Hooga

Hooga takes its name from the Danish idea of hygge and is built to do one thing, which it does well. Lavender opens it, and it is the herbal, slightly camphorous kind rather than the soapy fabric-softener kind, which sets a more serious tone than lavender usually manages. Myrrh occupies the heart alone and is the reason this fragrance is interesting: it is a resinous, faintly bitter, almost church-like material, and putting it between lavender and vanilla gives the composition a dry middle that stops the whole thing collapsing into comfort-scent cliche. Tonka bean and vanilla finish it, warm and soft, and by the drydown it is genuinely cosy, but it has earned that through the myrrh rather than defaulting to it. Performance is moderate and it stays fairly close to the skin, which suits its purpose. Autumn and winter are its seasons and evening its time. It is a good office scent precisely because it does not project much, and a poor choice if you want to be noticed. The most quietly distinctive thing in the range.