Five days ago I laid out the case that Northern Love was Dries Van Noten par Frédéric Malle under a new label, then worried it would return quieter and sweeter, as Kurkdjian's Reflets d'Ambre did for Ciel de Gum. I've now had it on skin, and the worry was wasted. This is the Dries Van Noten, not a cousin or a tribute with the difficult bits filed off: milky sandalwood, speculoos warmth over it, a finish that turns buttery exactly as before.

Bruno Jovanovic, who composed both, told Fragrantica that sandalwood has these creamy facets intrinsically and that he zoomed in on them, "amplifying their softness until it turns buttery, velvety, almost indulgent." That is the effect on skin, undiminished. Leather accord and styrax resinoid now sit in the published base, neither listed for the original, and the guaiac wood and tonka bean have gone. If the swap moved anything, I can't find where.

Malle has never run flankers and rarely withdraws anything, and the one perfume the line did lose is the one it has now handed back, by the same hands, with speculoos and sacrasol still in the formula. The name left with Van Noten; the formula stayed with Malle.

Sources: