I’ve been enjoying sniffing my way through the 4160Tuesdays bestsellers discovery set that I bought at Brityard in London this summer. The cardboard box is beautifully designed with hand-drawn fruits, flowers, and other plant parts. Each sample vial is wrapped in colored paper to look like a bonbon, accompanied by a card describing the perfume, with its own dedicated illustration in the corner.

I was instantly captivated by The Big Smoke, which wasn’t the first one I reached for as I wasn’t in the mood for a smoky fragrance for a while. I finally tried it on Guy Fawkes Day, though not on purpose as I was distracted by another major event on the same day this side of the pond in the United States… and realized the coincidence only later. However, it turned out bright rather than smoky to my nose.

Big Smoke is set in 1950s London and feels like a film noir: a dry, smoked woody amber: tobacco, vetiver, a smidge of smoky white birch, a mist of musks, candle wax, and labdanum blended with frankincense for a hint of absolution.
—copy on sample card

The Big Smoke by 4160 Tuesdays is a dramatic film noir scent set in 1950s lamplit London. Made with the richest of resins, tobacco, vetiver, and a hint of smoky white birch, this fragrance evokes the era when fog mixed with coal smoke was prevalent. It features a blend of labdanum, frankincense, dark patchouli, Cashmeran Velvet, Cedramber, Ambrox, two musks, cardamom essential oil, and aldehyde C10.
—copy on Fragrantica

My “hint of absolution” feels like a blaring slogan on a blimp, because I get the frankincense in megadose, and it makes me imagine the whole scene as yellow. Sure, the liquid itself is yellow, but that’s not the reason. Frankincense is a note that took a while to grow on me, partly with the help of Amouage samples and their talks about the ancient resin. I love it now, and the way its lighter facets uplift a composition.

The opening of The Big Smoke reminded me of a licorice root tea from Aveda that I discovered more than two decades ago—bright and juicy with a natural sweetness in the back of the palate. This was the olfactory equivalent. I could deduce how labdanum might contribute to this overall effect, and could detect the impression of tobacco but not the drier notes of vetiver or birch. I finally found them lurking very close to the skin, particularly shortly after a spray, along with the other supporting notes.

A side note about the supporting notes: while the “candle wax,” meant to set the scene of “finding your way inside a candlelit wood-panelled library” (per the brand website), is not prominent, it appears to conspire with labdanum (the most likely culprit) to create a slightly sour effect, which could be found in such a library with bookshelves made of old wood.

The frankincense is faithful throughout the wear. I haven’t smelled anything like The Big Smoke before, and I keep coming back to this creation by perfumer Sarah McCartney.

All of this scene-setting makes me want to settle in front of a cozy mystery for some escapism, while glad that I don’t live in the times or places in which these stories are set.