In perfume, nostalgia tends to rule: sweet gourmands, memory-laden florals. But when fragrance borrows from the cerebral world of chess, it opens a stranger, more imaginative territory.

Some perfumes feel like déjà vu. Dandelion Butter, the latest from Chicago’s Clue Perfumery, is one of them: an olfactory whisper that tugs at a half-forgotten childhood memory.

The four perfumes — Mons Venus, Dauphine, Viva Maria, and Josephine in Furs — demonstrate a perfumer setting a dazzling precedent for an up-and-coming perfume house.

Dossier’s dupes have disrupted NYC’s niche fragrance district.

Boy Smells minimalist, androgynous candles and fragrances decorated everyone’s desks, coffee tables, and vanities. Then came the rebrand.

Longevity, silage, and the fictions of perfume.

Serviette, a new fragrance brand, explores the concept of good taste.

Notes on bottling and selling the West.