WienerBlut
Founded 2008 or 2009 (sources disagree)
Independent Vienna perfume house founded by Alexander Lauber, named after the 1873 phrase and Strauss waltz "Wiener Blut". It reworks Vienna's old handkerchief perfumes in small batches, bottled by hand, and each scent tells a Viennese story, from a Court Opera ball to Sigmund Freud.
Hours and prices change, so check with the shop before you go.
Vienna, one story per bottle
WienerBlut takes its name from a phrase that caught on in 1873, the year Vienna hosted the World's Fair: Wiener Blut, Viennese blood, the city's mix of cultures and its love of pleasure. Johann Strauss II wrote a waltz of the same name that year.
The house began in Paris, where its first perfume was sold at the concept store Colette. Back in Vienna it reworks the city's old Taschentuch-Parfums, scents made for handkerchiefs, with absolutes, aged resins and rare woods. Each batch is blended small, left to mature and bottled by hand.
It has no shop of its own. To smell the range in Vienna, go to one of its stockists, such as Duft und Kultur on Tuchlauben or the glassware house Lobmeyr on Kärntner Straße. A 100 ml bottle costs €210.
- Ballroom BohèmeA Court Opera soirée on 12 December 1877, when the guests pushed the chairs aside to waltz despite an imperial ban.
- Sale MarinoThe old Austrian riviera on the Quarnero coast, where the bora wind blows salt mist over the laurels.
- VolkamariaA forgotten flower rediscovered: soft and milky, with an outlandish name.
- Freudian WoodA milky, woody scent of skin, after Sigmund Freud's reading of wood as a symbol of desire.
- UnheimlichFreud's uncanny, the familiar and the strange at once: dark and clean, innocent and dirty.
Where to buy
- Duft und Kultur, Tuchlauben 17, 1010 Vienna
- Duft und Kultur Bazar, Rotensterngasse 28, 1020 Vienna
- Lobmeyr, Kärntner Straße 26, 1010 Vienna (Mon to Sat 10:00 to 18:00)
- Saint Charles Cosmothecary, Gumpendorfer Straße 33, 1060 Vienna
- Online at wienerblut.at (free EU shipping over €100)