Paul Schütze

Paul Schütze is a London fragrance house created by the artist and composer Paul Schütze. Its first three wearable perfumes - Tears of Eros, Behind the Rain and Cirebon - launched in April 2016, after he made three fragrances for the Sir John Soane's Museum in London in 2015 and a first scented book installation in 2012. Cuadra and Villa M followed in 2017.

The house treats perfume as an artwork rather than a product line. Each fragrance describes a single remembered moment, such as being caught in a monsoon downpour or an evening in a Paris studio among incense and discarded clementine skins. The compositions do not follow the usual top, heart and base pyramid, and Schütze developed his own technique rather than follow conventional methods, working on the formulas himself.

The scents are woody, resinous and green. Behind the Rain pairs vetiver, conifer and olibanum with grapefruit, fennel and moss. Tears of Eros combines hyacinth, incense, benzoin, labdanum, orris and cedar with cardamom and pink pepper. Cirebon is a lighter, floral and woody study of bergamot, magnolia, cedar, sandalwood and vetiver. The range is unisex and unconventional rather than built to please everyone.

Paul Schütze sits at the artistic end of independent British perfumery. It is a very small range, sold through its own site and through selected perfumeries in London, Germany, Brussels, Poland and New York. It suits wearers who like incense, resins and moody woods, and who are happy to wear something that reads more like a piece of art than a conventional pyramid.