Clive Christian’s New Perfume Is an Ode to Oscar Wilde (With a Panda)

Oscar Wilde once wrote, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” It’s a line that captures contradiction beautifully, and the tension Wilde understood better than most. That same spirit quietly finds its way into Clive Christian’s latest fragrance, Strange Heavens Out Of The Blue.

The reference point isn’t literal, and it doesn’t need to be. Instead, the scent draws inspiration from the mysterious glamour of Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. Particularly, its dark Victorian atmosphere, built on contrast, mood, and quiet allure.

So how does that translate into a fragrance? Let’s skip the technical notes and think in moments instead.

It opens like a late-evening coffee—rich, warm, and slightly bitter, with a hint of spicy aniseed adding depth. As it settles, soft jasmine and orange blossom drift in, like catching the scent of a garden through an open window after dusk.

Finally, it dries down to something you want to keep close. Vanilla and caramel mixed with cocoa powder and finished with a faint whisper of smoke from a candle just blown out. It’s the scent left on a sweater after a long, absorbing conversation that stretched late into the night — the kind of fragrance noticed only by those who come close enough.