Scents of Place

The Mexican fragrance house Xinú began with one aim: to craft scents that evoke the natural exuberance of the Americas. Creative director Verónica Peña and architect Ignacio Cadena’s travels through the two continents led to an affinity for botany, as they took note of how luxury perfumers employed ingredients that thrive from Canada to Chile, like agave, pirul, mesquite wood, and marigold. In 2016, the husband-and-wife duo joined forces with designer Héctor Esrawe to found Xinú — which means “nose” in the native Mexican language of Otomi. Together, they enlisted Rodrigo Flores-Roux, a renowned scent artisan, to work from a palette that extends north and south, with their home country of Mexico at the center. The result of their efforts is an assortment of Mexico City’s most sought-after fragrances.

Xinú’s five signature perfumes range from bright to profoundly moody, embodying the diversity of the New World. Aguamadera, made with agave, green lime, and guaiacum and cedar woods, is crisp and piquant, the olfactory equivalent of a pick-me-up. Its slightly refined older sister, Monstera, unites the fruits and leaves of its namesake plant with sacred earflower, white datura, and bullhorn orchid. Copála retains a hint of vivacity with notes of pink pepper, but adds a layer of warm mystique through copal resin and Mexican vanilla beans. Ummo, Xinú’s deepest scent, is a play on the Spanish word for “smoke,” and is crafted with tobacco, storax, tonka bean, and juniper, evoking a slow pour of warm honey. The most opulent offering is OroNardo, a mixture of five flowers including marigold — known locally as cempasúchil — the bloom that coats Mexico’s streets during Day of the Dead festivities in November.