11 friends: The best flavors of the first half of 2018
TEXT: Ksenia Golovanova, author of the telegram channel Nose Republic
At the beginning of the year we talked about fragranceswho are looking forward to the Russian market - there were a lot of loud, interesting and sometimes fatal launches. Many of them settled down perfectly on the shelves of shops and met the expectations with a vengeance: our perfume critic Ksenia Golovanova selected eleven odors, which we will remember the summer of 2018 from the best side.
Aura is the first major launch in the classic Mugler lineup over the years, a project on which a lot has been put. It is all the more surprising, especially in the realities of the modern perfumery market, that the new fragrance does not at all strive to please everyone: in terms of the oddities, the “Aura” is second only to the Muglerian Womanity. This is the smell of a tropical forest covered with malarial fog: snake-like vines are poured with green juice, white flowers are dropped by heavy heads, poisonous berries burst and somewhere in more often the Tiger of Rousseau snoops. Beautiful and scary.
Those who follow the perfume news may have noticed how much the cologne level of the ocean has grown in recent months. Cap Neroli's good neroli colony came out from Nicolaï, unusual, inspired by dried limes from the Iranian market Eau de Citron Noir - from Hermès, and just three - from Chanel in their new collection Les Eaux.
It is difficult to say which of the Waters is better, Paris-Deauville or Paris-Biarritz (the third one, commercial Paris-Venice, is clearly made with an eye to annual sales reports): basilic Deauville rings coolly, like ice in a glass of pomme, landly "Biarritz" hisses like icy champagne and waves. But we will choose Paris-Deauville, more important, in the words of English-language criticism, power scent: it was in Deauville, the bourgeois capital of Normandy, that Chanel opened her first boutique, laying the foundations of a future empire.
"Alberto Morijas on autopilot", - briefly certifies the aroma, which we will not call here, perfume critic Luca Turin in the new guide Perfumes: The Guide 2018, and everything immediately becomes clear. As a perfumer as talented, and so demanded, Moriyas is busy with a great many projects, but not everyone gets a piece of his soul — otherwise there would be little left from the author, as Volan de Mortus with crucifixes. However, all his works are technically perfect and well assembled, and those of them in which lively Moriyasovskiy fire burns are simply wonderful. For example, Rubinia - sandalwood chips, hot milk and bloody oranges in a raging bonfire of oriental spices, a smoke signal to Kenzo's related "Elephant".
That is probably the flavor that will press if not Black Afgano, then at least Narcotic V. - the first and second most popular work in the Nasomatto lineup. Initial impression: everyone likes Nudiflorum - except for those unfortunate people who are too sensitive to isobutylquinoline, a fragrant substance with a dry, bitter skin odor. Alessandro Gualtieri reduces this skin treated with a biting, poisonous green of galbanum with transparent jasmine - an unnerving effect, like from the neighborhood of a belt and tender female priests, but undoubtedly bright.
Such leather fragrance, modern and, moreover, saluting to great predecessors - Bandit, Piguet and Jolie Madame, Balmain - as perfumer Galina Anni very accurately notes, could have made Hermès instead of her own Galop. But did not: missed opportunity.
Sad news: Tom Ford Private Blend is discontinuing the entire collection of Les Extraits Verts, a set of fragrant cards from the 1970s perfumery. The loss is palpable (but now the remnants are selling off at a great discount), but nature does not tolerate emptiness - and therefore Molinard de Molinard, the modern version of the 1979 classic fragrance, stands on the shelves.
As time has shown, the green chyprer turned out to be the most important fragrant genre of the decade, so Molinar landed a great company: by the time it was released, Dior already had Diorella, Cacharel had Anaïs Anaïs, Estée Lauder had Private Collection and so on. Although many are produced to this day, green chypre, according to the words of the same Luke of Turin, does not happen much. Moreover, this one is really good - a lush, dew-dried aldehyde bouquet of green flowers, in which, despite the general chill, some odorous life started up.
The aroma of a difficult fate: in Russia, as well as in some other countries of high morality, the first part of the name (Fucking Fabulous, "fucking") was unprecedentedly covered with a red plate - practically marked with a scarlet letter, like in the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Actually, the whole scandal boils down to naming, because from the perfume point of view, Fucking Fabulous is a calm, purebred wine glass lined with pale silks: iris, sage and something smoky gray than the kashmeran in the perfumery composition.
The other day there passed the news that the Tom Ford brand allegedly patented Shaggable (“sexually attractive”, let's say) as the name of the future fragrance, and the village was again flared. All this hype Ford only on hand - helps sell perfumes under the guise of sex, which in fact bourgeois smells of money.
And again Moriyas, more precisely, as many as four: all the scents of the new collection of Jardins du Paradis ("Paradise Gardens") were collected by a Spanish perfumer. Jasmin Moghol stands alone: the neighbors in the flowerbed are grown in a sultry oriental style, and he seems to have no style at all - this is a realistic, dense jasmine with depraved mud performed by tsiperus (the latter’s essential oil is often part of the udovod chord). Those who love jasmine sterilized, without genital glands, it is better to try something else, for example Jasmin Angelique, Atelier Cologne. And this one growls, bites and marks.
Perfumery is really fascinated by the 1970s: in addition to Molinard de Molinard, Holy_Wood was recently released, Nomenclature - a dedication to the cinema of New Hollywood, Poets of Berlin, Wilhelm Parfumerie - bowie of the "Berlin Trilogy" Bowie, aromatic disco Imitation Woman, Amouage (see below) for a While, inspired by Paris forty years ago. Conventionally, there is a lot of "Parisian" in the composition: lavender, which we always perceive in spirits as something typically French, strong woody and amber spirit of smoked coffee houses and an undoubted relationship with Gerlenovsky Jicky. But the most prominent part of Music for a While is sweet, ripe pineapples, set against lavender and patchouli. The balance is almost mathematical, really - music.
The new perfume pair Amouage recalls New York in the 1970s: the inevitable first-level association of the party at Studio 54, the spectacular, sometimes theatrical fashion of the decade and Andy Warhol's flowing art (pay attention to the Imitation box with a recognizable neon contour, like on posters with Chanel N ° 5.
Art director Christopher Chong wanted the female Imitation to give the impression of something rough and unprocessed ("like Bianchi Jagger's dress in the morning"), and put dirty, balsamic ylang-ylang with sulphurous, feline tones into the center of the composition. absolute currant buds. It turned out to be a very dramatic, non-glossy fragrance, beautiful and bohemian - completely in the spirit of the latest launches of Amouage.
The perfumer Mathieu Nardin succeeds in white flowers: over the past three years he has made excellent orange blossom for Molinard (Fleur d'Oranger), persuasive tuberose for Perris Monte Carlo (Tubereuse Absolue), an inhuman beauty pittosporum for Regime des Fleurs (Falling Trees) and now - jasmine Udaipur.
The latter fully corresponds to the style of a modern nomad who successfully moves Etro sales: long voyages in soft cars equipped with a shower and a bar, and business lounges with fierce air conditioners, from which only quality cashmere can save. In short, this jasmine knows a lot about travel hygiene - fresh, sonorous, ironed and sprinkled with rice powder.
Perfume Sonya Konstan has collected a great variety of fragrances for third-party customers - from Narciso Rodriguez to Les Liquides Imaginaires, and last year she finally launched her own line of Ella K. Dedicated to famous women travelers: pilot Amelia Earhart, Elle Mayar, who passed the Soviet Central Asia , Alexandra David-Neel - the first foreigner who penetrated into Tibetan Lhasa, and Karen Blixen, the author of one of the best books about Africa in the history of Western literature.
The fact that Sonia Constant herself has traveled a long way, quotes from her own creativity, say: smoky, woody balsamic Epupa Mon Amour, for example, slightly reminds her of Fortis for Les Liquides Imaginaires, and the garden greens Poème de Sagano is the best in Allegria for Rouge Bunny Rouge. But here Brumes de Khao-Sok is not like anything at all - weeping willows and water grasses in the light haze of an e-supercar, immortalized by the first "Molecule".
Photo: Ile de Bote, Chanel, Central Department Store (1, 2), Essenza Nobile (1, 2), Beauty Encounter, Tiff Benson, Harrods, Frederic Malle, Escentual