The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Graffiti launched in 2024 from Xyrena, a house run by perfumer Killian Wells. The catalog includes a product listed as Plastic by Trixie Mattel, along with other numbered releases. Graffiti continues that thread of translating unconventional sources into something you can wear, except the source isn't a film or a product tie-in. It's a wall. Wells translated the olfactory experience of street art, the markers, the solvents, the chemical sweetness of fresh paint, into a fragrance. The banana and tonka sit up front, giving the opening a sugary register that sits next to the sharper chemical notes without competing with them. There's a felt-tip quality to the top, inky and slightly metallic, that reads almost graphic before it settles.
What makes the composition work is the way it pairs gourmand material with notes that read as non-edible. Banana, tonka, and melon all carry an obvious sweetness, but they're positioned alongside chemical and metallic textures that push the scent somewhere else entirely. Wheat in the middle adds a dry, papery quality, something that recalls flour and adhesive. Vetiver brings a green, slightly bitter edge into the heart. The cedar base keeps the whole composition grounded, giving it a woody anchor that prevents the sweeter notes from running unchecked.
The evolution
The first ten minutes are the loudest. Banana and melon hit immediately, sweet and almost candy-like, but undercut by a chemical sharpness that reads unmistakably as solvent. There's a felt-tip marker quality, inky and slightly metallic, that sits on top of the fruit. It smells less like a traditional perfume composition and more like a raw material translation. After about 30 minutes, the fruit pulls back. The wheat and vetiver take over, bringing a dry, grassy texture that grounds everything. The tonka starts to warm up, adding a soft, vanillic haze underneath. By the two-hour mark, the chemical top notes are mostly gone, and what's left is something unexpectedly cozy: warm wood, a whisper of banana bread, and a dry, slightly dusty quality that lingers on skin. The cedar holds the base for another few hours, projecting softly rather than aggressively.
Cultural impact
Graffiti extends Xyrena's approach of using unconventional source material into the territory of street culture, treating graffiti as a visual and olfactory reference point worth translating into a bottle. The banana-tonka-solvent combination is unusual because it doesn't follow the usual gourmand or aromatic template. Most fragrances in either category lean heavily on comfort cues: vanilla, caramel, baked goods on one side; lavender, herbs, woods on the other. Graffiti borrows from both but pulls each note toward something more abrasive, more chemical. That tension is what makes the fragrance get asked about.
