Clive Christian Returns to Lagos with “Fragrance Through Taste”

On Saturday, April 11, 2026, Clive Christian gathered Lagos’s creative and cultural elite at ONA Lagos for Fragrance Through Taste, an immersive private dinner conceived as a full sensory translation of perfumery into the language of flavour. The evening marked the West African introduction of Strange Heavens Out of the Blue, the latest addition to the house’s Addictive Arts collection.

Rather than a traditional launch, guests were guided through an evening that dismantled the boundary between scent and sensation. The concept was deliberate and intimate: to make a fragrance felt, not merely worn. Each moment of the night, from the first cocktail to the final linger of smoke and cocoa on the palate,  was composed as a single continuous arc, the same arc of indulgence, duality and refined sensuality that defines the fragrance itself.

At the heart of this translation was Chef Obehi, founder of ONA Lagos, who curated a five-course dinner inspired by the distinct olfactory layers of Strange Heavens Out of the Blue. Coffee, jasmine, cocoa, aniseed, and smoke – each note became a course, each course a chapter in an evening that moved as a fragrance moves: from bright and restless at its opening, through luminous warmth, and into something deeper, darker, and impossible to let go of.

For Chef Obehi, the commission required the same instinct that governs perfumery: an ability to feel combinations before they exist and to trust that certain pairings will arrive at emotion rather than simply at flavour. The dinner she built for Fragrance Through Taste was designed not merely as food but as a sequence of feelings, the same euphoric crescendo that Strange Heavens Out of the Blue promises in its structure: tension becoming surrender and restraint giving way to indulgence. In this way, the meal and the scent were not separate experiences but a single one, arriving through two different senses, converging on the same emotional truth.

The result was an evening that lingered: on the palate, in the memory, and on the skin.

Africa represents one of the most exciting frontiers for luxury today, and Lagos is at the heart of that conversation. Clive Christian has always been a house defined by its commitment to the extraordinary, bringing that to Nigeria and to a market as culturally rich and discerning as Lagos is a moment we have been building towards. We look forward to deepening our relationship with this community.

Tate Torongo, Regional Director, UK, Northern Europe & Africa, Clive Christian

We chose Lagos. This is a city that has always had its own gravitational pull, a creative capital shaping music, fashion and culture on a global scale long before the rest of the world caught up. For a brand like Clive Christian, that is exactly the kind of place we want to be rooted in.

Tanya Rupani, Brand Strategist, Clive Christian

The evening was attended by an intimate and curated gathering of Lagos’s cultural vanguard. Brand strategist Tanya Rupani addressed guests on the vision behind the Addictive Arts collection and the significance of Lagos as the setting for this introduction.

Guests included the regional director for the UK, Northern Europe & Africa at Clive Christian, Tate Torongo; gallerist Ugoma Ebilah; fashion designer Tia Adeola; artists Dare Art Alade and Deola Art Alade; musician Bloody Civilian; singer-songwriter Ric Hassani; Group Head, Brand Transformation & Digital Marketing at Bank of Industry, Jide Sipe; rapper Ladipoe; musician WURLD; founder of Nahous, Richard Vedelago; and Bizzle Osikoya, among others.

The dinner arrives at a defining moment for luxury on the continent. Africa’s luxury market is valued at USD 7.84 billion in 2025 and is forecast to grow at 4.26% annually through 2030, with Nigeria consistently ranked among the continent’s top five wealth markets. The number of African millionaires is projected to grow by 65% by 2033. Globally, the luxury fragrance market is valued at USD 24.3 billion and projected to nearly double to USD 45.8 billion by 2033. Clive Christian’s return to Lagos and the deliberate intimacy of Fragrance Through Taste position the house not merely as a participant in this moment but as one of its architects on African soil.

ABOUT STRANGE HEAVENS OUT OF THE BLUE

Inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Strange Heavens Out of the Blue explores the tension between ecstasy and restraint, beauty and unease. The fragrance opens with Coffee and Aniseed before unfolding into a luminous heart of Jasmine and Orange Flower, settling into a lingering base of Cocoa Absolute, Vanilla Caramel and Smoke. Each bottle bears the hand-signed artwork of artist Domingo Zapata, making it at once a fragrance and a collector’s object.

ABOUT CLIVE CHRISTIAN

Clive Christian is a British luxury perfume house founded in 1999 upon the acquisition of the Crown Perfumery Company, established in 1872 by royal warrant of Queen Victoria. The house holds the only crown in perfumery sanctioned by a British monarch, and every fragrance is composed at a minimum of 20% perfume concentration, classifying each as a true perfume by international standards. In 2025, Clive Christian was honoured with the Hollywood Beauty Award for Best Fragrance Brand. The Addictive Arts collection represents the house’s ongoing dialogue between olfactory mastery and contemporary visual culture.