The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Corey Newcombe completed his chemistry degree in 2011, establishing a studio in Adelaide, South Australia, where he developed his craft. He later settled in Beulah, Victoria. He called his studio Criminal Elements and let the name do the talking. In 2015, Hearth arrived as one of two debut fragrances alongside Sepal. The inspiration was literal: a century-old wooden house with open fireplaces in every room. Newcombe wanted to capture the contradiction of fresh and charred woods simultaneously, something that felt like standing in that house, not just smelling the smoke. The studio operates with a focused, experimental approach, treating each fragrance as a distinct study rather than a commercial product.
The choice of cypriol oil, nagramotha, puts Hearth in territory most Western noses encounter rarely. It's earthy, slightly animalic, and deeply grounding. Combined with cade oil (a smoky, tar-like material from juniper wood), the opening doesn't soften or sweeten. It arrives dark and stays dark for the first hour. What makes this unusual isn't the honey-tobacco pairing (that existed in perfumery before 2015) but the deliberate use of prickly, challenging resins as structural elements. Frankincense and olibanum give way to labdanum and benzoin in the base. The perfumer isn't trying to make something universally pleasing, he's building a composition with real edges.
The evolution
The opening hits immediately with incense, cade oil, and a dense smoky-resinous note that announces itself without apology. Within minutes, the cypriol oil's earthy depth joins the conversation. Then the hand-off: smoke softens into something rounder as tobacco arrives. By the third hour, the oud appears as a dark, complex wood with the cypriol deepening into leather and soil. The drydown isn't linear. It loops back, shifting as time passes. Cypriol and benzoin carry the final hours, staying close and warm against the skin. The next morning, faint traces of smoke and warmth remain. The composition is dense with essential oils and natural materials. Corey Newcombe's own notes describe the fragrance as a focused study in contrasting woods. And it breathes differently depending on your skin chemistry, which is the point, not the caveat.
Cultural impact
Hearth arrived in 2015 as one of two debut releases from Criminal Elements. The fragrance featured cypriol oil, an ingredient that brought earthy, slightly animalic depth to the composition, pulling it into drier, more complex territory than typical smoky fragrances of the period. Cypriol has a distinctive character that many perfumers avoid, preferring the more straightforward sweetness of commercial-smoke accords. Using it so prominently was an intentional choice that set the house apart. The subsequent release of Tobacco Jam, with its jammy heart and dry tobacco base, demonstrated a different approach to woody materials.
The House
Criminal ElementsCriminal Elements is an Australian indie perfume house that crafts small‑batch scents from a modest studio in South Australia. Founded by perfumer Corey Newcombe, the brand blends unconventional raw materials with a laboratory‑like precision, delivering fragrances that feel more like experiments than marketing slogans. Their catalogue ranges from the smoky jam of Tobacco Jam (2016) to the bright, neon‑hued Neon (2020), each bottle promising a distinct olfactory story.
The Creator
Corey NewcombeCorey favors a high‑contrast palette: bright metallics, sharp aldehydes, and dense, resinous woods. He often begins with a synthetic anchor—copper, zinc, or a metallic ion—and builds outward with natural notes like smoked pine, dried herbs, or fermented fruit.
