A fragrance can become one of the most intimate expressions of individuality. Unlike clothing or jewellery, scent remains largely invisible, yet it can communicate something about a person before a conversation has even begun. Woody, smoky, floral, mineral or gourmand notes can suggest different facets of character, while the way a perfume develops on the skin makes the experience distinctly personal.
by L’Officiel Monaco
In a market filled with countless launches, finding a fragrance with a recognisable identity has become increasingly significant. For those drawn to compositions with an unconventional point of view, Dark Tales offers a particularly intriguing direction.
A Story Told Through Scent
Founded in 2019, Dark Tales is an independent artisan perfume house built around the connection between fragrance, history and storytelling. The project began as a home-based creative experiment in Moscow before developing into an established perfume business and subsequently relocating to Uppsala, Sweden. Today, the fragrances are developed, prepared and packaged in the brand’s Swedish studio and laboratory.
Dark Tales approaches perfume as an atmospheric form of storytelling, drawing references from gothic literature, historical periods, legends, rituals, forgotten interiors and darker corners of the imagination. Instead of treating fragrance simply as something decorative, the house constructs each composition around a particular scene, character or emotional idea. An old library, a medieval abbey, a mysterious forest or a supernatural figure can therefore become the starting point for an olfactory composition. The connection between narrative and formula gives the collection its distinctive character.
The perfumes are produced in small batches, maintaining the artisanal character of the house. Many formulas incorporate natural materials, while the compositions frequently move through woods, resins, incense, herbs, fruits, leather, smoke and unusual atmospheric accords. The visual identity follows the same direction: custom resin caps carry individual marble patterns, making each bottle subtly different. The house also works with illustrator Umar Setiawan on the imagery accompanying its fragrances. Dark Tales now extends across a substantial perfume catalogue while remaining closely connected to the concept from which it began: creating scents with enough character to suggest an entire world beyond the bottle.
Arina Franzén
Behind this world is perfumer, founder and creative director Arina P. Franzén. Her path into perfumery is particularly interesting because it began outside the traditional fragrance industry: her background encompasses history, psychology and biographical writing, disciplines concerned with people, memory and the interpretation of the past. She began creating perfumes in 2019 as a self-taught perfumer and later continued her education and certification through the Natural Perfume Academy.
What distinguishes Franzén’s work is her narrative approach to composition. Rather than beginning solely with conventional ideas of what should smell attractive, she treats perfume almost as a form of biography or fiction, translating characters, places and memories into scent. Her formulas can be deliberately strange, cold, smoky, earthy or unsettling, allowing contrasts and unexpected materials to become part of the experience. It is precisely this willingness to give a perfume a strong personality — including its darker sides — that defines much of her work for Dark Tales.
ONDSKAN
The Swedish word Ondskan translates as “evil”, immediately establishing the uncompromising premise behind one of Dark Tales’ darkest creations. Rather than romanticising its subject, Franzén approaches darkness as something physical and uncomfortable. Green cognac, crushed tomato leaf and bright resin create an unusual opening before cold stone, vetiver, smoked woods and dry spices take the composition into considerably darker territory. The base introduces blood accord, gunpowder, burned resins, leather, moss, hyraceum, dark incense and animalic woods. Classified by the house as sinister, smoky, cold and dark, ONDSKAN is a 30 ml unisex Extrait de Parfum conceived for those interested in perfume as an artistic experience as much as a personal signature.
THE WITCHES
THE WITCHES takes another path into the supernatural, this time through fruit, liquorice, flowers and smoke. Red mandarin meets black cherry, blackberry, liquorice and clove bud in the opening, creating sweetness with a distinctly darker undertone. Dark rose, blue chamomile, fragonia, wild flowers and frangipani form its floral centre before rosewood, silky woods, guaiacwood, incense and roasted seashells appear in the base. Black liquorice provides one of the composition’s defining signatures, while ripe fruit prevents the perfume from becoming excessively austere. The 30 ml unisex Extrait de Parfum belongs to the fruity, smoky and floral families and is presented as a limited edition.
KNIGHT OF DARKNESS
With KNIGHT OF DARKNESS, Dark Tales turns towards medieval imagery. Created as a limited-edition collaboration with Secret Perfume, the composition begins with neroli, bay rum leaf, rosemary, white birch and basil. Black spruce, light woods, Tolu balsam, guaiacwood, geranium, myrrh and African rum form a dense heart, followed by an extensive base of oud, musk, wool, treemoss, Haitian vetiver, nagarmotha, Buddha wood, dark vanilla, ambergris, tobacco leaf and oakwood. Resinous, animalic, woody and smoky facets give the perfume a ceremonial quality that recalls forests, armour, old wood and fire rather than a conventional interpretation of masculine perfumery. Despite its knightly inspiration, the 30 ml Extrait de Parfum is conceived as unisex.
YAGA
YAGA takes its inspiration into the forest, with a composition that feels greener and fruitier than several of Dark Tales’ more severe creations. Black pepper and black currant provide the opening, pairing spice with the tart character of dark berries. Juniper wood and Siberian pine then establish the forest character at the heart of the perfume, while myrrh and benzoin add resinous warmth underneath. Dark Tales classifies the fragrance as forest, fruity and gourmand, an unusual combination that moves between freshness, sweetness and woodland depth. Presented as a 30 ml unisex Extrait de Parfum, YAGA translates the mythology surrounding its mysterious namesake into something distinctly botanical and atmospheric.
WITCHING HOUR
WITCHING HOUR interprets darkness through warmth rather than coldness. Cocoa, coffee bean and gentle smoke introduce the perfume, followed by tonka bean, nagarmotha and fermented mate. Fir balsam, black spruce, oakmoss, cypress and vintage powder anchor the composition, giving its gourmand opening an increasingly forest-like direction as it develops. Dark chocolate nuances can give way to associations with autumn leaves and, depending on the wearer’s skin, even a brief mushroom-like earthiness before the fragrance settles into woods. Classified as earthy, warm and gourmand, WITCHING HOUR is a 30 ml unisex Extrait de Parfum that demonstrates how unconventional gourmand perfumery can move far beyond familiar ideas of vanilla and confectionery sweetness.
NSFRTÅ
Inspired by the mythology surrounding Nosferatu, NSFRTÅ enters colder and more spectral territory. Black pepper, smoked birch and absinthe establish an austere opening, followed by the deliberately provocative combination of dried blood accord, dark rose and patchouli. Incense, leather, vetiver and ambergris form the base, creating a dry, shadowy finish with earthy and mineral associations. Dark Tales describes its olfactory family as dark, cold, earthy and ethereal-metallic, an apt indication that this is far removed from conventional crowd-pleasing perfumery. The 30 ml unisex Extrait de Parfum captures Franzén’s fascination with transforming an imaginary location or character into something that can be experienced through scent — in this case, the cold stones, smoke and uneasy silence of a forgotten crypt.
Across the collection, Dark Tales maintains a recognisable olfactory identity shaped by atmosphere, narrative and contrast. Woods, resins, incense, smoke, leather, herbs and fruit recur in different forms, often accompanied by earthy, mineral or shadowy accords that give the perfumes depth and character. The fragrances are not designed around a single signature structure; instead, they share a preference for evocative compositions that can feel historical, mysterious, intimate or deliberately unconventional. Some are darker and more austere, while others introduce sweetness, warmth or freshness without losing the house’s distinctive sensibility. Together, they form a collection in which scent functions as both perfume and narrative, leaving space for the wearer to interpret the story personally.