Creed Queen of Silk: the most sensual perfume of 2024?

After being the first to correctly call Creed’s 2023 perfume releases (Absolu Aventus and Carmina), we continue to monitor the plans of this fragrance house for 2024.

It seems that after the years of beauty sleep under BlackRock’s management, Creed’s new owners at Kering are increasing the pace of new launches. So far, we’ve seen two new fragrances (feminine Carmina and masculine Absolu Aventus) introduced in fall 2023. The next one in line will be Queen of Silk, a scent for women to be launched in spring 2024.

Creed’s Pricing Greed

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room first: Queen of Silk price. The perfume is coming to stores in spring, and can already be pre-ordered in some major department stores in the USA for a staggering $445 (seriously, Creed?).

Before I go into notes and accords, let’s talk about Creed’s US pricing. I already own a bottle of this fragrance and I like it, but $445 is insane.

If Carmina is any indication, Queen of Silk will be sold for approx. €250 in the EU. And that’s fair – €250 (about $270 at current exchange rate) feels appropriate for this luxury scent from a brand with Creed’s solid reputation. But I’d never pay over $400 for it, it’s simply not worth it. There are hundreds of other truly niche perfumes with exceptional artistry and precious ingredients that are way more special and valuable with more reasonable price tags.

Kudos to Creed for creating a brand name that is strong enough to support charging American customers double. That’s capitalism at work – if people want something so badly they are willing to splurge on it – use it to your advantage.

From a customer standpoint, however, it is a total ripoff. There is nothing about Creed’s feminine scents that would justify $445. If you would like to spend this kind of money on a perfume, check out Steve Martin, Fuegia 1833, Rubeus Milano, Prestige Collection from Nishane, or Oman Luxury. With any of these brands you’ll get true value compared to the big corporation vibes Creed is bottling as heritage. End of rant, back to review.

The name: a silky confusion

The name Queen of Silk is very much in line with Creed’s tailoring heritage (before finding worldwide success with fragrances, Creed were a family of bespoke tailors).

Silk is a perfect reference point for the brand – it invokes very tactile memories of a luxurious and precious fabric that flows and caresses the skin like the wafts of a beautiful perfume, calls to mind magnificent feminine gowns, and connects the scent with the history of the Creed family business.

However, in this perfume silk is not meant as a fabric, but rather as a trade object with a fascinating and long history rooted in the East and the ancient trade routes that came to be known as The Silk Roads. So here, it evokes not the flow-y lightness, but rather the terrain, and the opulence of spices and precious woods that were transported along with silk by the merchant caravans of the past.

And that’s why I feel the silk reference to be somewhat misleading – it makes most people think of the shiny fabric and not of ancient history.

The addition of “Queen” both underscores the noble origins of the fragrance and conveys the regal aura the scent promises to bestow on its wearer.

As far a perfume names go, Queen of Silk sounds gets 7/10 from me. It sounds graceful, alluring, and luxurious, perfectly matches Creed’s brand identity, but creates false expectations about the nature of the scent itself.

Queen of Silk is housed in a 75 ml bottle of transparent violet glass. A 30 ml version will also be available once the fragrance launches.

Creed Queen of Silk notes: what does it smell like?

To my nose, it’s a fruity-floral chypre. And if I were naming it, I’d call it not Queen of Silk, but Queen of Saffron Leather.

The composition is complex and has several layers interacting with each other. In the beginning, there is a breeze of fruity freshness. Something clear and even slightly tropical like passion fruit that is almost instantly joined by the slightly metallic and characteristically scratchy character of saffron.

Saffron guides the nose through the whole fragrance experience and connects the distinct parts of the formula into one consistent whole. This way, the fruity freshness is soon succeeded by the floral heart, with tuberose as the main note.

The tuberose in Queen of Silk is not an aggressive and suffocating sweet monster we know from many tuberose-heavy perfumes. Here it is devoid of sugar, leaning towards green and slightly buttery. It doesn’t stick out and doesn’t make and attempts of taking over the composition.

The real stars of Queen of Silk are in the base, though. It’s the dense dark woods (possibly even oud or some kind of oud substitute) and a roughed up suede accord in combination with saffron that make the perfume special and give it character.

Creed’s newest creation feels very sensual, even femme fatale kind of sexy. It makes me think of a mature adult person who knows what they are doing and has mastered the art of seduction through experience.

Queen of Silk is a lot of things, but it doesn’t feel youthful – it doesn’t have the lightness needed to communicate the innocence of a young heart. With all the oud, wood, leather, saffron and tuberose it radiates sophistication and wisdom.

In fact, Queen of Silk smells like what I expected from Carmina, when I first read its description before smelling it last year. I hoped for something dark and sensual. Instead, Carmina turned out to be a rather boring scent of rose-flavored cough syrup. Comparing the two, Queen of Silk wins by a mile.

Despite the implied femininity of the name (the word Queen is a strong anchor), this fragrance doesn’t smell gender-specific. It has all the elements to be worn and loved by any gender – the fruity start, the floral heart, and the exceptional multidimensional woody-leather base with saffron.

The only thing you need to rock Queen of Silk is an attitude. It won’t work if you are looking for a cocooning scent to hide in, because it has a lot of energy and drive. A real power scent for people who are ready to own the room and be the admired center of attention.

This eau de parfum has good projection and is felt in 2-step radius. The longevity is also more than adequate, with 6–8 hours before it settles down into a close to skin scent.

Overall, I think this time, Creed has created a solid and very high-quality perfume that matches the brand’s DNA and will find fans among the connoisseurs. It’s too complex and not attention-grabbing enough to become a TikTok phenomenon (although time will tell), but is something that will definitely make lovers of classy perfumes over 30 happy.

What’s your opinion on this fragrance? Do you like it?

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