The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Rae arrived in 2025 from Olfactory NYC, a house built around the idea that fragrance belongs to whoever's wearing it, not whoever bottled it. The brand grew from a space where customization isn't an afterthought but a foundational practice, where clients come in and walk out with something they helped shape, not just purchased. Rae is one of those core blends, a finished piece in the catalog that still carries that hands-on DNA. Perfumer Alexis Grugeon built it around a simple idea: what if amber got a citrus personality? The result is a composition that does what most amber compositions hesitate to do, it leads with brightness, not weight.
What makes this composition interesting is its stubbornness. Most citrus-forward fragrances are built to evaporate, to charm for an hour and then politely exit. The structure here seems designed to resist that. The blood orange and Italian bergamot arrive loud, that sparkling, carbonated lift the brand describes as fizzy, but the amber base catches everything and holds it. Sugar, listed as its own note in the pyramid, gives the amber a candied warmth rather than the dry, resinous weight amber usually brings.
The evolution
The first five minutes are a riot. Blood orange and Italian bergamot hit the skin at full volume, bright enough to make you squint. There's a candied quality right from the start, sweet but not syrupy, more like biting into a piece of fruit that's been sitting in afternoon sun. By the ten-minute mark the sharpest edges of the citrus start rounding out. The bergamot's herbal bitterness softens, and the orange takes on a juicier, almost jam-like depth. The amber is already present here, sitting underneath like a warm floor, but it stays patient, waiting out the citrus rather than fighting it. Around the thirty-minute mark the handoff is complete. What you're left with is sugared amber, warm, golden, faintly fruity from the ghost of the orange that started the whole thing. It stays close to the skin, projecting quietly enough that it registers as presence rather than announcement.
Cultural impact
Rae sits in an interesting space. It's a core catalog piece from a brand that built its reputation on letting customers build their own scents, meaning this is the fragrance Olfactory NYC chose to present as finished, as ready-made, as good enough to stand without your input. The 'people who also like' lists cluster it with accessible, sunlit compositions like Acqua di Parma's Fico di Amalfi and Byredo's Bal d'Afrique, which says something about where this composition chooses to live.
The House
Olfactory NYCOlfactory NYC is a fragrance company that lets customers create custom perfumes through an in-studio or at-home experience. Founded in 2017 in Manhattan's SoHo neighborhood, the company guides clients through selecting and combining scents to produce a personalized fragrance. The process involves choosing a base scent from a curated collection, then layering additional notes to achieve a desired character. Olfactory NYC offers its custom formulations across multiple product categories, including perfume, body lotion, body wash, and candles. The company positions itself as an accessible alternative to traditional bespoke perfumery, emphasizing fresh blending and direct customer involvement in the creative process.
The Creator
Alexis GrugeonGrugeon gravitates toward compositions that pair bright top notes with smoky depth. His signature move involves citrus and wood working in tandem, lemon brightness sharpened against resinous, almost charred undertones.
