The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Sous Le Charme belongs to Alex Simone's Monte Carlo Collection, which draws from the visual and atmospheric world of Avenue Princesse Grace. The official scent narrative places the wearer at the moment a gallery door opens, when citrus brightens the air and floral arrangements frame a painting on the wall. Art, attraction, and the promise of a story about to begin. Alex Simone released Sous Le Charme in 2025, a composition rooted in the particular tension the house seems to favor: warmth and spice held in conversation with something softer. The opening carries mandarin brightness lit from below by the clean heat of ginger and the rounded warmth of cinnamon, a trio that feels alive without shouting.
What makes this composition interesting is the negotiation between spice and skin softness. Cinnamon and ginger do the warm-spicy work up top, but tuberose and heliotrope pull the center toward something creamier and almost confectionary. The powdery accord of heliotrope is the hinge. It takes the floral heart and tips it toward almond-sweet softness rather than dewy freshness, which gives the fragrance its intimate, hypnotic quality. Sandalwood, vanilla, and cypriol in the base add a woodsmoke-on-skin warmth that grounds the sweetness without dulling it.
The evolution
The first thirty minutes belong to the spices. Cinnamon lands first, almost gourmand in its warmth, followed by mandarin brightness that keeps the opening from tipping too sweet. Ginger cuts underneath, adding a clean heat that feels alive rather than baking-spice heavy. Within the first hour, the florals begin to take over. Tuberose arrives with its creamy, almost coconut-edged lushness, backed by heliotrope's powdery almond sweetness that softens every edge the spices brought. The transition is gentle but clear; the scent shifts from confident and outward-facing to something more private. The drydown settles into sandalwood and vanilla, with cypriol adding a woody, slightly smoky dimension that keeps the base from going purely gourmand.
Cultural impact
As part of the Monte Carlo Collection, Sous Le Charme brings a richer, more romantic register to the line through its use of cinnamon, ginger, tuberose, and heliotrope, materials that lean toward warmth and powdery sweetness rather than the brighter, more aquatic profiles the house is also known for. The composition positions Alex Simone within a wider conversation about how contemporary perfumery treats materials once considered traditionally feminine.
