The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
La Mer De Nha Trang takes its name from the bay on Vietnam's south-central coast. Y25, a Vietnamese house whose fragrances began appearing in 2015, composed this scent as part of its Scents of Vietnam collection, sitting alongside L'Automne De Hanoi, Hoi An Deja Vu, and La Perle d'Orient. Each one takes a place as its subject. This one is the sea. The perfumer, Huỳnh Hải Yến, built the composition around the layered reality of coastal scent, that the ocean reads as salt and something mineral, something alive underneath rather than a single clean note. The brief, if there was one written down, seems to have been straightforward. Capture the coast without sanding it smooth. What's unusual is the material choice.
What's worth noting here is the choice to anchor a marine composition in materials that carry their own gravity. Ambergris and castoreum are dense, animalic, leathery materials. Used in trace, they do something a typical aquatic accord cannot. They give the sea weight. Paired with actual seaweed, the base doesn't just suggest the water. It argues for it. The bright citrus opening and the rose-carnation heart are the handshake. The base is the conversation that continues after you leave the room. There's a clear understanding here that a coast isn't just the view from a postcard.
The evolution
The first ten minutes are almost aggressive in their brightness. Pink grapefruit, lemon, and bergamot, all sharpened by the salt already creeping up from the base. The marine note announces itself early, not as ozonic cucumber but as something cooler and more mineral, closer to the smell of wet stone at low tide. Around the twenty-minute mark the florals break through. Damask rose and carnation give it a warmth that feels almost out of place against the brine, like finding flowers growing near a seawall. Water lily keeps things from going powdery. It cools the floral accord, gives it lift rather than weight, and lets the marine thread keep running underneath without interruption. By the two-hour mark the composition has shifted entirely. The citrus is gone. The florals are a memory. What remains is the base doing what it promised.
Cultural impact
Within Y25's Scents of Vietnam collection, La Mer De Nha Trang occupies a distinctive position. Its use of ambergris, castoreum, and actual seaweed sets it apart from the lighter, more obviously floral compositions in the lineup. There's a commitment here to the darker, more animalic side of coastal scent, an unwillingness to sand the bay down into something pretty and forgettable. The fragrance treats the ocean as a place with weather, mineral weight, and something faintly alive underneath, rather than a postcard.
The House
Y25Y25 is a niche fragrance house that draws its creative identity from the landscapes, memories, and sensory landscapes of Vietnam. The brand's catalog reads like a geographic journey through the country, with fragrance names referencing cities such as Hanoi, Hue, Da Lat, and Hoi An, alongside oceanic locations like Nha Trang. This deliberate geographic framing suggests a house deeply invested in olfactory storytelling rooted in Vietnamese culture and terrain. Founded in 2015, Y25 has developed a body of work that spans coastal atmospheres, highland mornings, and urban nostalgia, with releases spanning from 2015 through 2020. The brand operates without publicly disclosed perfumer credits, which lends an air of anonymity to its creative process that distinguishes it from houses built around celebrity nose partnerships.
The Creator
Huỳnh Hải YếnYến gravitates toward materials with narrative weight. Her signature work combines the fresh, mineral quality of petrichor with the creamy, slightly green notes of magnolia, creating fragrances that feel both immediate and contemplative.
