Perfume Pyramid: 8 fragrances dedicated to ancient Egypt
Text: Ksenia Golovanova, author of the telegram channel Nose Republic
Ancient Egypt is considered the birthplace Perfumery as such: historical evidence of the religious and aesthetic relationships of Egyptians with aromatic compositions has been preserved. Here's another thing: right before the new year, American archaeologists unearthed the oldest perfume factory in history. On this occasion, our perfume critic Ksenia Golovanova chose the best fragrances inspired by the ancient civilization.
Eau Égyptienne
Cinq mondes
€49
for 100 ml
Cinq Mondes is a French brand of spa cosmetics, styled as traditional beauty recipes from different countries, a kind of "Grandmother Agafia" with a European passport and a good budget. Eau Égyptienne made perfume Olivia Giacobetti (Philosykos for Diptyque, Hiris for Hermès, En Passant for Frédéric Malle) in 2005, and since then it has remained a bestseller - despite the fast-paced Egyptian ruler. What smells like "Egyptian water": rose, mint, myrrh, frankincense, mastic, juniper and other things that were supposedly part of the kifi incense - they, among other things, were used in the temples of Isis and Osiris to immerse people in clairvoyant dreams. A wonderful meditative thing - fragrant ash on pale colors.
Un Jardin Sur le Nil
Hermès
7300 rub
for 50 ml
"Nile Garden" - the first thing that comes to mind when you think about Egypt in the perfume context. Jean-Claude Ellen's debut fragrance as Hermès’s regular nose, Un Jardin Sur le Nil, was not easy for a perfumer: Egypt, where he was taken for inspiration with a management team, turned out to be more dusty than inspirational gardening (this story is brilliantly described in the book of perfumery journalist Chandler Berra "The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Industry in Paris and New York"). As a result, the frame of Ellen's composition made a green, vegetable and slightly sulphurous smell of unripe Egyptian mango, to which was added herbs and pungent citrus - for the notorious “garden” effect. The flavors that cause such contradictory reviews are few today: fresh for some Un Jardin, sweaty for others, "live garden" for others, and "chemistry" for the fourth. But the truth is that this is almost the only green composition - the genre of grassy-leafy, plant-based perfumes is not popular among buyers, which sells well today.
Nun
Laboratorio Olfattivo
11 800 rub.
for 100 ml
In the ancient Egyptian mythology, Nun is the primeval ocean of chaos, from which everything that arose, something like a primary broth. After the act of creation, what is interesting, Nun himself remained: when the Egyptians dug wells and found groundwater, they were also considered to be part of a liquid substance from the beginning of time, like Nile spills. This god personified the fluidity of life, its ability to penetrate into any cracks, fill all gaps, and Nun perfumer Luke Maffei is made appropriately - mobile white-flowered (jasmine, a little gardenia) milk filled with light. Where there is light, there is the birth of life; first, however, a ripe pear is born. But exceptionally cute.
Ankh sun amon
Anima mundi
€140
for 100 ml
Anima Mundi, or "The World Soul," is another brand of Italians Onyrico. It is interested in its smells of ancient, long-gone civilizations: in the line, for example, there are fragrant sketches on the theme of the culture of the Maya, the Nabataeans and the Pompeians. The afterlife lily Ankh Sun Amon, named after the ancient Egyptian queen Ankhesenamon, daughter of Nefertiti and wife of Tutankhamen, is the favorite fragrance of the creator of the brand Emilia Cinigo; Last year he became a finalist at the prestigious Art and Olfaction Awards.
We know little about Ankhesenam herself: it is not known what happened to her after her husband died at the age of nineteen, her remains were never found, and the romantic story told by Mummies (where the Egyptian is played by magnetic actress from Venezuela Patricia Velasquez) nothing more than fiction. However, the fact that during the reign of Tutankhamen there are a lot of images of Ankhesenamon left, including side by side with her husband, speaks of her high status and influence. There is, indeed, in the Ankh Sun Amon something regal - a ghostly but insurmountable wall of incense, saffron and amber, the royal poker face.
Anubis
Papillon Artisan Perfumes
£128
for 50 ml
Once we went to the dark territory of Anubis, but we can not fail to mention here the spirits dedicated to the most mysterious deity of ancient Egyptian mythology, moreover, magnificent. This is a floral, slightly oily leather, incensed by incense - a composition in the spirit of Black Tourmaline, Olivier Durbano, and Cuir Ottomane, Parfum d'Empire. Only at times darker and more bestial: a god with a jackal will weigh your heart and decide how brave you are to wear it.
24 Papyrus de Ciane
Pierre Guillaume Paris
15 800 rub.
for 100 ml
In the late 2000s, there were several good green scents: Untitled by the brand Maison Martin Margiela, A Scent by Issey Miyake of the same-name brand, Cristalle Eau Verte, Chanel, united, besides the general mood, with great advertising opportunities. Papyrus de Ciane of the niche brand (at that time it was called Parfumerie Generale) was somewhat lost on their background - it is not easy to be green, like Kermit the Frog sang when you "do not shine like ripples on water or stars in the sky."
And "Papyrus" is not something that does not shine - it is a truly dark, deep, emerald fragrance, collected by Pierre Guillaume on the basis of the classic perfume base Mousse de Saxe. The "Saxon moss" has a green-leather, mossy-powdery smell, rather dry - but Guillaume fills it with moisture: juice of coastal grasses, raw river air, salty spirit of mud. Even without knowing that the place-name put up in the name is the Chané River under Syracuse, one of the largest clusters of papyrus in the world, you can understand by just one smell: we are shown water. Let the Sicilian - sprouts marsh sedge in the III century BC. er presented the local king the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy II.
Ptah
Parfums ciro
€158
for 100 ml
From time to time, interest in the culture of ancient Egypt intensifies. This happened, for example, after the Egyptian campaign of Napoleon Bonaparte, then at the end of the 19th century, when Queen Hatshepsut was found in the outskirts of Luxor. And again - in 1922: the archaeologist Howard Carter made one of the most important archaeological discoveries, finding the sealed tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor. This surge in Egypt (journalists called it "tutmania", from the English. Tut, Tutankhamun) was the most significant, because it fit perfectly - with all its strict ancient Egyptian geometry - in the style of Art Deco, the mainstream of the 1920s.
According to the tangent, the world of fragrant was also touched: Cleopatra, Nefertiti and Scarabs appeared in the lines of perfume houses. And one of them, Ciro Parfums, went even further and ambitiously named his spirits Ptah - in honor of Ptah, the green-skinned creator god, who created, according to some cults, just about everything. A few years ago, the Ciro brand was reanimated, and Ptah was restarted - now it is leather smeared with sage-geranium dipped in priestly balsam.
Tiger by her side
Sana jardin
£180
for 50 ml
The Sana Jardin brand is new, but the collection, built by perfumer Carlos Benaim around the Moroccan orange blossom, is serious in every sense: the brand is engaged in social entrepreneurship in North Africa, supporting local neroli pickers. All the flavors of the line revolve around the Maghreb culture: Nubian Musk - sketch on the theme of Egyptian musk, and Berber Blonde, or "Berber blonde" - the story of the blond and blue-eyed people who are still found among the indigenous people of Morocco.
Tiger by Her Side is dedicated to the ancient Egyptian priestesses, who, according to Sana Jardin, "were so fragrant that tigers followed them." An inaccuracy crept into the description: there were no striped cats in Egypt, but the spotty leopards did, but, unfortunately, the priests most often followed in the form of skins thrown over their shoulders. Anyway, Tiger by Her Side really smells hypnotically good: fruit rose, slightly smoky wood and unsweetened vanilla.
PHOTO:perfume history, Olive, Travels, Pierre Guillaume, Fragrantica, Sana Jardin, Hermes, Birchbox