Your aesthetic-loving soul is looking for the best dark academia scents?
In this guide, you’ll find the 9 best dark academia perfumes to set you in the mood for reading books full of mysteries with a cup of coffee on a gloomy rainy day.
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9 Best Dark Academia Perfumes 2024
1. Maison Margiela Replica Whispers in the Library Eau de Toilette
An ultimate dark academia scent built around a sweet woody-resinous mix of vanilla, cedarwood, and benzoin notes softened with orange blossom and accented with spicy pink pepper.
Whispers in the Library is the best perfume that smells like a slow day with old, a bit dusty books in an antique wooden library.
Notes: Pink Pepper, Orange Blossom, Woody Notes, Vanilla, Benzoin.
2. Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium Extreme Eau de Parfum
An addictive gourmand perfume in which a creamy blend of dark coffee and vanilla notes is complemented with heady white flowers and enhanced with warm earthy-woody undertones.
Black Opium Extreme is one of the best dark academia scents to feel like sharing secrets with friends in a cozy cafe with dimmed light.
Notes: Coffee, White Flowers, Patchouli, Vanilla.
3. Dior Poison Eau de Toilette
An intoxicating fruity-floral fragrance that features a dense blend of ripe plums, white flowers, and sweet honey accented with exotic spices and enveloped in a warm musky-ambery accord.
Poison is one of the best dark academia perfumes to make you feel like a charming villain, leaving a mysterious perfume trail at a crime scene.
Notes: Spices, Plum, Tuberose, Honey, Amber, Musk.
4. Byredo Bibliothèque Eau de Parfum
An evocative niche fragrance built around a smooth, mildly powdery blend of plum, violet, and leather notes delicately spiced with cinnamon and sweetened with vanilla.
Bibliothèque is the best perfume that smells like dark academia and someone’s leather-bound old diary with dried violets between pages and some plum jam stains.
Notes: Cinnamon, Plum, Violet, Leather, Woody Notes, Vanilla.
5. Billie Eilish Fragrances No.2 Eau de Parfum
An unexpectedly bold celebrity scent in which an exotic woody-smoky blend is complemented with tingly black pepper, accented with radiant bergamot, and softened with floral notes.
Eilish No.2 is one of the best dark academia fragrances to perfectly combine with androgynous looks in Donna Tartt’s style.
Notes: Bergamot, Black Pepper, Floral Notes, Papyrus, Palo Santo, Ebony Wood.
6. Tom Ford Black Orchid Eau de Toilette
An exquisite dark academia perfume that combines heady notes of orchid and tuberose flowers with warm earthy-woody patchouli, while plum adds its dense sweetness.
Black Orchid is the best fragrance to smell like a rich student of a decadent college whose life is full of pure hedonism.
Notes: Black Plum, Orchid, Tuberose, Patchouli.
7. Boy Smells Violet Ends Eau de Parfum
An intriguing unisex scent that features a contrasting powdery-leathery blend complemented with sour-sweet rhubarb nuances and shrouded in warm tobacco and black tea smoke.
Violet Ends is one of the best dark academia perfumes to feel like a young controversial author who wears an oversized leather jacket and smokes cigarettes.
Notes: Black Pepper, Rhubarb, Black Tea, Violet, Tobacco, Woody Notes, Leather.
8. Diptyque 34 boulevard Saint Germain Eau de Toilette
A sophisticated niche fragrance built around a seamless warm blend of cinnamon, clove, and patchouli accented with tangy black currant and softened with rose and sweet resinous notes.
34 boulevard Saint Germain is the best perfume that smells like dark academia and reading by a spicy candle, at a polished wooden table, with jazz quietly playing in the background.
Notes: Cinnamon, Clove, Black Currant, Rose, Patchouli, Amber.
9. AllSaints Incense City Eau de Parfum
An enchanting woody-smoky scent in which dry, old-pages-like notes of cypress and cedarwood are smoothed and lightly sweetened with enveloping and lingering frankincense.
Incense City is one of the best perfumes for dark academia to feel like a member of a collegiate secret society, holding its meetings in an abandoned gothic church.
Notes: Cypress, Cedarwood, Incense.
It was my guide to the 9 best dark academia perfumes 2024, and I hope it was helpful for you.
You may also be interested in these posts:
9 best fall perfumes for women;
10 best winter perfumes for women;
7 best coffee perfumes for women.
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Featured photo by Kinga Howard on Unsplash.
