A ritual for becoming.
come back to your senses.
THE WORLD
#1 THE POPE SIGNATURE
FOR YEARS I HAVE BEEN STOPPED IN THE STREET ABOUT WHAT I WEAR. I WOULD LOVE TO CREATE THAT BLEND AND EXPERIENCE TOGETHER
notes:
Vanilla / Jasmine / Fig / Sandalwood
Feeling: Addictive. Luxurious. Warm. Bold. Intimate. Assured.
THE STORY
My work has often existed in the space between opposites: masculine and feminine, sacred and sensual, strength and vulnerability, being seen and being misunderstood.
I am interested in the beauty that lives in that tension.
This should smell like someone who has arrived at a deeper relationship with themselves.
A person who has learned that self-love is not passive. It is a practice.
I want the fragrance to sit somewhere between radiant amber, addictive vanilla, and dry sensual woods.
The initial reference point is the magnetic, diffusive quality of Baccarat Rouge 540
unmistakable dose of the sweet vanilla character found in Outremer Vanille, grounded by the dry, lingering woody sensuality associated with Santal 33.
I am responding to specific sensations within them:
Baccarat Rouge 540:
The aura. The radiance. The almost mineral, crystalline warmth. The way the fragrance seems to hover around the body and remain in a room.
From Outremer Vanille:
The unapologetic sweetness. A recognizable, comforting vanilla that creates an immediate emotional response.
From Santal 33:
The wood. The confidence. The staying power. The feeling of something grounded beneath all of the sweetness.
should take those three emotional qualities—radiance, sweetness, and grounded sensuality—and make them feel richer, darker, more dimensional, and more personal.
#2 SMOKE
notes:
Tobacco Leaf / Vanilla / Dry Fruits / Spices / Musk
Feeling:Refined. Masculine. Warm. Generational. Protective.
THE STORY
This scent should pull from the generations of Black men I have known and been shaped by—my father, my grandfather, and the men before them.
But I also want it to reach beyond the personal.
I want it to carry the feeling of Harlem.
The music. The tailoring. The brownstones. The barbershops. The clubs. The churches. The rhythm of people gathering. The way culture is passed down through sound, style, gesture, scent, and memory.
I am interested in the swag, finesse, protection, restraint, softness, and nuance carried through generations of Black men.
What they endured.
What they protected.
What they created anyway.
I think about the world created by groups like The Temptations and Earth, Wind & Fire—not only the music, but the visual language around it.
The tailoring.
The choreography.
The album artwork.
The color.
The glamour.
The confidence.
There was romance in it. Fantasy. Spirituality. Masculinity without flatness.
Men could be commanding and expressive at the same time.
That is important to me.
This fragrance should explore the space between strength and tenderness, armor and vulnerability, inheritance and release.
The smoke is important as a metaphor.
Smoke can hold memory.
It can feel like incense after service, tobacco lingering in fabric, a record spinning late at night, or the last trace of a room after everyone has gone home.
But smoke can also cleanse.
The same way palo santo smoke can move through a space and clear the air, I want this fragrance to feel like a shedding of protection.
Honoring what came before us without being required to carry every burden forward.
A fragrance rooted in history, but not trapped by it.
Something timeless, but alive.
I want the fragrance to sit somewhere between warm tobacco, dark vanilla, dried fruit, subtle spice, and skin.
The primary olfactive reference is Sesnes Labs Tabac Vanille.
I want to stay very close to the richness and balance of that scent while making the final fragrance feel more dimensional, cultural, intimate, and elevated.
I am responding to specific sensations within it:
Tobacco Leaf:
The history. Warm, dry, rich and elegant. More beautiful tobacco leaf than cigarette smoke. Something lived-in and distinguished.
Vanilla:
The tenderness. Deep, creamy and darker than the vanilla in POPE. Something warm and enveloping rather than sugary.
Dry Fruits:
The aged sweetness. Fig, raisin, date, or plum-like richness that feels concentrated and subtly boozy without becoming fruity.
Spices:
The heat. Restrained warmth and tension that gives the fragrance character without becoming aggressively spicy.
Musk:
The person underneath everything. Warm skin, fabric, intimacy, memory, and presence.
The tobacco is the history.
The vanilla is the tenderness.
The smoke is what we let go.
#3 FIG INSPIRED*
notes:
Fig / Green Leaves / Blackcurrant / Coconut Milk / Soft Woods / Moss
Feeling: Grounded. Green. Reflective. Fresh. Sensual. Present. Expansive.
THE STORY
This scent is about presence.
Being exactly where you are.
I think of self-care and self-love as practices of returning to yourself.
Sometimes that return is quiet.
Feet on the ground.
A deep breath.
Sunlight through leaves.
Water.
Skin.
Stillness.
A fig tree does not question where it is planted. It responds to the season, reaches toward light, creates shade, bears fruit.
There is something beautiful to me about understanding that we are also characters inside nature. not separate from it.
I want this scent to carry that grounding, while still leaving room for optimism, discovery, and movement.
Because presence does not mean staying still.
A lot of this scent is also inspired by travel.
The confidence of arriving somewhere unfamiliar and allowing yourself to belong there.
Walking through a city where you do not speak the language. Finding the market. The coastline. A garden. A hotel room with the windows open. Discovering a smell you have never encountered before and somehow feeling at home inside it.
The primary references are Diptyque Baies and D.S. & Durga Debaser.
I am responding to the contrast between a vivid green, fruit-and-leaf freshness and the creamy, woody sensuality of fig.
From Baies:
The garden. The freshness. The tension between green leaves, tart dark fruit, and something floral in the air. I love the feeling of entering a room and immediately sensing something alive and botanical.
From Debaser:
The fig itself. Ripe, green, creamy and sensual. Debaser builds fig with green leaf and pear stem, then coconut milk and iris, drying into blond woods, tonka and moss. What I respond to most is how the fig feels both lush and earthy fresh fruit above, roots and woods underneath.
The fig is the body.
The green is possibility.
The earth is where you return.
INSPIRED BY PHOTOGRAPHER TYLER MITCHELL & ARTIST KERRY JAMES MARSHALL
#4 ANN 1
notes:
Rose / Black Tea / Fig Leaf / Blackcurrant Bud / Cedarwood / Vetiver / Musk / Soft Amber
Feeling:Grounded. Addictive. Tender. Earthy. Elegant. Patient. Assured.
THE STORY
ANN #1 is about cultivation.
The patience it takes to care for something before it becomes beautiful.
This scent is inspired by my grandmother Ann and the way she has always tended to her garden—with consistency, attention, pride, and care.
There is something powerful to me about that ritual.
Preparing the soil.
Watering it.
Waiting.
Trusting that something will eventually bloom.
I think that same lesson extends far beyond flowers.
How we care for ourselves.
How we care for family.
How confidence is built.
How creativity grows.
How love becomes something you practice rather than simply feel.
I want this fragrance to feel like a flower still connected to the earth.
The flower, the stem, the leaves, the soil underneath it, and the person whose hands have been tending to it.
There should be beauty here, but also depth.
Softness with roots.
slightly mysterious tension I love in Le Labos Noir 29—something elegant and sensual, but grounded by dark tea, woods, green notes, and skin.
somewhere between velvety rose, dark tea, green leaves, dry woods, earth, and warm skin.
I am responding to specific sensations within that world:
Rose:
Black Tea:
The depth. Dry, tannic, slightly smoky, and addictive.
Fig Leaf:
The garden. Green, milky, and slightly bitter. A living plant rather than ripe fruit.
Blackcurrant Bud:
The brightness. Tart, green, and a little wild. Something that makes the rose feel vivid and modern rather than traditional.
Vetiver + Cedarwood:
The roots. Dry, earthy, woody, and grounding.
Musk:
The memory. Warm skin, intimacy, softness