The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Obsidian Apple arrived in 2024 from Arina P. Franzén, the perfumer behind Dark Tales. The green apple in the name isn't a still-life fruit. It's something with a shadow behind it. It's a darker turn for a catalog already steeped in folklore and old horror: not grim, but weighted. On skin, the opening is crisp and almost startling, a tart snap of green apple laced with cool mint that feels bright enough to sting, like biting into something pulled straight from a cold orchard. That initial clarity doesn't fade so much as get pulled downward, slowly swallowed by a base of abelmoschus (musk mallow), amber, benzoin, and blond woods. The musk mallow adds a slightly vegetal softness, almost seed-like, that bridges the fruit and the warmer notes below.
What's interesting here is the pairing. Green apple and mint at the top are bright, almost defiant, the kind of notes you'd expect in a breezy summer scent. Then the base does something unexpected: abelmoschus (musk mallow), amber, benzoin, and blond woods. That's a warm, slightly resinous foundation. The tension between the fruit's snap and that grounded, golden base is where the fragrance earns its name. The mint does more than cool the apple; it adds a green, leafy edge that makes the fruit feel less like candy and more like something just pulled from a branch.
The evolution
The first 15 minutes are all snap. Green apple hits cold and sharp, like biting into something just-picked, with mint threading through it like a cool current. That tartness dominates, almost aggressively clean. Then something shifts around the 30-minute mark: the mint recedes, and white lily pushes forward, soft and creamy, a little soapy in the best way. Red berries emerge underneath, adding a jammy sweetness that rounds out the green. By hour two, the composition has settled into its real character. The benzoin and amber take over, warm and resinous, with abelmoschus lending a soft, musky edge that sits close to skin. The woods arrive last, faint but grounding, like something burning slowly in another room. By hour six or seven, it's all amber and skin warmth, barely-there but still present. On fabric the next morning, that base lingers: sweet, golden, a little powdery. The apple is gone. What remains feels closer to a late-autumn evening than anything crisp or green.
Cultural impact
Obsidian Apple fits Dark Tales' catalog in an unexpected way. This 2024 offering is fruity and bright on top, warm underneath, but still carrying that narrative weight the brand is known for. It reads like a story about contrast itself: something that looks innocent until you notice the shadow. The green apple note gives it an immediate accessibility, a fruit most people recognize and enjoy, but the mint adds an herbal sharpness that keeps it from reading as purely sweet. Underneath, the abelmoschus brings a subtle muskiness, almost skin-like, that grounds the composition and prevents the fruit from feeling like a standalone top note.
The House
Dark TalesDark Tales emerged in 2019 as an indie perfume house rooted in the Åland Islands, a Swedish‑speaking archipelago in the Baltic Sea. The brand quickly earned a reputation for weaving narrative threads into each bottle, turning folklore, horror literature and seasonal rituals into scented stories. From the smoky notes of Old Library (2019) to the bright, bitter edge of Irish Coffee (2025), Dark Tales offers a compact catalogue that invites collectors to explore a world where scent meets myth.
The Creator
Arina P. FranzénArina favors natural absolutes and cold‑pressed extracts, preferring ingredients that retain their original character. She often begins with a single note—lavender from the Carpathians, oakmoss harvested in the Baltic, or a rare ambergris substitute—then layers supporting acco…
