Bleu Nour is on a quest to create unusual, captivating and subversive fragrances, using under-explored molecules.
The brand was launched in 2023 by Nour Ibrahim, who was inspired to produce its latest perfume called Canna Crush, after walking around the streets by her home in Hackney, East London, smelling cannabis wafting through the air. With Canna Crush, Ibrahim has attempted to bottle this experience, using the warm, chypre fragrance profile of cannabis itself as a starting point.
Bleu Nour uses synaesthesia to create subversive fragrances
Bleu Nour is not the first brand to elevate cannabis into the world of perfumery. Malin + Goetz kicked off the trend in 2014 with its now signature Cannabis perfume, which blends the woody notes of the plant with slightly spicy undertones. The rise of CBD equated with an interest in other cannabis-related beauty products, including home scents and perfumes. By 2020, the trend had reached the highest echelons of luxury perfumery with Loewe debuting a Marijuana candle and Dries Van Noten launching a Cannabis Patchouli scent.
However, its point of difference comes from Ibrahim’s personal experiences of synaesthesia, the neurological phenomenon that causes sensory crossovers, such as tasting colors or feeling sounds. So the brand also aims to evoke visions of vibrant colour through the notes in its perfumes.
With Canna Crush, Ibrahim visualised brick red and twilight blue. And it is easy to understand how the fragrance’s potent and mysterious olfactory profile could align with those shades. In order to realise her vision, Ibrahim worked with Parisian perfumer Margaux le Paih Guerin to ‘make cannabis smell sexy.’
They blended the cannabis notes with clarifying clary sage, powdery osmanthus and sharp notes of leather and pink pepper. The result is a musky fragrance with delicate, accents and bright, herbaceous undercurrents that keep it from becoming overly heady.
As with all Bleu Nour scents, there is something intriguing and hard to place. But, when I ask what these mysterious molecules are, Ibrahim keeps her cards close to her chest. ‘I can’t disclose precisely what we are using in our formulas, but let’s say that I like to dig out the less common and innovative synthetic molecules, that are safer than natural oils. Also, every year, raw materials manufacturers release new molecules and it’s always very exciting to see what’s next.’
‘Understanding the potency of multi-sensory experiences is at the core of what we do,’ she continues. ‘And we hope to enable others to challenge their olfactory profiles.’
Canna Crush is available now at Goodhood and on the Bleu Nour website.
