WienerBlut – Fin-de-siècle Vienna in a bottle
Alexander Lauber founded WienerBlut in Vienna after immersing himself in historical perfume formulas from 2008 onwards. The name refers to Johann Strauss's waltz “Wiener Blut”, written for the Vienna World's Fair of 1873, and every composition tells of a moment from Vienna's Belle Époque. At SNUD in Vienna's Josefstadt you can smell and test the fragrances and take a sample home with you.
What makes WienerBlut special to us?
We love the bond with the city of Vienna that you can feel in every single bottle – whether in the ballroom of Ballroom Bohème, the orangery of Hesperia or the salons that inspired Sigmund Freud in Unheimlich. Each scent feels like a small piece of Viennese cultural history, brought back to life by WienerBlut with great patience and even more love for detail. And we're especially happy to have a Viennese brand in our shop.
Who are WienerBlut fragrances for?
For anyone who loves fragrances with a history and compositions that unfold slowly on the skin. If you like fresh and citrus, start with Hesperia, Volkamaria or Sale Marino. If you're after green and aromatic, try Klubwasser or Nord du Nord. If you love wood and spice, go for Freudian Wood, Therion or Ex Voto, and if you like it dark and leathery, Unheimlich or Palais Nizam. For a night at the ball there's Ballroom Bohème.
Scent as a cultural artefact
For WienerBlut, fragrance isn't a fashion product but a cultural artefact: every composition tells of a moment from Vienna's Belle Époque, from ballrooms and imperial orangeries to the salons where psychoanalysis was born. WienerBlut works in small batches with a high share of natural raw materials, building complex, unisex compositions that unfold slowly on the skin. Perfumers such as Mark Buxton (Ex Voto), Valerie Garnuch-Mentzel (Hesperia) and Margaux Le Paih-Guérin (Ballroom Bohème) have contributed.
The collection at SNUD also includes Elysion, woody, amber and citrus, and Therion, spicy, woody and powdery.
Glass and Bakelite
The bottles follow the same principle: traditional glassmaking and caps made of Bakelite, a material with roots in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Small irregularities at the edges and in the details are deliberately kept – a sign of true craftsmanship rather than industrial smoothness.
At SNUD, every fragrance comes as Eau de Parfum, from citrus and floral like Hesperia to leathery and smoky like Unheimlich.
