Dorian's Spleen

Quick answers

History

Dorian's Spleen launched in 2025 from L'Entropiste, the Paris house founded that same year by Denis Bellaïche and Kris Fang, with every fragrance signed by Bertrand Duchaufour. The perfume draws on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, the 1890 novel in which a young man stays eternally beautiful while his portrait ages and rots in his place.

The house keeps from Wilde not the frozen beauty but its underside: boredom. Fed by a bottomless melancholy, this Dorian has exhausted every pleasure and feels nothing. He tries to wake his senses with strong drink and thick nights. The perfume means to be the trace of that gesture, an eau de parfum that begins in the warmth of a glass of spirits and ends in cold ash.

In 2026, a year after launch, Dorian's Spleen won the Best Niche Perfume prize from the Fragrance Foundation France, in the Independent Brands, Rising Stars category. The jury of twenty-four experts and journalists selected it blind from among one hundred twenty-two fragrances in competition. It is the young house's first major distinction.

Olfactory pyramid

L'Entropiste does not publish a formal top, heart and base split: the house describes an opening accord and then an evolution. The table below follows that progression, cross-checked with the structure published by Fragrantica for the woody notes and the amber in the base.

From the amber glow in the glass to the ashes, Dorian's Spleen follows the descent the house stages.

Olfactory profile

Dorian's Spleen opens on an image more than a note: an amber glow at the bottom of a glass. Aged whiskey coils there with caramel, coffee and dark chocolate, in a plush, almost affable warmth. This is the dandy side of the perfume, elegant and still presentable in its vice.

Then the harmony slips, faithful to the house grammar that makes entropy its signature. The sweetness gives way, the wood darkens, and smoke takes over. The perfume does not flip all at once: it decays slowly, like Dorian's portrait in the attic. The gourmand stays legible under the soot, which spares it the easy ashtray effect.

The base settles into dry ash, gray smoke and a dark amber where a memory of caramel lingers. Wear is good, the trail enveloping without being crushing. This is a smoky gourmand amber for the cold season, unisex, cut for the evening and for the long late nights Dorian would have loved.

« An amber glow in a glass of spirits. »L'Entropiste, official presentation

Key characteristics

When and where to wear

Dorian's Spleen is a smoky gourmand amber for the cold season. Its whiskey, cacao and ashes need cool air and the evening to unfold their density; a night perfume more than a day one.

Usage markers

Seasonal fit

Context fit

Similar perfumes

The woody, boozy, gourmand side of Dorian's Spleen has its relatives across niche perfumery.

Common questions

See also