# Penhaligons — The Bewitching Yasmine

> The Bewitching Yasmine (2017) is a dark, spicy-sweet oriental floral from Penhaligon's Portraits collection, composed by Marie Salamagne. Despite the name, jasmine is not the star: the fragrance is bu

## Essence
The Bewitching Yasmine (2017) is a dark, spicy-sweet oriental floral from Penhaligon's Portraits collection, composed by Marie Salamagne. Despite the name, jasmine is not the star: the fragrance is built on a cardamom-coffee opening melting into Tahitian vanilla, incense, and Laotian oud, with jasmine sambac playing a supporting, often-buried role. The result is a cozy-but-sultry "cardamom vanilla latte" with a smoky, woody, faintly animalic underbelly — gourmand-adjacent without being a true gourmand. One of the most distinctive and "underrated" feminine Portraits, themed around a femme-fatale character.
## Scent Profile
The opening is bold and immediate — frequently called "nuclear" — a thick, sweet hit of cardamom and coffee, often read as Turkish-coffee-like, laced with rich vanilla. Reviewers consistently describe a "cardamom syrup in a vanilla latte" effect, sometimes with a sharp, slightly medicinal or "cough syrup"/rubbing-alcohol edge in the first minutes that bothers a minority of wearers before it settles. The coffee is sweet and aromatic rather than bitter espresso.
Through the heart (first one to three hours), the coffee-cardamom duo is framed by smoky incense and thickening vanilla "swirled in like syrup." The jasmine sambac, despite top billing, is widely reported as subtle to nearly absent — "running to catch up to the rest of the notes," acting "more of a sweetener than a direct smell," with only a powdery floral nuance lightening the sweetness. The fir adds a faint aromatic/green facet some detect as a slightly piney lift. This is where most reviewers consider it strongest.
The drydown (three hours-plus) brings the oud forward: per a detailed Temptalia analysis, "about 15 minutes in, the oud made a grand entrance," and it "gets amplified throughout… shining the most about halfway through and then becoming dominant (but with intensity dropped) in the drydown paired with the vanilla." It dries dry, woody, and smoky — incense and a gentle, general-public-appropriate oud over creamy vanilla, ending as a "spiced chai and coffee" skin scent. Perceptible: cardamom, coffee, vanilla, incense, oud (rising). Submerged: jasmine (largely), fir (faint). Evolution is real (latte-to-smoky-woody), though the sweet vanilla thread runs start to finish. The signature accord is cardamom-coffee-vanilla over smoky incense and oud. Critically, this scent is divisive on base quality: a sharp wearers reviewer argued that around the one-hour mark "an inky 'woody amber' aquatic base comes in and cheapens everything," leaving an "Axe body spray" impression — a minority but pointed critique.
## Performance
For Penhaligon's — a house often criticized for weak performance — Bewitching Yasmine is comparatively strong, and several reviewers single it out as an exception. A wearers reviewer noted it "has what a lot of other Penhaligon fragrances don't, projection and longevity," with an instant heavy vanilla-coffee projection in the first minutes, mellowing to a scent "that projects but doesn't cloy," and about 6 hours of wear. wearers and wearers reports cluster around moderate sillage, good-but-not-monstrous projection, and roughly 6 hours on skin, with several noting a need to reapply every 3–4 hours and a vocal minority reporting much weaker results ("not lasting past an hour," a "common theme with Penhaligon's"). The most reliable read: moderate projection (close-to-arm's-length after the loud opening) and average-to-good longevity of roughly 5–7 hours on skin — strong on fabric, where it "lasts extremely well on clothes" and lingers on sweaters for weeks. As a warm, sweet, resinous composition it blooms in cold weather and can turn heavier/sharper in heat. Best applied as a "fine wide spray" walked into and onto clothing and hair — though Penhaligon's warns essential oils may discolor garments. Performance is somewhat skin-chemistry dependent.
## Wearing Context
This is a cold-weather, evening, occasion fragrance — fall and winter, nighttime, "when you want to feel a little dangerous." Reviewers frame it as seductive, mysterious, gothic, and "the ultimate dark feminine" scent: club-worthy by night, cozy-but-intentional for dinners and special occasions, and well-suited to colder months where the coffee-cardamom-vanilla-incense reads as warm and enveloping. It shines in intimate, evening, dressed-up settings and on fabric/hair where it sustains. Where it falls flat: hot summer daytime (the sweetness and smoke turn heavy) and conservative/professional or "polite" contexts — this is "jasmine for someone who doesn't want to smell pretty." Marketed feminine, it is frequently worn unisex; the coffee-oud-incense spine gives it enough darkness for men. Social-perception skew: sensual and attention-drawing without being loud — on walks, companions reportedly catch "a very nice incense." Polarizing for those who find it either too sweet/synthetic or too medicinal in the opening.
## Comparisons & DNA
The most-cited comparison is **Atelier des Ors Lune Féline**, which multiple wearers/Luckyscent reviewers call "nearly identical" — a warm, spicy, vanilla-woody scent that predates Bewitching Yasmine, prompting accusations that the Penhaligon's is "pretty derivative" and pricier (one reviewer scored Lune Féline a high score as the better-value original). Within Penhaligon's own Portraits line, it is "surprisingly reminiscent of **Changing Constance**" — both vanilla-amber gourmands with prominent cardamom, but Bewitching Yasmine leans floral/oud where Changing Constance leans salted caramel. The most evocative critical comparison comes from wearers: imagine "the vanilla-dusted amaretto-spiked jasmine and sassafras latte of **Dior's Hypnotic Poison** locked in a velvet carpet bag with oud's bitter earthy fables," i.e., a darker, smokier, oud-laced cousin of Hypnotic Poison. A wearers commenter also flagged it as reminiscent of the indie, dark-and-rough **Slumberhouse**-style, and one likened it to **Guerlain Shalimar's** baking-vanilla series in the vanilla character. For cardamom-coffee gourmand fans, **BDK Gris Charnel** (cardamom) is a frequent adjacent reference. No cheap designer clone is widely recognized; the closest "save" is the artisanal Lune Féline rather than a mass dupe. Lineage: it sits within the late-2010s dark-gourmand-oud trend rather than originating it.
## Reception
wearers consensus (wearers, wearers, wearers) treats it as one of the more interesting, "underrated," and sexiest entries in the Portraits line. Praise: the cozy-yet-sultry cardamom-coffee-vanilla accord ("a match made in heaven"), the smoky incense and well-judged, "general-public-appropriate" oud, and a genuinely seductive personality — "this is one of the sexiest things I've ever smelled," "erotic… the kind of fragrance I imagine Salomé to wear." Criticisms cluster on three axes: (1) the jasmine is misleadingly minor given the name; (2) a sharp medicinal/alcoholic or "cough syrup" opening that some skins amplify into a chemical, sickly-sweet wrongness even on paper; and (3) the value/quality question — a notable wearers thumbs-down argued the "$250 exclusive" hides a "cheap cliché" woody-amber/Axe-like drydown, and others feel it "does not carry the same expensive feeling" as other Penhaligon's. The Lune Féline similarity dents its originality score. A widely shared wearers note attributes a perceived post-2015 dip in Penhaligon's artistry to the Puig acquisition. Blind-buy verdict: risky at full price — sample first, both because the opening is skin-chemistry sensitive and because near-identical/cheaper alternatives exist; but a strong candidate for fans of dark cardamom-coffee-vanilla-oud gourmands. Temptalia's detailed, generally positive walk-through is the most substantive critical review located; no major (Turin/Sanchez) coverage was found.
## Versions & Reformulation
Single composition (Eau de Parfum), no known reformulations. It is part of the Portraits collection, presented in the line's signature gold animal-head-stoppered bottle, primarily in the 75ml size. The brand's published ingredient list confirms classic allergen markers and UV filters consistent with a 2017-era oriental; no separate concentration variants (no EDT/parfum/extrait) exist. Bottle artwork/illustration is credited to Kristjana S Williams and bottle design to Marc Ange per wearers's verified entry.
## Acquisition Notes
Luxury-niche pricing. The 75ml EDP retails at $315 USD on Penhaligon's official US site (confirmed via the site's product page metadata showing "315 USD InStock"); a wearers reviewer corroborates the full retail, noting "It is $315 for 75ml, which is very expensive. But this is the only fragrance from this line (so far) that might be worth it." It is widely available — and discounted — through authorized and grey-market channels (Jomashop has listed it near $250; FragranceNet, Bloomingdale's, Selfridges, Nordstrom, Luckyscent, Violet Grey all carry the line). As of 2026 it remains in production and in stock at major retailers (wearers's entry, updated mid-2026, lists it as a current, ranked fragrance), despite one decant reseller noting its retail bottle "currently unavailable" — reflecting single-seller stock, not brand discontinuation. The decant ecosystem is robust: Scent Split, Surrender to Chance, The Perfumed Court, MicroPerfumes and Luckyscent samples all carry it, making it easy to sample (strongly advised here). Counterfeit risk is moderate for popular niche; buy from Penhaligon's directly or authorized stockists, and verify batch codes and the quality of the brass animal-head stopper and packaging. Best path to guaranteed authenticity: Penhaligon's boutiques/site or a major authorized department store.
## Notable Facts & Lore
- Bewitching Yasmine is one of the ten characters in Penhaligon's Portraits "scent library," each with a tongue-in-cheek British-aristocracy backstory and a gilded animal-head bottle stopper. Yasmine's narrative casts her as an ambitious, alluring outsider — "Yasmine's sights are set on London – and a suitable match. Her fragrance is a voluptuous affair: jasmine, incense, oud" — and the house frames the scent as a femme fatale who is "hot and cold," "soft and quiet… yet conducts herself with a rare force." Composed by Marie Salamagne, it is among the darker, more sensual feminine Portraits. The most enduring wearers lore is the running observation that the "Yasmine" of the name barely smells of jasmine — the cardamom-coffee-vanilla-oud dominates — making it a frequent example in discussions of misleading fragrance naming. A second recurring talking point is its strong resemblance to the cheaper artisanal Atelier des Ors Lune Féline, fueling ongoing "original vs. derivative" debates. It has a modest but devoted social-media following (TikTok "femme fatale fragrance" framing) as a sleeper-hit dark gourmand within a collection better known for its bottles than its juice.