Powder, Lilac and Baby Tooth: 11 Flavors Inspired by Childhood
Text: Ksenia Golovanova, author of the telegram channel Nose Republic
Aromas dedicated to the memory and preservation of memories in general, there is a separate regiment: perfume artists in various ways embody themes that seem to be common to all. "The smells of childhood" today have become a separate trend, which is very interesting to follow. We show the most interesting flavors collected from all over the world.
En Passant, Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle
12 650 rub. for 50 ml
En Passant was released in 2010 - one of the first in the Frédéric Malle portfolio. Since then, lilac perfume, including good and genuine, has blossomed a lot, but in terms of the emotional effect, not a single one can compare with the work of Olivia Giacobetti.
The key to understand the elusive beauty of En Passant is its name, which translates as "passing" in French: Giacobetti told me that once, as a child, she walked down the street and smelled the scent of lilac after the rain, mixed with the smells of the bakery, and that was how she remembered her forever . Other perfumery lilacs are sweet, indole clusters, and between En Passant and a person there is always a distance the size of someone else’s memory: this wet lilac smells cool and delicate from somewhere far away, because of the veil of rain.
Fleurs et Flammes, Antonio Alessandria
13 500 rub. for 60 ml
If you want to describe the perfumery style of the Sicilian Antonio Alessandria in one word, they will be "luxurious" - an epithet completely devalued by the Russian luster in the era of oil prosperity. The fragrances of the brand are perfumed Baroque, emotional, luxuriant, theatrical and prone to excess. Here is Fleurs et Flammes: Alesandria turned the childhood memory of the summer festival, which in Catania was celebrated with fireworks, into a magnificent opera with explosions of black powder and armfuls of mature, yesterday's lilies flying from the balcony to the heads in a motley procession.
Onder de Linde, Baruti
sales start in Russia in early November
Originally Onder de Linde, or “Under the Limes,” the Dutch indie-brand Baruti was called Melkmeisje, “Thrush.” Speech about "Thrush" Jan Vermeer, the Dutch master of household painting - her perfumer Spiros Drosopoulos, who grew up in Amsterdam, and dedicated the composition, accompanied by a short but capacious description on the site: "The intrigue of the fragrance is very Dutch."
Indeed, in its directness, strength and simplicity, this picture is the perfect embodiment of Dutch character and national values. The characters of Vermeer's paintings are representatives of a rich merchant society who enjoy the sweetness of a serene existence: their day passes measuredly - without any fuss or incident, and the arrow gets stuck in a slower time, like an ant in thick lime honey. Exactly about this Onder de Linde, a fragrance permeated with the same golden-blue light as Vermeer's Thrush - with lilac, iris, lime color: the clock stopped, pollen hung in the air, and a trickle of milk froze on whitewash of silver.
Nutmeg & Ginger, Jo Malone
9400 rub. for 100 ml
"Nutmeg and Ginger" - the first cologne, which released Joe Malone, the founder and at that time the owner of the eponymous brand. Imagine: it happened back in 1990, one might say, in the dark ages of perfumery - before the new dawn it was still necessary to stretch for three years. Many hardcore fans of the brand believe that Nutmeg & Ginger is almost the best that Jo Malone had, and in part they are right: if you remember what the brand concept was from the very beginning - to do all sorts of pleasant, maximally botanical, natural-sounding things - then "Ginger" is really very good. The reason, perhaps, is that initially this composition existed in the form of a mixture of essential oils - after the procedures it was issued to customers of the London spa Joe Malone on Walton Street.
Later, when the salon turned into a perfume brand, Nutmeg & Ginger was transformed into a full-fledged cologne - but this touching “handworking” remained in it. As for the flavor itself, which is an uncomplicated and, at the same time, absolutely charming blend of lemon, ginger, nutmeg and jasmine, it grew out of Joe’s childhood memories: Christmas, everyone who comes home brings gingerbread cookies, and mother stuffs these nuts with nutmeg.
Dent de Lait, Serge Lutens
12 600 rub. for 100 ml
A few years ago, the perfumery style of Serge Lutens changed radically, which is still not forgiven by the fans of his former oriental style at home. The first fragrance of the new wave was L'Eau, as it was called by Lutans himself, "anti-perfume" - a bubble of silence in the world ocean of perfume noise. He smelled of soap suds (as if a bath had been taken by irises and magnolias), followed by L'Eau Froide - ice marble, L'Eau de Paille - autumn rain.
“Milk tooth” is a new chapter in this story about cleanliness: it smells of almond milk, baby powder, a new eraser and a metal spoon, which a child, having finished yogurt for a long time, does not want to let everything out of its mouth. The smell is both innocent and slightly alarming - metal, as you know, smells of blood, cold steel and some tools in the dentist’s office.
"The Swan Princess", Brocard
1200 rub. for 50 ml
Brocard continues the triumphal march on perfume blogs: still, though the summer is over, they write about "Nature Scent" - a weighted line of smells of our country childhood, the ninth wave from the ambitious Cosmogony, a new collection, is about to rise; which made Bertrand Duchaufour. Not yet covered with a wave, pay attention to "The Swan Princess", a little more calm - without spectacular presentations in the city center - but a very unusual launch.
As for the fairy tale about the magic princess, and for Vrubel's picture on the same theme, with which Brokarov's fragrance clearly echoes, the concepts of borderness, the process of transformation, the flow of forms are important: a swan comes out of the sea, becoming a woman. The same thing happens with the Tsarevna Swan perfumery: here there is bitter salt (sea water, tears?), And light musk swan's down, and thin sweets in the magic sleeve - and everything, like in Vrubel, overflows with complex pearl shades.
Alaïa Paris, Azzedine Alaïa
5600 rub. for 30 ml
This elegant, well-cut abstract floral fragrance smells like a boutique in the Marais — expensive Papier Tigre paper, white peonies in the Merci, and concrete walls in L'Eclaireur. The last effect is intentional: designer Azzedine Alaia wanted to “sew” a mineral chord in Alaïa Paris, reminiscent of his Tunisian childhood - on hot days his mother doused the sun-baked stones in the courtyard with water to make her breathe easier. It is interesting to observe how perfumer Mari Salaman transformed this memory into the language of a big city: instead of Africa in Alaïa, says Paris, seen through the glass of a display case.
Morn to Dusk, Eau d'Italie
10 200 rub. for 100 ml in the boutique Mayfair
The married couple who founded the Eau d'Italie brand - Sebastian Alvarez Murena and Marina Sersale - are aristocrats of modern perfumery, people who are infinitely distant from any hyip: this year they brought a very calm perfume exhibition Pitti Fragranze, where everyone traditionally practices originality. , pure and noble rose - Rosa Greta.
The same undisturbed integrity distinguishes the previous editions of Eau d'Italie and Morn do Dusk - vanilla and lilies of the valley in the hands of the brilliant perfumer Annick Menardo - is no exception. "From dawn to dusk" is bright and round as an orange, the day of the Italian child: here is a greenish, citrus dawn, here is vanilla gelato at noon, here is warm, brackish skin after evening football.
Boronia, Grandiflora
$ 185 for 100 ml, soon on Luskyscent.com
Australian brand Grandiflora is almost five years old, but in Russia it is not yet sold and is known to few. But in her home country, its founder Saskia Hayvekes is a star: a flower shop in whose honor the brand was named, does not descend from the pages of the Australian gloss and is listed in all the guidebooks to the bohemian Sydney district of Potts Point, where it occupies a tiny but fragrant corner in a pair blocks from Elizabeth Bay. Haywekes is more than a florist - rather a floral "curator", and her art in charge takes various forms: from colossal installations and photo albums with surreal macro magnolias and jasmine to perfumery. The fragrances of the brand are portraits of exotic flora: the collection includes Madagascar jasmine, a lunar cereus, two magnolias, and now harmony is an ordinary local plant, which, however, smells like a garden of paradise a second before original sin.
"This is the smell of my childhood - I grew up in the suburbs of Sydney, where boronia blossomed everywhere," says Saskia Hayvekes. ". In the performance of Bertrand Duchofour, Boronia really smells of things that convey a sense of contentment of life — true, adult: here you can find tobacco, black tea, and a strong cognac chord, and honey cookies half an hour before bedtime.
Do Son, Diptyque
5400 rub. for 50 ml
Do Son was a resort town in northern Vietnam where the family of Yves Kulan, one of the founders of Diptyque, spent the summer. His mother, who did not tolerate the sticky heat during the rainy season, had a rest in the shaded living room on the second floor during the day. Kulan recalls that a slight breeze sometimes arose and threw the smells of the street through the windows: river greens, tropical flowers, and edible ice from the trays of cold coffee vendors. Based on these memories, Do Son was collected: hope for freshness in the blazing Vietnamese midday, 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 film Indochina.
Corsica Furiosa, Parfum d'Empire
11 000 rub. for 100 ml in boutiques "Perfume"
Memories of childhood are not always underlined by a delicate lilac haze — some, on the contrary, are caustic and cutting like a sedge cut at a summer stream. Take, for example, Corsica Furiosa, "Furious Corsica" - the most ecstatic of the green flavors that are on the shelves today. All that the Corsican garrigue is rich in (mastic pistachio, wild mint, moss, rosemary), perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato mercilessly burns with a sunbeam collected in a magnifier. Here, knee-deep in a thorny, poisonous green growth, he spent his childhood, and this “here” he gives you - in the form of an evil emerald smoke.
Photo:Rive Gauche (1, 2), Cosmotheca, Jo Malone, Molecule (1, 2), Pudra, Perfumista, Baruti, Grandiflora, Lucky Scent