Delicate, woody and fleeting, the new City Exclusive by Le Labo is a tribute to the elegance of Kyoto and the wabi-sabi beauty of impermanence. Available worldwide for one month only.
Every year, Le Labo breaks the rules with its City Exclusives, a series of fragrances usually locked to specific cities, released worldwide just once a year. For September 2025, Kyoto enters the spotlight with OSMANTHUS 19, a perfume that evokes the ancient city’s poetic stillness, seasonal beauty and refined restraint.
Originally introduced after the opening of Le Labo’s Kyoto lab at the Ace Hotel in 2020 and later deepened with the opening of a restored machiya in Shimokorikicho, this is the second scent in the brand’s evolving love story with Japan, following GAIAC 10, Tokyo’s exclusive blend. Inspired by the small white blooms of the osmanthus flower, which appear unexpectedly in winter, OSMANTHUS 19 blends incense and lavender, unfurling into creamy floral tones grounded by woody warmth.
It’s a fragrance that echoes the city’s contrasts: ancient wooden houses beside neon signs, centuries-old temples coexisting with brutalist modernism. In its balance of fragility and complexity, OSMANTHUS 19 also channels the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, a deep appreciation for imperfection and transience.
Le Labo will offer samples online and in-store from August 1. Full bottles will be available from September 1, only for that month, before disappearing again from shelves around the world. Only in Kyoto will OSMANTHUS 19 remain permanently available, a scented keepsake for those who find their way there.
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