Fragrances dedicated to memory and preservation of memories in general, - a separate shelf: perfume artists in different ways embody themes that seem to be common to everyone. "Smells of childhood" today have become a separate trend, which is very interesting to follow. We show you the most interesting fragrances collected from all over the world.
En Passant, Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle
RUB 12 650 for 50 ml
En Passant was released in 2010 - one of the first in the Frédéric Malle portfolio. Since then, a lot of perfume lilacs, including good and genuine ones, have blossomed, but in terms of emotional effect, none can compare with the work of Olivia Giacobetti.
The key to understanding the elusive beauty of En Passant is its name, which translates from French as "in passing": Giacobetti said that once, as a child, she walked down the street and smelled the scent of lilacs after the rain, mixed with the smells of a bakery, and this is how she remembered her forever … Other perfumery lilacs are sweet, indole bunches, and between En Passant and a person there is always a distance the size of someone else's memory: this wet lilac is cool and smells subtly from somewhere far away, because of the shroud of rain.
Fleurs et Flammes, Antonio Alessandria
RUB 13,500 for 60 ml
If you need to describe the perfumery style of the Sicilian Antonio Alessandria in one word, it will be “luxurious” - an epithet completely devalued by Russian gloss in the era of oil prosperity. The brand's fragrances are baroque perfumery, emotional, lush, theatrical and prone to excess. Here is Fleurs et Flammes: a childhood memory of the summer festival, which was celebrated in Catania with fireworks, Alessandria turned into a magnificent opera with explosions of black powder and armfuls of mature, yesterday's lilies flying from the balcony to their heads in a motley procession.
Onder de Linde, Baruti
start of sales in Russia in early November
Originally Onder de Linde, or Under the Lindens, of the Dutch indie brand Baruti was called Melkmeisje, the Milkmaid. We are talking about the “Milkmaid” by Jan Vermeer, a Dutch master of household painting - perfumer Spyros Drosopoulos, who grew up in Amsterdam, dedicated the composition to her, accompanied by a short but succinct description on the website: “The fragrance has a very Dutch intrigue”.
Indeed, in its straightforwardness, strength and simplicity, this picture is the perfect embodiment of the Dutch character and national values. The heroes of Vermeer's paintings are representatives of a wealthy merchant society who enjoy the sweetness of a serene existence: their day passes measuredly - without fuss and incidents, and the arrow gets stuck in slowed down time, like an ant in thick linden honey. This is exactly what Onder de Linde is about, a fragrance imbued with the same golden-blue light as Vermeer's Milkmaid - lilac, iris, linden blossom: the clock stopped, pollen hung in the air, a trickle of milk froze silver on the whitewash.
Nutmeg & Ginger, Jo Malone
9400 RUB for 100 ml
"Nutmeg and Ginger" is the first cologne that was released by Joe Malone, the founder and at that time the owner of the brand of the same name. Imagine: it happened back in 1990, one might say, in the dark ages of perfumery - until the new dawn, it still had to stretch out for three years. Many hardcore fans of the brand believe that Nutmeg & Ginger is almost the best thing that Jo Malone has come out, and they are partly right: if we remember what the concept of the brand was from the very beginning - to do all sorts of pleasant, as botanically, natural-sounding things as possible - then "Ginger" is really very good. The reason, perhaps, is that originally this composition existed in the form of a mixture of essential oils - after the procedures, it was given out to clients of the London spa Joe Malone on Walton Street.
Later, when the salon turned into a perfume brand, Nutmeg & Ginger was remade into a full-fledged cologne - but this touching "handicraft" was preserved in it. As for the scent itself, which is an uncomplicated and, moreover, completely charming mixture of lemon, ginger, nutmeg and jasmine, it grew out of Joe's childhood memories: Christmas, everyone who comes home brings gingerbread cookies, Mom taps eggnog with nutmeg.
Dent de Lait, Serge Lutens
12 600 RUB for 100 ml
Several years ago, the Serge Lutens perfumery style changed radically, which fans of its former intricate orientality still cannot forgive the house. The first fragrance of the new wave was L'Eau, as Luthans himself called it, "anti-perfume" - a bubble of silence in the world ocean of perfumery noise. He smelled of soapy foam (like irises and magnolias were taking a bath), followed by L'Eau Froide - icy marble, L'Eau de Paille - autumn rain.
“Milk Tooth” is a new chapter in this story about cleanliness: it smells like almond milk, baby powder, a new eraser and a metal spoon, which the child, after having finished yogurt for a long time, still does not want to let out of his mouth. The smell is both innocent and slightly disturbing - as you know, metal smells like blood, edged weapons and some instruments in the dentist's office.
"The Swan Princess", Brocard
1200 RUB for 50 ml
Brocard continues its triumphant march through perfume blogs: even though the summer is over, they still write about "Scents of Nature" - a weighted line of scents of our summer cottage childhood, the ninth wave is about to rise from the ambitious "Cosmogony" - a new collection, the first two fragrances for which Bertrand Duchaufour made. Until the wave is overwhelmed, pay attention to The Swan Princess, a little quieter - without spectacular presentations in the city center - but a very unusual launch.
Both for the tale of the fairy princess and for Vrubel's painting on the same theme, with which Brokarov's aroma clearly echoes, the concepts of borderline, the process of transformation, the flow of forms are important: a swan emerges from the sea, turning into a woman. The same thing happens with the perfumery "Tsarevna Swan": here there is bitter salt (sea water, tears?), And swan down of light musks, and delicate sweets in a magic sleeve - and everything, like Vrubel's, shimmers with complex pearl shades.
Alaïa Paris, Azzedine Alaïa
RUB 5600 for 30 ml
This elegant, well-cut abstract floral scent smells like a boutique in Marais - expensive paper in Papier Tigre, white peonies in Merci, concrete walls in L'Eclaireur. The latter effect is intentional: designer Azzedine Alaya wanted to "sew" a mineral accord in Alaïa Paris, reminiscent of his Tunisian childhood - on hot days, his mother doused the sun-baked stones in the yard with water to make it easier to breathe. It is interesting to see how perfumer Marie Salamagne translated this memory into the language of a big city: instead of Africa, Alaïa speaks Paris, seen through the glass of a shop window.
Morn to Dusk, Eau d'Italie
RUB 10,200 for 100 ml in Mayfair boutique
The family couple who founded the Eau d'Italie brand - Sebastian Alvarez Murena and Marina Sersale - are aristocrats of modern perfumery, people infinitely far from any hype: for example, to the Pitti Fragranze perfume exhibition, where everyone traditionally exercises in originality, this year they brought a very calm, pure and noble rose - Rosa Greta.
The same serene integrity characterizes the previous editions of Eau d'Italie, and Morn do Dusk - vanilla and lilies of the valley in the hands of the genius perfume Annick Menardo is no exception. "From dawn to dusk" is an Italian child's day, bright and round, like an orange: here is a greenish, citrus dawn, here is a vanilla gelato at noon, here is a warm, salty skin after an evening football.
Boronia, Grandiflora
$ 185 for 100 ml, coming soon on Luskyscent.com
The Australian brand Grandiflora is almost five years old, but it is not yet sold in Russia and is not well known to anyone. But in her homeland, its founder Saskia Hayvekes is a star: the flower shop, after which the brand was named, does not leave the pages of Australian gloss and is listed in all guidebooks to the bohemian Sydney Potts Point district, where it occupies a tiny but fragrant corner in a pair blocks from Elizabeth Bay. Hayvekes is more than a florist - rather a floral "curator", and the art she wards takes on a variety of forms: from colossal installations and photo albums with surreal macro magnolias and jasmine to perfumery. The brand's fragrances are portraits of exotic flora: the collection contains Madagascar jasmine, lunar cereus, two magnolias, and now Boronia is a nondescript local plant, which, however, smells like the Garden of Eden a second before the original sin.
“This is the smell of my childhood - I grew up in the suburbs of Sydney, where boronia bloomed everywhere,” says Saskia Hayvekes. - As children, we boiled water from a stream in a kettle, ran barefoot, slipping on mosses, and fooled around in the middle of the fragrant thickets of harrow. We were very happy. " In the performance of Bertrand Duchaufour, Boronia really smells of things that convey a sense of contentment with life - true, for an adult: there is tobacco, and black tea, and a strong cognac accord, and honey cookies half an hour before bedtime.
Do Son, Diptyque
RUB 5400 for 50 ml
Do-Son is a resort town in the north of Vietnam, where the family of Yves Kulan, one of the founders of Diptyque, spent their summers. His mother, who did not tolerate the sticky heat of the rainy season, spent the day relaxing in the shaded living room on the second floor. Kulan recalls that sometimes a faint breeze rose and threw the smells of the street into the windows: river greenery, tropical flowers, food ice from the stalls of a cold coffee merchant. Based on these memories, Do Son is compiled: the hope of freshness on a blazing Vietnamese afternoon, sleepy flowers in clear water. Of all modern tuberoses, this one is the most airy and weightless: you wear it like Catherine Deneuve - a white muslin shirt in the movie "Indochina".
Corsica Furiosa, Parfum d'Empire
RUB 11,000 for 100 ml in Perfume boutiques
Memories of childhood are not always covered with a gentle purple haze - some, on the contrary, are caustic and harsh, like a sedge cut by a summer stream. Take, for example, Corsica Furiosa, "Furious Corsica" - the most ecstatic of the green fragrances on the shelves today. Everything that the Corsican garrigue is rich in (mastic pistachio, wild mint, moss, rosemary), perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato ruthlessly burns with a sunbeam collected in a magnifying glass. Here, knee-deep in thorny, poisonous green growth, he spent his childhood, and this “here” he gives you - in the form of evil emerald smoke.