JIL SANDER OPENS CHAPTER II WITH VANILLE AND MAHOGANY

Jil Sander does not build a fragrance from an ingredient list forty deep. Chapter II of the Olfactory Series 1 line runs on the exact same math as Chapter I. aldehydes, alcohol pulled from upcycled carbon emissions, and water. Two new bottles, Vanille and Mahogany, join a lineup that already prices its 100 milliliter eau de parfum between 230 and 335 dollars. The formula has not gotten more complicated. The house is betting that restraint is the actual luxury.

290 Dollars Buys Three Ingredients, Not Thirty

Jil Sander's Olfactory Series 1 launched January 28, 2025, with six eau de parfums named Leaf, Miel, Black Tea, Earth, Coffea, and Smoke, priced mostly at 290 dollars for 100 milliliters. Coffea ran as high as 335 dollars, Leaf as low as 230 on markdown, but every bottle in the line was built from the same restricted formula.

That formula is aldehydes for the synthetic top note, alcohol distilled from upcycled carbon emissions instead of grain, and water. Nothing else. The brand calls the aldehydes a radical olfactory signature, sparks that amplify whatever natural material sits underneath them rather than covering it up. The glass follows the same discipline. Formafantasma, the Milan and Rotterdam studio founded by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, shaped every bottle as an asymmetrical, organic form, with no two identical. Jil Sander applied that same materials first thinking to the six titanium Oliver Peoples frames it released this year, treating an eyewear collaboration the way it treats a fragrance formula, strip it down and name every part.

Vanilla's Darker, More Profound Facets

Jil Sander Vanille is an ambery leathery eau de parfum built on upcycled cedarwood and CO2 extracted vanilla, accentuated with labdanum sourced from Spain. The brand's own rollout describes it as vanilla's darker, more profound facets revealed, simultaneously angelic, sensual, and mysterious, and the aldehydes are what pull that darker register forward instead of letting the vanilla read as bakery sweet.

CO2 extraction matters here more than marketing copy usually lets on. It pulls volatile aromatic compounds that solvent extraction destroys with heat, which is why a CO2 vanilla absolute smells closer to a cracked pod than to vanillin syrup. Pair that with labdanum, an amber resin note, and cedarwood carrying the structure, and the result reads more like a leather jacket left in a spice cupboard than a dessert. Photographer Lara Giliberto shot the Vanille campaign image; Rosa Lisa Di Natale directed the accompanying film, both credited in the brand's own release.

Mahogany Pulls Cypriol From India, Ginger From CO2

Jil Sander Mahogany fuses upcycled cedarwood with cypriol sourced from India, a rhizome that reads leathery rather than woody once distilled, plus CO2 extracted ginger for a fizzy, spicy top note. Jil Sander describes the result as the supreme energy of a tropical forest, and the aldehydes again keep the composition bright instead of letting the cedarwood and cypriol turn heavy or dusty.

Cypriol is an unusual choice for a mainstream luxury launch. It shows up more often in niche and Middle Eastern perfumery than in a fashion house's second fragrance chapter, and pairing it with CO2 ginger instead of a sweeter spice like cardamom keeps Mahogany closer to a construction material than a gourmand. Lara Giliberto shot this campaign image as well, continuing the same visual language across both new scents.

Simone Bellotti Inherited the Formula, Not the Runway

Chapter I of Olfactory Series 1 launched under Lucie and Luke Meier, Jil Sander's joint creative directors for eight years, who left the house on February 26, 2025, about a month after that debut. Simone Bellotti, previously creative director at Bally and a sixteen year veteran of Gucci, was named Jil Sander's sole creative director on March 10, 2025, and Chapter II arrives under his watch using the same three ingredient formula and the same Formafantasma glass the Meiers signed off on.

Fragrance tends to survive a creative director change more cleanly than a runway line does. Jil Sander proved that once already. Its 1996 collaboration with Puma, the first sneaker built with a luxury house, has outlasted several design regimes, and the newest chapter of that partnership is the K Street sneaker done in Jil Sander's blue nylon. Streetwear has run the same continuity test on fragrance specifically. Brain Dead's leather scent with MALIN plus GOETZ kept its formula intact through a full packaging overhaul, the same bet Jil Sander is making with Vanille and Mahogany while its runway identity is still being rebuilt under Bellotti.

Buy Chapter II If You Already Own Chapter I

Vanille and Mahogany are worth the money mainly if the aldehyde signature already worked on your skin in Chapter I, since Jil Sander has not changed the formula, only the raw materials feeding it. At 290 dollars for most of the line, this is a house charging luxury prices for a genuinely restrained ingredient list, three inputs per bottle, and that restraint is the actual product, not the Formafantasma glass around it.

Twelve formulas in now across two chapters, the real test is whether Bellotti keeps building on the Meiers' three ingredient rule once his own runway aesthetic lands this September, or starts adding to it. Until then, Vanille and Mahogany are a safe buy for anyone who already owns a bottle from the six scent debut, and a curious, not urgent, first try for anyone else.