The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
LabSolue introduced 318 Canapa in 2025 as part of its expanding library of single-ingredient-centered essences. The number 318 is the formula's code, the way the house catalogs each composition, and Canapa translates to hemp in Italian. Leslie Gauthier composed the scent around the herbaceous, green character of the plant itself, rather than any of its smoke-fueled associations. The perfumer worked with hemp as the centerpiece, threading sage, clove, and nutmeg through the composition, then anchoring the structure with Haitian vetiver and amber. The result is a treatment of hemp as a botanical raw material worth taking seriously, given the space and the nuance usually granted to other plant-based ingredients in fine perfumery.
The hemp here stays leafy and green, closer to a fresh stem than a dried bud. What shapes the structure is the spice architecture layered around it: star anise, clove, and nutmeg all working in concert, each adding a different facet of warmth. Copaiba balsam adds a subtle resinous sweetness without tipping into syrup. The vetiver brings its earthy, rooty depth, grounding the composition with a quiet mineral pull. It is a deliberate construction, botanical first, atmospheric second, where the green character of hemp drives every choice the perfumer makes.
The evolution
The first fifteen minutes belong to hemp and the bright green hit of mandarin, with mugwort lending a bitter, herbal edge that reads almost medicinal in the best way. Sage arrives early too, dusty and dry, and the nutmeg warms the edges. Nothing sweet yet. By the thirty-minute mark, the spices have settled into the middle register: clove brings its eucalyptol bite, and star anise drops a licorice flicker that comes and goes. The copaiba balsam smooths the transitions, pulling everything into a unified warmth. As the hours pass, the green fades. What remains is the foundation: Haitian vetiver doing its earthy, rooty work, patchouli underneath adding depth, and amber warming it from below. By hour five or six, the drydown is close to skin, a soft herbal-spicy trace with the resinous sweetness of amber and the dry woodiness that settles in as the vetiver reaches its final register.
Cultural impact
Within LabSolue's own catalog, 318 Canapa sits among the house's botanical single-ingredient explorations, alongside compositions centered on fig, olive, and sandalwood. The fragrance treats hemp as a serious perfumery material, building around the fresh, leafy character of the plant rather than any of its cultural shorthand. The result is a composition that feels rooted in the herbal-spicy tradition, closer to a walk through a garden than to any familiar cannabis-adjacent reference point. It is an ingredient given room to speak on its own terms.
