Salome

Story

Salome was launched in 2014 by Papillon Artisan Perfumes, the British artisan house founded the same year in Dorset (United Kingdom) by Liz Moores. The perfume arrived as one of the three founding releases of the house, alongside Anubis and Tobacco Rose, and immediately set the tone of the catalogue: opulent materials, hand-finished production and an open embrace of animalic notes (papillonperfumery.co.uk About page, Fragrantica designer profile, accessed 2026-05-23).

The narrative inspiration is explicitly literary. The title refers to the biblical figure of Salome, daughter of Herodias, who asked for the head of John the Baptist after dancing for Herod Antipas. The character was revisited by Oscar Wilde in his 1891 play Salome and by Richard Strauss in his 1905 opera, both of which framed her as a figure of dangerous seduction. Liz Moores has cited that lineage when describing the deliberately troubling animalic register of the composition (Persolaise feature, 2014; Bois de Jasmin review by Victoria Frolova, 2015).

The composition is built around an unusually dense animalic accord, layered under a honeyed white floral heart of jasmine and Moroccan rose. Castoreum, civet, costus, hyraceum and oakmoss anchor the base, in a construction English-language critics consistently describe as an animalic chypre. Persolaise, Bois de Jasmin and Now Smell This converge in framing Salome as a deliberate revival of the animalic register that mainstream perfumery had largely abandoned after the IFRA restrictions of the 2000s (Persolaise review, 2014; Bois de Jasmin review, 2015; Now Smell This feature, 2015).

The international reception was immediate within the niche community. Salome became one of the most discussed artisan releases of the mid 2010s on Basenotes and Fragrantica and rapidly took on cult status among readers seeking a contemporary animalic. Distribution remains deliberately restricted, anchored on the official Papillon site and a small network of partner niche perfumeries. The fragrance is still produced in 2026 in its original eau de parfum formulation, with a more concentrated extrait version added in 2018 (papillonperfumery.co.uk product page, accessed 2026-05-23).

Papillon Artisan Perfumes belongs to the wider British artisan wave that emerged in the early 2010s and reframed independent British perfumery as a hub for animalic, opulent compositions. The house operates on a small, largely family-run footprint and continues to compose each perfume in Dorset, a positioning that distinguishes it from the larger niche brands relying on third-party laboratories. Salome remains the most cited Liz Moores signature internationally and the work most commonly used to introduce new readers to the Papillon catalogue (Basenotes thread history 2014 to 2024, Now Smell This feature 2015).

Olfactive pyramid

The architecture of Salome is dense, indolic and unapologetically animalic. Liz Moores composes a honeyed white floral heart anchored by an oakmoss-based chypre architecture and several animalic materials in the base. Notes documented on the official Papillon Artisan Perfumes product page and cross-confirmed on Fragrantica, Basenotes and Parfumo.

Evolution on skin is progressive and pronounced. The orange blossom and jasmine front the first thirty minutes. The rose then settles against honey and the animalic accord for several hours, before the oakmoss, castoreum and hyraceum drydown extends well past twelve hours. The animalic register is audible from the first spray, marking the composition as a chypre rather than a clean floral.

Composition

The composition of Salome is organized around three technical pillars: a honeyed white floral heart, a documented oakmoss chypre architecture and a dense layered animalic accord in the base. Each pillar contributes a distinct facet of the signature and explains why the perfume is consistently classified as a modern animalic chypre by English-language references.

The honeyed white floral heart

The heart pairs jasmine and Moroccan rose with a generous dose of honey. Honey in perfumery is a sweet, faintly waxy and slightly animalic material that bridges floral and animalic registers; in Salome it reinforces the indolic character of the jasmine and adds a sticky, skin-close texture. Moroccan rose contributes a warm rosy facet that prevents the heart from reading as a soliflore (Fragrantica notes pyramid, Persolaise composition reading, accessed 2026-05-23).

The oakmoss chypre architecture

Oakmoss and vetiver build the chypre backbone. Oakmoss provides the dry, slightly bitter green-woody facet historically associated with the chypre family; vetiver reinforces the earthy depth. The pairing places Salome in continuity with the chypre tradition, while the absence of citrus bergamot in the opening keeps the composition rooted in animalic floral rather than classical chypre (Basenotes classification thread, Now Smell This review, accessed 2026-05-23).

The animalic accord

The animalic accord layers four materials that each carry a distinct facet. Castoreum brings a leathery warm note; civet adds a dense, faintly fecal smoothness; costus contributes a warm, hair-like character; hyraceum delivers a documented urinous-leathery depth. Hyraceum, the fossilized rock-hardened excretions of the rock hyrax (Procavia capensis), is a natural and legally traded animalic material occasionally used in artisanal perfumery for its unusual complexity. The layering of these four materials is what gives Salome its reputation as a textbook example of the contemporary artisanal animalic revival (Bois de Jasmin review, 2015; Persolaise review, 2014).

Key characteristics

Cultural legacy

Salome holds a particular standing in the recent history of independent British perfumery. The fragrance is widely credited as one of the defining artisan releases of the mid 2010s, a moment when British perfumery reclaimed visibility through small independent houses rather than through legacy luxury brands. Liz Moores is consistently named alongside Sarah McCartney (4160 Tuesdays), Angela Flanders and Lyn Harris as a figure of that renewal (Persolaise feature 2014, Basenotes editorial threads 2015 to 2020, accessed 2026-05-23).

Salome is not a perfume that wants to be liked. It owns the animalic, the indolic, the troubling. It is everything but a polite floral.

The composition's cultural status also rests on its narrative anchoring. The biblical Salome, rewritten by Oscar Wilde and Richard Strauss as a figure of dangerous seduction, gives the perfume a literary framework that resonates with the wider Papillon catalogue (Anubis, Tobacco Rose, Angelique, Dryad). That coherence has helped position the house as one of the most distinctive narrative-driven projects in the contemporary independent British scene.

Critically, Salome is the most cited Liz Moores signature in English-language fragrance writing. Persolaise, Bois de Jasmin and Now Smell This all returned to the composition across multiple features between 2014 and 2020, treating it as a reference point for any conversation about modern animalic perfumery. The work continues to circulate widely in online niche communities and remains the gateway most often recommended to new Papillon readers (Basenotes thread aggregation 2014 to 2024, Persolaise multi-year features).

Frequently asked questions

See also