The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
The High arrives as part of NEH's Altered States Collection, a fragrance line from the house that pairs each scent with affirmations and soundscapes. The collection takes its name seriously: these are compositions designed to shift how you feel, not just how you smell. The High sits in that framework as a green, citrusy composition composed by Anne-Sophie Behaghel, one that reads more like perspective gained than style performed. Where many fragrances try to complete an outfit or mark an occasion, this one tries to do something quieter and stranger. It wants to move your internal weather. The opening cuts cool with eucalyptus and litsea cubeba, a combination that feels almost mentholated at first contact. Cannabis threads through the top, lending that distinctive dry green warmth.
The High threads a particular path through green fragrance. Cannabis sits prominently at the top, lending that dry green warmth that gives the opening its character without veering into heavier territory. Litsea cubeba adds a lemon-like brightness that reads cleaner and more transparent than actual lemon zest, almost citronella-adjacent in its clarity. The orris root in the heart is the real anchor of the composition.
The evolution
The first half hour is the loudest the fragrance ever gets. Eucalyptus and litsea cubeba hit cool and almost mentholated, the way cold air feels when you step outside after being in a warm room too long. Bergamot softens the entry, keeps it from feeling medicinal, and adds just enough sweetness to round the green edges. Cannabis threads through the brightness, giving the opening a dry, herbal undertow that grounds the coolness. As the composition warms against the skin, the orris root wakes up. That's where The High shifts into its quieter register. The citrus dims gradually, retreating like a tide. The powdery iris quality takes over, and vervain in the heart adds a faint herbal sweetness underneath, a lemony lift that keeps the middle phase from going too soft or too austere.
Cultural impact
The High occupies a particular corner of contemporary fragrance: the green-citrus register where lift and clarity do most of the work. It's the kind of scent that appeals to wearers who want freshness without the aquatic sharpness of a traditional sport fragrance, or the herbal darkness of something more chypre-adjacent. What sets NEH's approach apart is the framework around the juice. Pairing each fragrance with affirmations and soundscapes gives The High a context most green scents don't carry. Wearing it becomes an act with intention, a small ritual rather than just an application.
