Quick answers
History
Anti-Blues begins with a painting. In Jacques Monory’s work, monochrome blue bathes scenes of urban violence and paradoxically makes them desirable: crime turns aesthetic, threat becomes fascinating. Pierre Guillaume keeps from that gaze the idea of a beautiful unease, a darkness one can contemplate without fear. The title states the brief, a scent against the blues that turns shadow into hypnotic matter.
To do so, the perfumer revisits the dark gourmand structure that marked his early creations. He sets two forces against each other: the warm animal vibration of dark chocolate, and the cold, mineral urbanity suggested by incense, saffron and vetiver. Through a vapor of incense laced with saffron rises the woody bitterness of cacao wood, before hay and dark chocolate stretch the spectrum toward animal nuances, over a base of vetiver and amyris.
The base sets up what the perfumer calls a dark, electric painting: a vanilla hemmed with leather and tobacco that extends the bitterness of cocoa without ever fully sweetening it. Launched in 2019 in the Confidential collection and classed as spicy woody, Anti-Blues is a grown-up gourmand, warm and mineral, where chocolate serves depth more than comfort.
Fragrance notes
Anti-Blues is built on contrast, cold incense at the opening, warm chocolate at the heart, animal materials in the base.
The thread is bitterness, from cocoa to incense, held by an animal warmth that never tips into sugar.
Scent profile
Anti-Blues is a dark gourmand in which chocolate is treated as a bitter material rather than a sweet one. Saffron and grapefruit give a leathery, mineral opening, soon joined by smoky incense that sets up the urban coldness the perfumer wanted. This is high-percentage tablet cocoa, dry and deep, far from milk chocolate.
Contrast makes the whole character. The animal warmth of chocolate, leather and vanilla answers the coldness of incense, saffron and vetiver, in a taut, electric balance. The trail is dense and tenacious, best kept for cool seasons. A dark gourmand for those after substance and shadow rather than sweet comfort.
In the painting of Jacques Monory, blue forgives everything. It makes the crime aesthetic, the threat fascinating.Pierre Guillaume, perfumer
Key characteristics
When and where to wear
Anti-Blues is a cold-season, evening gourmand. Its woody density and cocoa bitterness need cool air to stay crisp; in winter the chocolate-incense trail reaches its full scale.
How to wear it
Seasonal fit
| Season | Fit | Critical notes |
|---|---|---|
| Spring | ★★☆☆ | Cocoa weighs quickly. |
| Summer | ★☆☆☆ | Too warm and dense. |
| Autumn | ★★★★ | Its season of choice. |
| Winter | ★★★★ | Chocolate-incense blooms. |
Context fit
| Setting | Fit | Recommended use |
|---|---|---|
| Evening | ★★★★ | Its natural ground. |
| Dinner | ★★★★ | Warm and enveloping. |
| Indoors | ★★★★ | The hypnotic shadow. |
| Everyday | ★★☆☆ | Assertive by day. |
| Office | ★★☆☆ | Trail too present. |
Similar perfumes
Anti-Blues extends the house’s dark gourmand vein; two neighbours light up its facets.
| Perfume | House · year | Why it is close |
|---|---|---|
| Aomassaï | Pierre Guillaume Paris · 2006 | The perfumer’s founding dark gourmand, coffee, caramel and smoky wood, whose bitter structure Anti-Blues reprises. |
| Noir Okoumé | Pierre Guillaume Paris · 2017 | The sister entry in the Confidential collection, a smoky powdery woody with the same taste for mineral shadow. |
Frequently asked questions
See also
Sources
- Official Anti-Blues press kit · Pierre Guillaume Paris
- Pierre Guillaume Paris catalogue 2025–26 (English edition)
- Pierre Guillaume Paris, official site