Khullu Hima Jomo 2025

Whether Bertrand Duchaufour has ever been to Tibet, we obviously do not know. But I suspect that he has at least engaged intensively with the country and its history. I usually have very fine antennas for whether a fragrance has been tailored to create an olfactory image at all costs, or whether the perfumer has truly immersed himself in the material he wants to recreate olfactorily.

I now have enough test material from Khullu to engage with the fragrance intensively. It has become clear that I am dealing less with a perfume that I want to wear. I wouldn't even know what occasion it would fit. And yet, the fragrance fascinates me. I sit relaxed in the coziest armchair, have no other distractions, focus solely on the scent on my wrist, and suddenly find myself trapped in a mind's eye that transports me to a world that is fundamentally foreign to me, the world of nomads in the highlands of Tibet. I see, yes, I feel the rough canvas from which the yurt is woven, hear the metallic bells of the yaks, which sound so different from our cowbells, smell the open fire pit and the spices rising from the cooking area. I see the vastness of the landscape and the clarity of the mountains in eternal ice in the distance. Sounds cheesy? Maybe - for me, this is an olfactory image that forms before my inner eye, and it is all the more astonishing since it is a European fragrance house and a French perfumer created this scene with Khullu.

Unlike, for example, Spring in Bome from the same house, Khullu will probably not be a fragrance that I want to wear as a perfume. But for those who can immerse themselves in their mind's eye, it tells stories of an exotic world, where we will surely always be mere spectators. I will gladly use the samples in this way, and who knows, maybe one day Khullu will tell me a new chapter from the homeland of the Dalai Lama. Bertrand Duchaufour is, for me, a magician of scents, at least this time.