The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Nathalie Lorson created Close To Midnight in 2020 for Musicology, a French brand that translates musical concepts into scent. The brief was simple: capture the night-owl. Those hours when the city shifts register, when jasmine and coffee shouldn't work together but somehow do. The fragrance takes its name from that threshold, the moment before midnight becomes after.
The note combination is what makes Close To Midnight work despite itself. Jasmine brings its soft, almost delicate floral quality. Coffee brings its raw, bitter intensity. These two shouldn't coexist without one drowning the other. But labdanum's volcanic warmth and tonka bean's sweet richness create a bridge. The tension between delicate and intense becomes the point.
The evolution
Close To Midnight moves in clear phases. The opening announces jasmine's bright floral character softened by coffee's bitter edge. This phase reads as almost contradictory, delicate and sharp at once. Around 30 minutes in, labdanum's sticky resin takes over. Tonka bean follows, sweet and warm, pulling the composition inward. The drydown settles closest to skin: ambergris and musk doing the quiet work of making you smell like yourself, but better. What surprises is the coffee's staying power. It doesn't disappear, it fades into the ambergris warmth, becoming a memory of coffee rather than the thing itself. The next morning, there's something warm and close left on the skin. Not loud. Just there.
Cultural impact
Close To Midnight occupies a specific space: the night-owl unisex fragrance for those who want something that smells like the hour after midnight. Community feedback consistently describes it as seductive, with the coffee opening drawing both devotion and resistance. The jasmine-heavy top phase divides opinion, some find it too floral before the coffee resurfaces in the drydown. Best suited for evening wear and cooler seasons, it performs well through a full night out.
