The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
The name carries a weight of intention. Abyssae, plural, suggesting depths, and the number 33, which the brand disclosed was the precise count of attempts it took Daphné Bugey to arrive at the final composition. Winner of the Fragrance Foundation's Best Niche Fragrance 2023, the fragrance exists within L'Artisan Parfumeur's La Botanique collection, a line that has given the house space to work with botanical ideas as a starting point, not a constraint. For Bugey, Abyssae 33 became the proof that restraint and complexity aren't opposites, they're the same sentence, told slowly.
Eucalyptus as a primary structural note is uncommon. Most fragrances that use it deploy it briefly in the opening, a sharpness that dissipates before the heart arrives. Abyssae 33 treats it differently, the Blue gum eucalyptus spans both top and heart, functioning less like a note and more like a supporting architecture that holds the rose up in the air longer than expected. Cashmeran, the synthetic musk, does the quiet work of keeping the camphorated edge from feeling clinical. It bridges the gap between the medicinal and the comfortable, a material that niche perfumery has adopted as an answer to the question of how to make green things feel warm.
The evolution
The opening announces eucalyptus with a clarity that reads almost medicinal, clean, camphorated, the kind of freshness that clears the air. It doesn't ease in. It arrives. Within the first twenty minutes, the Damask rose begins to surface, not as a blossom but as a quiet warmth that softens the sharp edges without erasing them. The fig emerges subtly in the heart, adding a faint fruity sweetness that rounds the composition rather than pushing it anywhere identifiable. Cashmeran keeps the whole thing close to skin, not projection-heavy, more like a presence that requires proximity to fully appreciate. The drydown belongs to the vetiver. Haitian vetiver, dry and slightly smoky, settles last, holding the eucalyptus's ghost and the rose's memory in a finish that reads as woody, mineral, and persistent. Six to eight hours on most skin. Wears close by design.
Cultural impact
Abyssae 33 won the Fragrance Foundation's Best Niche Fragrance award in 2023, a recognition that placed Daphné Bugey's work in front of a wider audience than niche fragrance typically reaches. The win came at a moment when the market was still processing a wave of oud-heavy, assertion-oriented fragrances. Abyssae's cool-rose eucalyptus structure offered something different: complexity without aggression, a fragrance that earned attention rather than demanded it. Among comparable niche releases of recent years, it sits in a space shared with Byredo's De Los Santos and Le Labo's Thé Noir 29, though its camphorated eucalyptus edge keeps it distinctive.
