By Daniel Leira for NOS3
I went to discover a perfume brand and ended up thinking about how cognac unfolds on the palate. That was my introduction to KILIAN PARIS: a tasting where every sip offered another way to understand what I was smelling. By the end, choosing a fragrance felt a little like choosing what I was in the mood to drink.
The connection begins with its founder’s last name. Kilian Hennessy comes from the French family behind the renowned cognac. His approach to perfumery draws on memories of the family cellars, the scent of wood, and the barrels where the spirit ages. Learning that story helped me understand The Liquors collection: here, the drink is a creative starting point rooted in personal experience.
Angels’ Share captures that relationship particularly well. Created with perfumer Benoist Lapouza, it takes its name from la part des anges, the portion of alcohol that evaporates as a spirit ages in barrels. The angels’ share. There is something very seductive about dedicating a fragrance to something that escapes yet still leaves a presence.
What interested me most was discovering how far that connection goes within the formula. Angels’ Share contains cognac essence derived from the liquor itself, accompanied by oak absolute, cinnamon, and tonka bean. The oak connects the composition to the wood of the barrels, while sandalwood, praline, and vanilla complete its development. Even its natural caramel color comes, according to the brand, from that cognac essence. The story is in the scent and in what we see inside the bottle.
During the event, the tasting allowed us to explore the inspiration behind each fragrance through flavor. I would taste the drink, return to the perfume, and begin finding connections I might otherwise have tried to understand by reading a list of notes. The warmth, the sweetness, the way one sensation arrives first and another lingers. Everything became easier to recognize when I could connect it to something I had just experienced.
That was when the event moved from immersive to something much more sensory and personal. I was building my own associations between what I smelled and what I tasted. My palate gave me a reference; when I returned to the fragrance, I paid attention differently. It made me want to pause, go back, and discover what else I could find.
The bottle extends that experience. Its design recalls the glasses found in Art Deco–inspired bars, with weighty glass and an engraved pattern that catches the light. It has the presence of an object you want to hold and keep on display. After the tasting, that gesture feels perfectly connected to everything that came before.
I left with an association that is difficult to separate. Now, when I think of the fragrance, I also remember how the drink unfolded on my palate, what lingered between sips, and the desire to taste it again.
Discovering KILIAN PARIS this way gave the perfume a memory of its own from our very first encounter. And I have to admit: I like a fragrance that leaves me thinking about what I would wear tonight and what I would order at the bar.
Images and experience courtesy of PURPLE. Special thanks to Ellen Comitas, Senior Account Manager, Beauty & Wellbeing.
