The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Amsterdam has a mythology around smoke, freedom, and late nights that blur together, and Smoke of Amsterdam leans directly into that mythology. The name does the heavy lifting. Green hemp and herbaceous accords open the door, then smoke, spice, and woods take over the room. Part of Yusuf Bhai's The High Notes Collection and released in 2025, the composition is unapologetically atmospheric, built less for compliments and more for mood. There's an immediacy to how the juice reads on skin, the opening snapping into focus within minutes, the hemp accord carrying a wet, almost chlorophyll-rich greenness that feels botanical rather than processed.
What makes Smoke of Amsterdam structurally interesting is how the hemp accord is handled. The hemp reads green and leafy rather than sweet or sticky, grounded by an herbaceous accord that makes it smell like the plant itself, not a candy version of it. Smoke here functions as a structural element, not a top note that vanishes. It carries through the heart, binding the spices to the woods, so the entire composition reads as one continuous haze rather than a progression from fresh to dark.
The evolution
On skin, the first 15 minutes are green and slightly sharp, the cannabis note doing its herbal thing before settling. Smoke arrives early and stays, weaving through the spice and hemp rather than sitting on top. By the 30-minute mark, the woods start to assert, and the composition darkens into something warmer and less plant-like. The 2-hour mark is where it finds its stride, smoke and spice locked together over a dense woody base, the cannabis now reading as an accent rather than the lead. After 4-5 hours, the woods carry most of the weight while smoke continues to trail, faint but present, right up to the last whisper. It doesn't dramatically transform, it just deepens.
Cultural impact
Smoke of Amsterdam treats hemp as a serious aromatic material, green and leafy rather than sweet, and the composition stays committed to that vision from the first spray to the final hours of wear. The atmospheric read gives it a clear creative point of view, and the way smoke threads through the heart and base rather than burning off in the opening signals a deliberate structural choice. The fragrance wears with a steady warmth, the woods and resinous base keeping the composition grounded while the smoke continues to curl through every phase.
