The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Scandalwood. The name says everything. Dita Von Teese brings a world of precise beauty rituals, each element placed with intention. Douglas Little brings a Los Angeles house that makes perfumes that feel alive rather than manufactured. Together, they created a fragrance that holds both worlds, controlled and raw, polished and authentic. The scandal is not in the noise. It is in the stillness of knowing exactly what you are doing.
The pyramid is built almost entirely on woods, but this is not a linear woody fragrance. Cedar and rosewood open dry and structural, cool enough to read as architectural. Then the Bulgarian rose enters with its full, slightly syrupy richness, amplified by ylang-ylang's sensual depth. The rose does not soften the woods. It complicates them. That tension, structure meeting excess, is where Scandalwood lives. The base layers creamy sandalwood against white musk, myrrh's resinous warmth, and orris butter's powdery iris finish. Nothing resolves neatly. That is intentional.
The evolution
Coriander sparks the opening, bright, almost citrus-adjacent spice that lifts the cedar and rosewood into something sharp and immediate. Bulgarian rose arrives rich and unapologetic, its perfume intensifying as body heat activates the ylang-ylang beneath. The creaminess of the base begins to spread across the skin, sandalwood first, then labdanum's sticky, herbal warmth. The drydown takes over fully. Sandalwood, white musk, and orris settle into something intimate and powdery that stays close. On fabric, it lingers into the next day, a quiet impression rather than a declaration.
Cultural impact
The collaboration brought Heretic's approach to Dita Von Teese's international audience, people drawn to meticulous, intentional aesthetic choices. Scandalwood occupies a specific space: niche enough to reject mass-market conventions, warm enough to avoid the cold luxury of prestige perfumery. It finds wearers who want the rigor of natural ingredients without the clinical distance that sometimes comes with it. Made to be noticed.
The House
Heretic ParfumHeretic Parfum is a Los Angeles-based niche fragrance house founded in 2015 by perfumer Douglas Little. The brand specializes in small-batch, botanical perfumes made with 100% naturally derived ingredients, including essential oils, absolutes, and plant-based extracts. Fragrances are blended in organic sugarcane alcohol and positioned as non-gendered, appealing to consumers seeking plant-based alternatives to mainstream scents. Heretic distinguishes itself through radical transparency, listing every ingredient rather than using the catch-all term fragrance. By 2025, the house had released over 40 unique fragrances, spanning releases like Ektoplasma, Angel's Trumpet, Black Salt, and Midnight Toker alongside earlier works such as Dirty Gardenia, The Herbalist, and Dirty Hinoki. The brand operates from a Los Angeles studio and maintains vegan and cruelty-free production standards throughout its range of perfumes, candles, and bath products.
The Creator
Douglas LittleLittle works exclusively with natural, botanical ingredients—300 materials organized in a tiered fragrance organ. He resists the industry standard of synthesized rose stripped of its earthy core, preferring what he calls "wonderfully raw aspects.
