LE LABO INTRODUCES OSMANTHUS 19: INSPIRED BY KYOTO

words NATALIE GAL

September is this special threshold between seasons, a limbo state that feels strange, like the beginning of a dream. We don’t quite know how we arrived here, there are hazy images of summer and retrospective glimpses of past winters, but overall it feels fleeting and temporary.

Now Le Labo unveils OSMANTHUS 19, a fragrance inspired by exactly this hard-to-describe sensation, especially the bloom of the unique Osmanthus flower. In Kyoto, the flower is deeply symbolic of love and beauty, woven with mythology like the tale of Wu Gang, who longed for eternal life. Osmanthus is also rooted in mysticism, valued in witchcraft as a protective amulet.

The scent itself is creamy and woody, not the typical floral one might expect. It resonates with Kyoto and its many shifting faces. An ode to transition and changes and a reminder how the passage of time is not necessarily a bad thing.