BORNTOSTANDOUT Fugazzi Eau de Parfum

What it smells like

Fugazzi opens with an unsettling brightness: milk and cumin collide with incense, grapefruit and mandarin, creating something simultaneously creamy and spiced, warm and sharp. It's a top note that refuses to settle into comfort. The cumin especially—that earthy, almost savoury warmth—dominates the first moments, anchored by the milky sweetness beneath it. This is not a conventional fruity opening. The citrus here feels peripheral, a whisper rather than a shout.

As the composition develops, suede emerges as the heart's defining character. It's soft, almost powdery, but never innocent—saffron and guaiac wood inject a spiced, woody depth that prevents any drift toward the merely pleasant. Vetiver adds green, earthy undertones. The suede note here has a distinctly skin-like quality, as though the fragrance is settling into your own warmth rather than sitting atop it.

The base is where Fugazzi reveals its true nature. Ambroxan and musk create a sensual, almost animalic foundation—the kind of musky drydown that clings to skin for hours. Vanilla and styrax add a subtle gourmand sweetness, but it's never cloying; the moss grounds everything in something almost earthy, mineral. This is a fragrance that smells better on skin than in the bottle, deepening and personalising as it settles.

Fugazzi is woody and spicy, yes, but it's also creamy, slightly dirty, and deliberately confronting. It's the kind of scent that makes people lean in closer.

Who made it

Fugazzi is the work of Quentin Bisch in collaboration with BORNTOSTANDOUT, the Seoul-based niche house founded in 2022 by Jun Lim. BORNTOSTANDOUT operates under the umbrella of House by Lim, a creative studio known for its uncompromising approach to fragrance design. The house has built its reputation on bold, provocative compositions—fragrances with deliberately confronting names and a sensibility that is unapologetically sensual and skin-focused.

Based in South Korea's creative capital, BORNTOSTANDOUT represents a distinctly contemporary voice in niche perfumery: one that refuses convention and embraces the slightly dirty, the addictive, the deliberately uncomfortable. Fugazzi, with its cumin-forward top and musky, suede-laden heart, exemplifies this philosophy. It's a fragrance designed for those who want to be noticed, not necessarily for the right reasons.

Who it's for

Fugazzi is unisex in the truest sense—not a fragrance that sits neutrally between masculine and feminine, but one that belongs equally to anyone bold enough to wear it. It suits those with an appetite for complexity, for scents that challenge rather than comfort. If you gravitate towards unusual spice notes, towards fragrances with a skin-like quality, towards compositions that smell better on you than they do in the bottle, this is your fragrance.

It's for people who understand that a fragrance's provocative name is part of its integrity, not a marketing gimmick. For those who appreciate the tension between creamy sweetness and earthy spice, between gourmand warmth and animalic musk. Fugazzi rewards close attention and repeated wearing—it's not a fragrance that reveals itself all at once.

This is also a fragrance for collectors of niche perfumery, for those who follow the work of independent houses and appreciate the craft of composition over the noise of mainstream marketing.

When to wear it

Fugazzi works best in cooler months, when its spiced warmth and musky base can develop fully without the distraction of heat. Autumn and winter are its natural seasons. It's an evening fragrance primarily—something you'd reach for when you want to leave an impression, when proximity matters, when you're comfortable with a scent that demands attention.

It suits intimate settings more than crowded ones. Wear it on dates, to dinners, to moments where you want to be remembered. The longevity is excellent—the Extrait Extreme concentration ensures that this fragrance will accompany you through an entire evening and beyond.

Fugazzi is not an office fragrance, nor is it a casual daytime scent. It's deliberately, unapologetically evening wear.

About the house

BORNTOSTANDOUT represents a new generation of niche perfumery—one that emerged from Seoul's thriving creative scene and refuses to apologise for its boldness. Founded in 2022, the house has quickly established itself through fragrances with deliberately provocative names and compositions that prioritise skin chemistry and sensuality over mass appeal.

The house's philosophy is simple: fragrance should be dirty, addictive, confronting. Each composition is housed in a heavy, minimalist flacon—the design as uncompromising as the scent itself. There is no softening here, no attempt to make perfumery more palatable or accessible. Instead, BORNTOSTANDOUT builds fragrances around gourmand and skin-focused themes, creating scents that smell better on the body than anywhere else.

The Extrait Extreme line represents the house's most concentrated expression—a more intense, longer-lasting interpretation of its core sensibility. Fugazzi, offered here at Redolia Perfumery as a full 50ml bottle, exemplifies this commitment to depth, complexity, and uncompromising design.

The collaboration. In 2024 BORNTOSTANDOUT and the Amsterdam house Fugazzi released a pair of companion fragrances. This is Fugazzi by BORNTOSTANDOUT, the BORNTOSTANDOUT release composed by Quentin Bisch. Its sister scent — Fugazzi’s own Born to Stand Out Extrait de Parfum — is also available at Redolia Perfumery.