Italy, Sweden, Hong Kong: What different countries smell like - perfumers tell
The same things in different parts of the world. Not only are they called, but they also smell differently: some kind of "the smell of the earth after the rain" for a Londoner and a native of Bangkok would not mean exactly the same thing. At our request, Ksenia Golovanova, a perfume critic, spoke with professionals of the aromatic sciences, not about work, but about what the places where they were born smelled like - and picked up perfumes and eau de toilette that fit the descriptions.
Text: Ksenia Golovanova, author of the telegram channel Nose Republic
England
Nick Steward
the creator of Gallivant
I am from London, my roots go to its eastern part, the East End - you probably know that it is there that the historical core of the city is located. For me, England smells of Victorian mansions: moisture, rained earth, wet brick. And a little - with dust, because these old houses are filled with equally old books.
London
Gallivant
Roses, an old leather jacket and lawn that squats the day before yesterday's rain.
£65 for 30 ml
Devil's nightcap
Lush
Druidian potion of sage and oak moss - brings prophetic dreams.
3200 rub. for 30 ml in stores Lush
Celtic rose
Alexander McQueen
Green, thorny, pepper rose from the wreath of the Celtic ruler Budikka.
12 710 rub. for 75 ml
Italy
Francesca Bianchi
Perfumes and Creator Francesca Bianchi Perfumes
I was born and raised near Florence, in rural Tuscany, and now I am an expat in Amsterdam. For this reason, my memories, including the olfactory, are somewhat embellished: all the emigrants keep in their hearts the perfect image of their country. The first thing that comes to mind when I remember my native places is the sweet, intoxicating smell of chamomile fields not far from the house, we made tea from its flowers. As a child, I often went with my grandmother for wild herbs for cooking, and the main trophy was fragrant fennel: they ran the rabbit, which in the Tuscan dialect sounded like drogare la carne, that is, literally “stuffed meat with drugs” - that’s even more fun, I think. The smell of Santo wines was also completely narcotic (Tuscan dessert wine made from dried grapes. - Note ed.), which the padre used to treat even four-year-olds during the morning mass: the children were given soaked cantucci macaroons in it. I still remember how my knees trembled after a couple of such cookies.
Under my skin
Francesca Bianchi Perfumes
Leather, powder, old wood and crumbling flowers - the smell of an old Florentine palazzo.
€98 for 30 ml
M4 A Room with a View
CB I Hate Perfume
A “room with a view” overlooks the Tuscan hills — a black, fat land with violets, pale fennel, and wild grapes.
$25 for 2 ml
Michelangelo
Onyrico
“Che fico,” say the Italians, when something seems to them to be definitely cool. Because figs, that is, figo, never disappoint, especially when it is good. This one is excellent: resilient and eager, like gluteus maximus in Michelangelo's male models.
16 650 rub. per 100 ml in stores Articoli
Germany
Nicholas Gleber
art director Friendly Fur Berlin
Berlin smells something dry and dusty — old buildings with wooden floors and heavy velvet curtains. This aroma is mixed with the smell of plastic, which is exhibited in modern art galleries, club smoke and night sweat from Berghain, the fragrance of clean water and flowering trees in parks along the river Spree, and smog and gasoline over hot summer asphalt. Rooftop gardens also contribute: I grow buddleya and fragrant gardenias in my own. The mixture of Berlin smells seems to be unsophisticated, erratic, but take one thing out of it - and the whole structure will fill up on its side.
Goetze gegenwart
Verdúu
German designer Sissy Goetze makes beautiful Berlin minimalism in gray and beige tones; Gegenwart perfume has the same palette - smoky violet behind a veil of rain.
4350 rub. for 15 ml
Leder 6
J.F. Schwarzlose
A dedication to the Berlin fetish culture - the smell of coarse leather, incense and the smoke of vanilla cigarettes.
12 900 RUB. FOR 50 ML
Unter den linden
April aromatics
Unter den Linden, as the name implies, smells of lime blossom - and also magnolias, mimosa and flower honey.
€142,02 for 30 ml
Finland
Janne Rainer Vuorenmaa
founder of Visiteur
Once we had a wooden blockhouse in the Finnish wilderness - it stood on the shore of a small black lake. In this house, our family spent most of the northern summer with its cool days and bright, endless nights. I remember how my father and I ran out of the house naked, rushed over the wet grass and jumped straight into the cold, dark water. For a few moments, the world was becoming silent and impenetrable, but when I emerged to the surface, the subtle smells of algae and wet pebbles seemed sharper. Then we went to the sauna, melted with resinous birch firewood, and the birch broom, touching the hot stones, filled the steam room with a deep green aroma. We repeated this procedure - a cold lake, a hot sauna - to exhaustion, and then, late in the evening, we rested on the open terrace. This is what Finland smells for me - the pure warmth of our skin and the green freshness of birch leaves.
Thousand lakes
Visiteur
The Thousand Lakes, Finland’s famous nickname, is dedicated to the aromas of a Finnish sauna: heated resinous wood, scalded brooms, the cold depth of a pond behind trees.
price will be announced later
Déclaration
Cartier
The smell of a lively, warm person who ran headlong through the forest, crushing grass and trampling moss towards the water.
5750 rub. for 50 ml
A midsummer dream
Roja dove
Mossy forest, pine resin, pale flowers in the emerald twilight - a dream of northern summer.
£35 for 7.5 ml
Sweden
Johanna Venables
perfume and creator NOT Perfumes
If people ask me what Sweden smells like, I answer: coffee. This smell overtakes you already at the entrance to the airport, and then - when you cross the threshold of a Swedish home or office. But for me personally, Sweden is first of all the smells of nature, their constant updating in accordance with the change of seasons. I was lucky, I spent my childhood in the wild wilderness, which you may know from the drawings of Jon Bauer. My first fragrant love was the yarrow, the smell of its leaves crumpled in my hands — then I was two, maybe three years old. Another smell that I associate with Sweden is juniper (the Swedes make furniture and knives made of juniper wood with butter on bread. - Note ed.); its aroma, rich and resinous, shimmers in dark, deep shades. Birch buds in spring, blooming chubushnik in the garden of our summer house, my father's roll-ups - all this is Sweden.
Orm
NOT Perfumes
Dedication to the Vikings - the smell of pine, birch, wild mint and wet, salted with northern sea wood.
€138 for 15 ml
Suède de suède
Mona di orio
“Swedish suede” smells like a vintage boutique in Stockholm Södermalm: the backside of a leather jacket, soft felt, old flower cologne.
17 500 rub. for 75 ml
Ginestra
Santa maria novella
The smell of the golden Swedish south is a honey, dusty, slightly acacia gorse.
9920 rub. for 100 ml
Lithuania
Ruta Deguitite-Humphreys
creator of Art de Parfum
One of the first pictures that appear in my head when I think about Lithuania is the bright, spacious Baltic coast. Especially the Curonian Spit - a ribbon of white sand, folded by the wind and the sea in an intricate dune pattern. This is a land with a fragile ecology, a unique plant world, cute summer houses, small cafes and fishing boats. When I walk barefoot in the sand along the water, I feel calm and well: the air is clean and filled with salt and special bitterness, which, I think, determine the smell of the sea. Another place that occupies an important cell in my olfactory "database" is the baroque church of Saints Peter and Paul in Vilnius: I remember how the candle light reflected in the varnish of my polished shoes when I stood in service with my grandmother, shrouded in a cloud of her Arpège . Elegant French perfumes, mixed with the solemn aroma of incense and cold marble floors, - this smell-charm is always fresh in my memory.
Sea foam
Art de parfum
Clear water, iodine spirit of a sea urchin, coolness of a damp beach towel - a delicate aroma of the Baltic seaside.
11 900 rub. for 50 ml
La Liturgie des Heures
Jovoy paris
Incense, myrrh, candle wax and cypress beads - the evening church.
7900 rub. for 50 ml
Lann-aël
Lostmarc'h
Buckwheat flour, apples, milk and vanilla are the warm spirit of lace pancakes in countless cafes in Old Vilnius.
$65 for 100 ml
Hong Kong
Victor Wong
creator of Zoologist Perfumes
Show me a picture of a Hong Kong street - and I will immediately tell you what it smells like in life. If there is a 7-Eleven supermarket in the photo, the mint scent of wet wipes immediately comes to mind - this is perhaps the most popular product, we all use it here, because Hong Kong is very hot. If instead of a shop there is a small restaurant that the local family keeps, I imagine the smell of noodles from canned ham drowned in sodium monosodium glutamate broth and Darjeeling with classic Carnation condensed milk creep out of the door to the street. Old Chinese pharmacy? It smells caustic and salty-bitter - sun-dried marine life, like scallops and abalone (edible mollusks, which are often called "sea ears". - Note ed.), herbal remedies, tree bark.
Before Hong Kong was flooded with international brands and shopping centers that look the same everywhere, local merchants loved to stick together: the city had "craft" streets with only goldfish, parrots, sneakers and electronics, and each smelled differently. I myself was hanging out in stores where computers and pirated cartridges for Nintendo were sold - I remember that motherboards exuded a strange flavor that, as I later learned, resembles the smell of vetiver. Now whenever I wear a vetiver scent, I feel like a transformer.
Play green
Comme des garçons
Mint chewing gum, menthol napkins, soda and lime - a set for survival in the tropical stuffiness.
9100 rub. for 100 ml
Esprit du Tigre
Heeley
Mint, cassia, ginger and cloves - tiger balm as a remedy for all ailments, including bad mood.
10 980 rub. for 100 ml
Y06-S
Blackbird
Zhzhёny plastic, milk and banana - keyboard, filled with fruit neck.
$96 for 30 ml
Thailand
Pissara Umavidzhani
perfume and creator of Parfums Dusita
I grew up in Bangkok, in a house with a beautiful garden, and my first fragrant memory is the smell of wet leaves after a tropical downpour, dew on the grass at half past five in the morning. All the major discoveries of childhood are connected with the smells of our house: ylang-ylang flowers outside the window, fresh mangoes, freshly cooked jasmine rice and old-fashioned clay roaster of the Tao with coal, on which all Thais used to cook.
La douceur de siam
Parfums dusita
"Siamese tenderness" smells of tropical flowers: champaka, ylang-ylang and frangipani.
15 050 rub. for 50 ml
Chaopraya sunrise
Pryn parfum
Morning market on the great Thai river: rolling from the boats into the hands of mandarins, pineapples and the best mangoes in the world.
5500 baht for 50 ml
Fils de dieu du riz et des agrumes
Etat Libre d'Orange
Sticky rice, coconut milk and pandan leaf are all you need for classic stick-rice.
€135 for 100 ml
Japan
Tomoo Inaba
journalist and perfumer
Japanese culture, including fragrant, is very special - it is based on the dream of harmony. And to preserve harmony means, first of all, not to interfere with and not violate the existing order of things. For example, strong smells: the Japanese prefer to use delicate, barely noticeable perfumes or avoid them altogether. It is considered good form to smell nothing at all, so deodorants are sold here at every step.
The “classic” Japanese smells that any tourist is likely to encounter are the fresh, slightly hay smell of a tatami mat, the aromas of yuzu citrus, cherry and plum blossom, wasabi, siso, osmanthus, fragrant laurel, sugi laurel, cypress hinoki and hiba tuevika , tea gemmatyya, incense, onsenov. A more exotic, but equally recognizable spirit for the Japanese is the sweet oriental aroma of benzuke wax (it is obtained from the fruit of the tree sumac. - Note ed.), which sumo wrestlers smear their hair, it reminds me very much Labdanum 18, Le Labo. Japanese calligraphy ink smells like patchoulias, udon noodles like iris root, and for the smell of matsutake mushrooms, spicy and earthy, and very umami, perfumery even has its own special name - spirit of mushrooms. Japanese cuisine owes its special smells to many specific broths: we make them from kombu seaweed, miso paste, tuna chips, small sardines and shiitake mushrooms. But the brightest Japanese smell for me personally is the scent of air after a typhoon, aquatic in half with broken greens.
Nightingale
Zoologist Perfumes
Pink chypre about the Japanese spring: Ume plum blossoms, the nightingale chanami-dori chants, women wear purple kimonos.
$145 for 60 ml
Labdanum 18
Le labo
The amber-musky scent of oriental powder - must lie in a carved chest with tortoise crests and a sibari silk rope.
12 550 rub. for 50 ml
Un Matin d'Orage
Goutal paris
Wet magnolias, ruffled osmanthus bushes, mossy dampness - a Japanese garden after the rain.
€75 for 30 ml
Bangladesh
Sultan Pasha
created by Sultan Pasha Attars
My parents and I lived in Dhaka - this is the capital of Bangladesh, and our summer home was in Habigange, in the east of the country. I remember a lot of country smells: tea plantations and jungles on the way to the village, dew on the petals of white roses in the garden, hay in a large barn, malt - it was added to feed for cows, ripe mangoes and guava in the crowns of trees full of poisonous caterpillars. In the morning, when my late grandmother cooked breakfast for us, it smelled of a wood-burning stove, in the evening — stink bugs, mosquito spray and incense from incense and myrrh, which our Hindu neighbors always burned at sunset. And after the juma-namaz (Friday prayer. - Note ed.) around the mosque it smelled of roses: the merchants of the Attara vied with each other to offer us their fragrant goods, and sometimes my father would buy me the coveted bubble.
Al hareem
Sultan Pasha Attars
Rose, beats, butter and roses again - and all in the concentration of attar.
£88 for 1 ml
Kenzo jungle homme
Kenzo
The Bengal tiger, if he went to work, would have worn this “Jungle” - the ginger-cardamom spirit of the jungle, in which big cats are snooping around.
6445 rub. for 100 ml
Mohur
Neela Vermeire Creations
That is the smell of dessert rasmalay - cottage cheese balls soaked in saffron, rose water and almond essence.
19 900 rub. for 60 ml
Australia
Saskia Hayvekes
founder Grandiflora
One of the most important memories of my Australian childhood is the scent of boronia, which bloomed around our house near Sydney. Its complex smell, mixed with the spirit of turpentine, wood, sandstone and eucalyptus, was a constant of this world. I remember how dry eucalyptus leaves crunched in the mossy clay under my feet when I went to bathe in the river after school, cutting off the branches of the lemon myrtle and rubbing the leaves in my hands along the way — its citrus scent was fresh and intoxicating. Another plant whose fragrance touches me very much is Kunzeya: when I visit my sister in Tasmania, I always collect her fragrant flowers and place them in the house. One of our companies for the production of essential oils, Essential Oils of Tasmania, gave me a bottle of Kuncea oil, and now I take it with me on a trip - it smells clean, fresh and lightly pharmaceutical, with a touch of spice. This is the scent of our stern southwest.
Boronia
Grandiflora
If in nature boronia smells just like that - tea, tobacco, suede, prune and immortelle - Australia should be considered the most fragrant country in the world.
$145 for 50 ml
Every storm a serenade
Imaginary Authors
Needles, eucalyptus, ozone and salty spray - a storm in the roaring forties.
$38 for 14 ml
Bois d'ascese
Naomi Goodsir
The smell of fire in the Australian bush - endless expanses, yellow rocks, smoky wood, sun dried.
12 900 rub. for 50 ml
Photo: Gallivant Perfume, Lush, Harrods, Essenza Nobile, Cooper Hewitt, perfume history, 10 Corso Como, Cosmotheca (1, 2, 3, 4), April Aromatics, Fragrantica, Nordstrom, rojaparfums, NOT-Perfumes, BeeFlower, Amazon, fifi. ru, Rive Gauche, Storm, blackbird, Indigo Perfumery, pryn parfum, HBB24, Zoologist, The Whale & The Rose, Goutal Paris, Sultan Pasha Attars, Basenotes, Fragrantica (1, 2, 3), Libertine Parfumerie