The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Eau de Kiki debuted in 2010, born from the collaboration between artist Kiki Smith and perfumer Christophe Laudamiel, released through Artware Editions. The fragrance entered the world with Smith's sensibility already woven into its materials, a working artist whose visual language has long found its footing in organic forms, living matter, and slow transformation. Rather than borrow a single motif from her work, the composition reads as a survey of textures she gravitates toward: leaves caught mid-crinkle, fruit still carrying stem-bitterness, the warm dusty haze of pollen in still air. What emerges isn't a portrait so much as a temperature, a piece you might walk into at one of her gallery shows and feel on your skin before you've read the wall text.
The note structure is the story here. Blackcurrant and chamomile anchor the top, an unusual pairing that sets up the green fig leaf heart without leaning into the fig's usual sticky, lactonic territory. The chamomile's hay-warm softness gives the blackcurrant a gentler landing than it usually gets on its own, rounding out the bud's tartness with a sleepy herbal counterweight. As the top folds inward, fig leaf steps forward with that unmistakable green-fruit skin character, the sappy, slightly bitter side of the plant rather than its pulpy interior.
The evolution
The first ten minutes belong to the blackcurrant, tart and almost chewy, cutting through the air before chamomile softens the edges into something warm and hay-like. Then the fig leaf arrives, not the fruit's honeyed pulp but the cool, sappy underside of the plant, and from that point the perfume pivots hard into green territory. The heart stretches long, and the green notes don't simply hand off to the base so much as melt into it over the course of hours. Boxwood and sandalwood build slowly underneath, lending a wood-grain texture that keeps the green from feeling thin or aquatic. The drydown is where the composition reveals its real weight: patchouli deepens, musk smooths out the roughness, and the whole thing settles into a warm, woody sweetness that doesn't fade so much as dissolve into skin.
Cultural impact
Eau de Kiki occupies a specific place in the catalog of artist-driven fragrances, one where the perfume was built with the same seriousness as the surrounding art practice rather than as a promotional offshoot. Released through Artware Editions and never mass-produced, it carried the weight of a gallery object in a spray bottle, the kind of release that gets discussed alongside the artist's main body of work rather than as a side project.
