What to buy in winter: The best flavors of the year
Text: Ksenia Golovanova, author of the telegram channel Nose Republic
The year 2017 was rich in olfactory adventures: a large-scale revival of the Comme des Garçons, pleasant excitement in the Russian perfumery market, as well as launches of scents claiming a place in history. At our request, perfume critic Ksenia Golovanova talks about smells that should not be overlooked.
The best flavors of the year
Acqua di Colonia Lana, Santa Maria Novella
11 200 rub. for 100 ml
The Florentine brand Santa Maria Novella produces new colognes with approximately the same frequency with which high-rise buildings are being erected in the historic center of Florence - that is, about once every hundred years. You can afford it if the year of foundation is indicated on your coat of arms - 1612th: if you please respect not for the rate of fire, but for age and quality.
You can generally do whatever you want: for example, throat lozenges costing fifty euros or an unexpected collaboration with the Ballantyne brand, which for nearly a hundred years has been putting aristocrats in expensive cashmere. Do not rush to suspect Florentines in snobbery. Smell first Lana, or "Wool": like this - autumn roses and mowed lawns - it smells in the Boboli gardens, where the sun shines equally to everyone, regardless of the composition of the pants.
Andy Warhol's Comme des Garçons Parfums
6900 rub. for 100 ml
This year, the Japanese brand did not sit still: something quietly withdrew from production - for example, the Dover Street Market citrus colony, on the contrary, returned (see below in the “New Collections” section), and also released two new fragrance: Concrete, which we have already mentioned, and Andy Warhol's You're In. It will be better to sell Concrete, but more interesting is Andy, the "energetic" from the future, who gives away tangerine, metal and sea plasma collected on the planet Solaris. Not the most cozy, but brilliant flavor.
Aromatics Elixir Premier, Clinique
9500 rub. for 25 ml in TSUM
The first fragrance of Clinique, the classic Aromatics Elixir - the very endless "grass sea" from school dictation, poured into simple matte bottles - was released in 1971. Since then, the Aromatics franchise has grown by several sequels, such as the cute Aromatics in White, but none compares to the last one - Aromatics Elixir Premier 2017. Here, almost everything is good: the contrast of light and darkness characteristic of the best chypre, transparency, the mathematical beauty of proportions, and even a relief bottle with a ground glass stopper. Only one thing is bad - they have done “Premiere” a little, and what is there is brought to Russia in small circulations, practically with drops.
Dõjima, Mona di Orio
15 600 rub. for 75 ml
Dojima is the famous rice market in Osaka, founded in 1697, the main center of Japanese greed in the rich Edo era. Formally, Dõjima revolves around the theme of rice, but in addition to rice milk and powder, there are many other things in it that evoke the idea of fabulous riches: iris, expensive spices, and fragrant sandalwood chips from a successful speculator. The Dojima market was a complex formation, and the aroma of the same name was just as simple: under a tree and rice husk darts like an unbidden rodent in a barn, a warm and slightly sweaty musk.
Figment Woman, Amouage
27 000 rub. for 100 ml in the boutique Fragrance Secrets
Figment, which in translation from English means “the fruit of imagination”, is not a fruit, but a whole smoothie from everything that grew in the rain forest: white flowers, small green citrus fruits, transparent mushrooms and fruits that have not seen the sun, filled with sweet juice. Anyone who loves green, chlorophyll gardenia, "drink" a hundred milliliters of three months.
Les Exceptions Hot Cologne, Mugler
14 250 rub. for 80 ml
On the texts of the new fragrance Mugler, Aura, while the embargo is in effect, and it will be released with us only in February - therefore Hot Cologne. In addition, it is very good: eau de cologne, in which the effect of morning soap freshness is accompanied by a warm, crunchy aroma of granola and freshly roasted coffee beans. I remember another example of the same brilliant contrast of temperatures - Gris Clair brand Serge Lutens, but Hot Cologne, like most fragrances of the Les Exceptions line, is friendlier and easier to wear.
Moon Light, Cosmogony
8500 rub. for 65 ml in the perfume supermarket "Golden Apple"
Cosmogony is not exactly a brand - rather, the Russian niche project of the Brocard Group holding. Both fragrances of "Cosmogony" were gathered by perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour, who had recently fled to Moscow, but the creative process was led by the Russian creative director Lyubov Berlyanskaya, and perfume was spilled at the Aroma Prom factory near Moscow.
This is important: we haven’t produced a real niche for a long time, and the same Brocard, which made noise this year, most often chose the mass-market segment for its experiments. But back to the Moon Light, "Moonlight." It is a bit sad and detached iris, washed by the sea wave - fragile, salty, stuck either in the mist or in the wet sand. Causes vague irritation, like any elusive beauty: I want to bring out the sharpness, I want to see the streaks and pollen - but give only a blurred image in the wrong light of the moon.
Nuit de Bakélite, Naomi Goodsir
10 900 rub. for 50 ml
Perfume journalists, for all the small number of their tribe, manage to be divided into camps: vinaries and novya lovers, fans and persecutors of natural perfumery, those who love shypry, and those who are afraid. But all agree on one thing: 2017 was the year of tuberose, and the most unusual was Nuit de Bakélite of the Australian brand Naomi Goodsir. Perfume Isabel Doyen, known to us by Annick Goutal fragrances, took out an icy camphoric part of tuberose and brought it together with smoked skin and plastic - it turned out green, toothed and refreshingly asexual. Everyone who is waiting for tuberose habitual debauchery - adjust your noses for a new reality.
Superstitious, Frédéric Malle
5050 rub. for 10 ml in TSUM
Superstitious is the common brainchild of Frederick Mall and Albert Elbaz, an aldehyde-floral fragrance, which since the presentation at the TSUM is customary to say that it shines in the same constellation with Chanel N ° 5 and Arpège of the Lanvin brand. If so, then Superstitious is his alpha, which clogs any stellar interferometer: under the icy clouds of aldehydes, roses and jasmine bloom here, which, in the absence of a habit of such beauty, can stab under the heart. The only problem with Superstitious is its irrelevance in everyday life: it is too beautiful to load it in the morning into a small credit Renault and carry it into its working corner under a conditioner that has not been cleaned for a long time.
The best new brands in Russia
100 Bon
From 990 rub. 10 ml in Cosmotheca stores
The fact that a new French brand 100 Bon appeared in Cosmotheca stores (pronounced "San Bón", which homonymously sent bon, "smells good"), few have learned: there were no loud announcements or champagne and DJ buffets. 100 Bon came quietly, because they themselves are such - quiet, watercolor and not too expensive flavors, declared by Robertet as completely natural. All ten compositions are very cute, but two are especially good: ash Iris Cèdre & Iris Soyeux and golden resins Myrrhe & Encens Mystérieux.
Baruti
€ 92.56 per 30 ml
It is finished: one of the main indian perfume brands has finally been brought to Russia. Not to Moscow - Fragrance Limited distributors have not yet been able to agree on conditions with capricious metropolitan stores, but in Kursk, Sochi, Penza and Khabarovsk, the works of Spyros Drosopoulos are already being sold. Strange, dynamic and changeable, like Alexander Calder's suspended mobiles, sometimes they give the impression of being unstable and poorly balanced. In fact, Drosopoulos accurately builds models of processes occurring in nature, flowing and not always predictable: the convergence of lead winter to Berlin in Berlin Im Winter, early summer in Amsterdam in Onder de Linde, the running of clouds in Indigo and so on.
Phuong dang
From 18 000 rub. for 50 ml in TSUM
The new brand Phuong Dang (transcribed as "phyong dang") is named after its founder, a Vietnamese artist living in Singapore. Nine out of ten aromas of the collection were made by Bertrand Duchoufour, who - with a certain effort of will - can be recognized in the streams of tar and flashes of fire: no, no, his corporate green mango flashes at the top of the fragrance or a light exhalation of incense from the feathery rose filled with feather leaves. But otherwise, Phuong Dang is a good example of a creative situation in which the creative director's ego suppressed the perfumer's personality: all compositions are emotional on the verge of hysteria, which is fascinating in its own way, but does not look like Dushufur known to us.
Vilhelm parfumerie
16 050 rub. for 100 ml
Vilhelm Parfumerie has a lot in common with Byredo: magnetic caps, almost the same font on the labels and - most importantly - perfumer Jérôme Epinett with his recognizable style of “transparent house” filled with light. But Vilhelm is better than Byredo: of the latter, with rare exceptions, all life has been cleaned with hard edits. Even from M / Mink, which is often cited as a refutation - yes, it smells like a cat and a cat tray, but still it is Schrödinger's cat: neither is alive or dead. In Vilhelm, everything can happen - perhaps because the creator of the brand, Jan Algren, unlike Gorham, does not live in the stigma and sterile Stockholm, but in live New York.
Top New Collections
"Flavors of Nature", Brocard
245 rub. for 100 ml
Everything about the “Fragrances of Nature” of the Russian brand Brocard was written, and deservedly: first, try to find something similar for 245 rubles, and secondly, you will not find it. For some reason, no one was interested in the smells of our summer cottage childhood, although it seemed that the idea was on the surface and it smelled like a black currant bush, tea with thinly sliced Antonovka, strawberry soap on the side of a garden sink. People who do not like this have no heart - or there was no question. Or was, but complete with mandatory weeding of cucumbers.
Carven Paris, Carven
from 8960 rub. for 100 ml
The new line of Carven is a calm and elegant perfumery for sanguine people: without fuel oil, a cat tray and "pissing rags", as perfume people like to express, discussing the next niche claims for originality. There are works in the collection of commercial, for example Paris Florence - floral and fruit compote, brewed in the fashion of the last decade. But there are also ambitious Paris Manille and Paris Mascate, which have something in common with the great flavors of the past. Everything, however, collected well and seamlessly.
Haute Parfumerie Collection, Chopard
18 500 rub. for 100 ml
Recently, one of the fragrances of the collection, Vetiver d'Haiti au Thé Vert, received the prestigious FIFI award in the Breakthrough of the Year nomination. It does not go too well for him: a breakthrough is something revolutionary, and no one, especially the consumer, and even more so with his own bought ruble, wants to support the revolution. The perfumery agenda is such that the need for experimental, pronounced art-house perfumery goes by the wayside, while well-balanced and elegant fragrances come forward. The entire collection of Chopard is this: it will not knock the ground out from under your feet, like some Secretions Magnifiques, but, on the contrary, will return it with an excellent, high-quality watered lawn.
Olfactory Library, Comme des Garçons Parfums
6900 rub. for 30 ml
This year, the Comme des Garçons did what the brand’s thousands of fans dreamed of — resuming the release of fragrances that had previously been taken out of production. True, only ten, including the iconic Calamus, Sequioia and Garage - but the pretty “Mint” and “Dry Cleaning” have not yet been returned. The action, which is important, is not one-time: the Olfactory Library line will be constant.
Volume IV, Lush
from 2100 rub. for 30 ml
Store acquaintance with perfume Lush is always a bit of a quest: you never know exactly which part of the smell comes from the tester, and which part comes from the next hill of the Snow Fairy massage oil. In general, in the absence of a good extract over the perfume compartment, it is not easy to love the aromas of Lush.
But let's not forget that once the British brand gave us such masterpieces as fruit incense Breath of God, mossy Devil's Nightcap and jasmine Sikkim Girls, and the previous collection Lush - Volume 3: Death, Decay and Renewal - turned out to be excellent. Although, in the native language of the brand, bittersweet: everything about death was about it and about the fact that each of us will sooner or later turn into humus, from which wonderful flowers will grow. But the fourth edition, in contrast with the third, is devoted to the feeling of the house, no matter what it starts with: from the morning cup of coffee, the backyard garden or the smell of paint from fresh graffiti.
Illustration: Dasha Chertanova Photo:Santa Maria Novella, Rive Gauche, Aroma-Butik, Cosmotheca (1, 2, 3), Randewoo (1, 2), Spell Smell, Baruti, Phuong Dang, Lush, Haven Shop, Orental, Douglas, Pudra, Ile de Bote ( 12)