Best Veneno by French Avenue Alternatives & Similar Perfumes

A mouth-watering gourmand inspired by the baking prowess of Jany, one of the daughters of Sora Dora flounder Antoine. We envision Jany busy in the kitchen, dusted in sugar and flour, preparing tarte tatin. The butter melts on the hot glass dish, dissolving brown sugar into syrup. The aroma swirls around the room, billows to the veranda, travels to the garden. Baked apples and cinnamon sticks merge into exhalations of puff pastry. Then come caramel, almonds and vanilla, powerful aromas that linger into the evening.

The intelligent and devious and boar strides confidently under the forest canopy. Hunger fuels his progress. Apples, fallen leaves and mushrooms swirl in the atmosphere around him. His fur is perfumed by the deep green conifer and galbanum. The fragrant blend of leather, vetiver, and truffle denote the damp moss, sweat and scratched bark. 

A pile-up of contrasts: cinnamon along with tropical florals frangipani and ylang ylang, against the earthy bitterness of artichoke and leather. This almost-gingerbread, almost-cement perfume confuses the senses with its animal/vegetable/mineral mystery.

From LO’s Parfum Intense collection, this is an amber with the darkness turned up to 11. There’s no white space here, just expensive raw materials piled high. Its vibrant opening with fruity notes is enriched by the bitterness of coffee, deepening into a powerful chorus of rose, iris, jasmine and lily of the valley. And this valley is a deep one, a soft black expanse of leather, nagarmotha and patchouli, cushioned by a dirtier-than-usual amber.

In Arabic, Lamar means “liquid gold”, the legendary potion long sought by alchemists in search of immortality. This generous fruity-floral embraces the eternity of living in the moment. In creating Lamar, perfumer Mark Buxton said, “My inspiration was to create a rich, natural, warm, long lasting fragrance, by using high quality natural products. This gives a feeling of walking through a bed of roses or a jasmine field – very feminine and sensual.” Lamar opens with a festival of berries, apple and pineapple. The heart notes glow with jasmine sambac, Turkish rose, Bulgarian rose and magnolia. Vanilla, musk and amber supply the softest landing.

A smiling vanilla that draws its character from contrasts: the bright twang of apple rubbing up against the mellow plushness of tolu balsam, with its beautiful blur of honey and balsamic wood.

Perfumer: Tomoo Inaba

Rich and gothic Moth starts with a heavy dose of dark spices to jolt your senses before settling into a dusting of honey-sweet rose and powdery florals. Slowly, it tests its wings, taking flight on an exotic journey of nagarmotha, guaiac wood and patchouli. Beneath it all lingers a smoky undertone that serves as a constant reminder to fluttering creatures of the danger in the tantalizing flame.

Inspired by an Art Deco skyscraper and the paintings of Tamara de Lempicka, Tabac Rouge is a striking androgynous fragrance, conjuring up curling tendrils of incense and tobacco smoke. Turkish tobacco absolute is warmed by ginger and cinnamon, with a luxuriant hint of honey. Tabac Rouge dries down to a lush base of Siam benzoin and musk. 

Perfumer: Julien Rasquinet.

Naomi Goodsir’s Bois d’Ascese is perhaps the smokiest peaty and charred-whiskey-barrels smelling perfume out there. But the smoke in this fragrance is quite contemplative, it’s not the hints of gunpowder or fireworks, neither is it anything foody. The smoke and woods in this perfume are dry and romantically ascetic, rather introvert and they practice self-discipline.

This elixir is a complex expression of the spirit of duality. Cruelle is a perfume of contrasts, a potion that embodies both beauty and danger, sweetness and venom. Tender violet and mouth-watering blackberry compel you deep into the heart of tobacco and frankincense, with the purple haze intensified by plum and iris root. Resinous labdanum and oud add to the mystery, which includes a provocative hint of fresh rubber tyres. With Cruelle, the wearer is both the predator and the prey, a reminder that every beauty conceals darkness.