Bottle Design:
Caleb Vanden Boom, Illustration: Gustavo Eandi

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Warm Bulb Clue Perfumery 2023

7.8 / 10 47 Ratings

A popular perfume by Clue Perfumery for women and men, released in 2023. The scent is powdery-woody. It is still in production.
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Main accords

Powdery

Woody

Creamy

Sweet

Synthetic

Fragrance Pyramid

Top Notes

Dust

Air accord

Black pepper

Heart Notes

Immortelle Paper

Paper

Tobacco

Base Notes

Vanilla

Amber

Sandalwood

Perfumer

Laura Oberwetter

Ratings

Scent

7.847 Ratings

Longevity

7.236 Ratings

Sillage

6.437 Ratings

Bottle

8.831 Ratings

Value for money

7.422 Ratings

Submitted by Quisquose, last update on 09/25/2025.

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What the fragrance is similar to

Reviews

10 in-depth fragrance descriptions

09/03/2024

Mlleghoul
453 Reviews

Mlleghoul

Very helpful Review 7

A desiccated marshmallow next to a dusty Himalayan salt

Warm Bulb opens with a subtle but singular blend of fuzzed salinity combined with the scent of a heating element, evoking the imagined aroma of a Himalayan salt lamp covered in a fine patina of dust. I have several of these lamps, and mine don't smell like much of anything in particular, but this opening is always how I thought they would smell. It's the essence of warm, mineralized air, like you could smell the soft, pinky-orange glow emanating from rough-hewn salt crystals beneath a thin veil of settled particles. The fragrance makes me think of the lamp's alleged ability to ionize the air, creating an olfactory impression of a purified, slightly electric atmosphere tinged with a hint of neglect. As it develops, the scent undergoes an unexpected transition, as if a forgotten offering has been left near the lamp's warm glow: a small dried bouquet and a marshmallow, both altered by proximity to the salt lamp's warmth and accumulated residue. Imagine pressed flowers; their colors faded but still discernible, mingled with the powdery sweetness of a marshmallow slowly desiccating in the lamp's ambient heat, all covered by a ghostly layer of time's passage. Though not a scent that wildly excited me, Warm Bulb's quiet journey from dusty, electrified minerals to withered floral sweetness proved to be an interesting olfactory experience, even just to think about and write about, if not to wear.

03/31/2025

6
Pricing 7
Bottle 6
Sillage 6
Longevity 9
Scent

Binky
17 Reviews

Binky

Helpful Review 2

A Warm Dusty Lightbulb on a Rainy Day

I am so in love with this scent. I adore vanilla scents so much, but it's hard to make them unique as they have been created many times over in so many different ways. Clue found a way to create a modern vanilla profile, and I am obsessed.

When first sprayed there is a peppery vanilla and sandalwood scent which slowly morphs into something quite special. I don't know how Clue did it, but there is a hint of electricity and humidity as the smell of dust burning on an old school light bulb comes to the forefront. The vanilla is always present but more of an underlying hum. This is such a unique scent and brought up a lot of nostalgia of reading in my grandparent's old house in the middle of the woods.

The longevity is there, but know that this is not a powerhouse by any means. This is meant to be a small bubble of scent much like a bulb giving off a small amount of light and heat. Of course, more sprays will give it a bit more oomph, but I think this scent would lose something if put on too strong.

I couldn't stop smelling my wrist all day the first time I wore this. I just couldn't get over the electric feel of this one. What a great way to elevate vanilla. This has quickly become a favorite!

11/16/2024

Byrehoe
202 Reviews

Byrehoe

3

incandescent vanilla

Electric caramelisation. Imagine sprinkling raw sugar atop an antique Edison bulb. It’s got a vintage sort of buzz to it; there’s a lovely “dusty” accord, very reminiscent of an old museum archive. (I also get a similar dustiness in my beloved Bibliotheque by Byredo). This is hot librarian Evie in the 1999 cinematic masterpiece, The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. Wry, curious, endearingly prim. Absolutely insane to engineer such a singular, unique scent as that of a crackling light bulb – then ever-so-measuredly candy it with amber and vanilla – into something you’d crave to waft all day. It’s a bit too atmospheric for me to want to wear regularly, but the tester kit is worth it for this experience alone.

Mental Snapshot: An eccentric archivist. Tweed, pin-curls, tortoiseshell cat-eyes. Smart as a whip, strange as the moon. They oversee the Belle Epoque exhibit. The one with all the ruffled silks and crystal chandeliers. You swear they daub pure vanilla extract on before work.

tl;dr: …warm bulb?

10/21/2024

9
Bottle 7
Sillage 7.5
Scent

Katemorganb
32 Reviews

Katemorganb

2

A Work of Olfactory Art

Though I did not enjoy this as much as I had thought I would based on the description, it's an uncanny photorealistic depiction of dust being burnt off of a lightbulb. It sweetens with wear on me, shifting from the burnt-dust smell to a smell that has the sweetness you would find in old books; the perfumer described how old books often contain traces of vanillin, which contributes to "old book smell," and I can see that inspiration in how Warm Bulb wears. It is cozy in a way that taps less into memories of bakeries or fireplaces or holidays, and more into time spent exploring old attics, archival documents, or a room full of rare books in a library. All of Clue Perfumery's scents are wearable art, and this one feels simultaneously like the most high-concept of their offerings and the most approachable.

07/25/2025

4
Pricing 8
Bottle 5
Sillage 6
Longevity 6.5
Scent

midaramadara
48 Reviews

midaramadara

2

warm, but not necessarily bulb

this is as close to a hot lightbulb as i am to the moon - sure, if you squint really hard and if you keep in mind that moon is the closest astral object to the earth, that i can see it every night and that i have tools to look at it from up close - the autosuggestion will fill in the actual breach that divides the two.

i think naming it "vanilla bean sleep paralysis" would be better fitting. it does feels hazy, fuzzy, staticky as others say, it scratches the back of your throat a little, it is somewhat dusty and dry, but it is not photorealistic at all.
i assume they tried really hard to replicate that hot plastic smell, however it's more of a caramel popcorn bag thrown into a microwave with the plastic wrapping on or a toasted marshmallow rolled around an old carpet at your attic, rather than an old dusty lightbulb getting really hot in your dingy basement.

it's just too sweet and that ruins the entire experience for me. i would throw out 90% of the vanilla they put into it, but then that's where the staying power is locked - without it, this smell would probably be gone within 2 hours.

it's an interesting perfume overall, it definitely tells some kind of story and sets the mood, but maybe not exactly the one described on the packaging...

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