The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Monocle's collaboration with Comme des Garcons produced a fragrance collection built around memory and place. Scent Two: Laurel takes its name from Batroun, a coastal city in northern Lebanon where the air carries both warmth and a certain sharpness, the same duality that defines the fragrance itself. Released as part of the Monocle Scent series, it attempts to capture the sensory character of that particular city for those who may never visit. Perfumer Antoine Maisondieu drew on those reference points, constructing a fragrance around lemon, pepper, and laurel that balances softness with structure, creating something that feels both inviting and composed.
What makes this composition unusual is how it handles green. Galbanum is one of perfumery's most challenging materials, bitter, herbaceous, almost aggressive in its freshness, and most fragrances use it sparingly as an accent. Here it functions as a structural element, threading through the heart alongside bay leaf and green laurel to create a green chord that never becomes pleasant or innocuous. The cedar and oak drydown then reframe that sharpness, warming it without softening it entirely. It's a fragrance that refuses to fully resolve into comfort.
The evolution
It opens bright and immediately declarative: lemon zest, thyme, a crack of pepper. The green arrives fast, galbanum and laurel asserting themselves before you have time to settle into the citrus. The incense surfaces, adding a smoky, resinous layer that changes the fragrance's character entirely. The heart is where this lives longest: aromatic herbs held together by a warm cedar backbone, with violet lending just enough softness to keep it from becoming austere. The sharpness eventually mellows into something that smells like warm skin and old wood. Oak and amber arrive in the drydown, softening the edges without erasing them entirely. It does not disappear, it withdraws.
Cultural impact
Scent Two: Laurel arrived as part of a niche perfumery collection from Comme des Garcons and Monocle built around place and sensory experience. The fragrance features galbanum, a bitter green note that most houses deploy sparingly, alongside lemon, pepper, and laurel. Galbanum had appeared in classic fragrances like Chanel No. 19 and Femme, but always as a supporting player. In Laurel, the note takes a more central position, creating a sharper, more assertive character than many comparable fragrances.
