitably draws comparisons to Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille, however the juice here is decidedly more intense — it’s spicier, and the vanilla is dry rather than a sweet gourmand. Rather than being the star of the show, tobacco complements the vanilla and spice notes and adds an alluring warmth into the mix.
Price: $498AUD
Scent notes: cinnamon, pepper, tobacco leaf, incense, ciste, osmanthus, vanilla, musk, woody accord, patchouli,
Vibe: an intimate conversation by the fireplace, with mulled wine simmering in the background
11. Maison Margiela Replica Jazz Club
Sweet, warm, boozy, and spicy, Maison Margiela Replica Jazz Club delivers what it says on the bottle, evoking the heady environment of an old-world jazz bar. A burst of hyperrealistic tobacco meets rum and leather, with the tobacco here more cigarette smoke than cigar. The rum starts off strong but fades on the skin, leaving behind vanilla, smoke, and leather.
Price: $235AUD
Scent notes: pink pepper, primofiore lemon, neroli oil, rum absolute, clary sage oil, java vetiver oil, tobacco leaf absolute, vanilla bean, styrax resin
Vibe: like being in a jazz club. Duh.
12. Kilian Back to Black Aphrodisiac
A positively delectable scent, Kilian Back to Black Aphrodisiac layers honey, cherry, and raspberry with tobacco, incense, and vanilla before fading to a powdery, woody scent with hints of honey and tobacco still present. Dark and mysterious while still being inviting, it’s the perfect sweet tobacco fragrance.
Price: $395AUD
Scent notes: bergamot, cardamom, nutmeg, chamomile, coriander, raspberry, atlas cedarwood, patchouli, oakmoss, haitian vetiver, olibanum, honey accord, amber, cistus labdanum, vanilla, almond
Vibe: a little black dress discarded on the floor after a late night cocktail
13. Dior Tobacolor
Another take on a honeyed tobacco fragrance, Dior Tobacolor is an oriental gourmand scent that sees lashes of syrupy honey paired with sticky, slightly resinous tobacco leaves. A veritable cocktail of fruits, rum, and dark chocolate lend it an almost gourmand element; a scent so rich you feel like you could get drunk off it.
Price: $535AUD
Scent notes: honey, tobacco leaf, smoke accord, plum, white tobacco, amber, peach, chocolate, mate, rum, oriental notes, hookah accord
Vibe: strolling through a bustling bazaar, hookah smoke lacing the air
Words by Theo Rosen
