From Amelia Earhart to Frida Kahlo: 7 fragrances inspired by great women
Text: Ksenia Golovanova, author of the Telegram channel Nose Republic
Today is International Women's Day - and we remind what this holiday is really about. In general, you can remember great people at least every day: our perfume critic Ksenia Golovanova offers seven scents inspired by women who have left their mark on history.
Curium Cm 96
One of Those
€110
for 100 ml
Curie, an exceptionally expensive metal used in nuclear technology, was named after the Curie spouses, physicists who studied the radioactivity of elements. However, the curium of the Italian niche brand One of Those is entirely devoted to half of this brilliant scientific duet - Maria Sklodowska-Curie, the first woman professor, the first twice Nobel laureate and, as she is often called, the mother of modern physics.
It is made in a scientific manner: it is a light, but at the same time dense veil with a flower core - a particle charged with iris, around which, like an electron atmosphere, light musk pulsates. By the standards of perfumery water, the half-life of Curium is an eternity - ten to twelve hours on the skin.
Camélia Intrépide
ATELIER COLOGNE
8600 rub.
FOR 30 ML
The Fearless Camellia is dedicated to Amelia Earhart, the first pilot to cross the Atlantic alone. During her career, Earhart set many records: for example, a year after she began her studies at the flight school, she climbed to an altitude of 4300 meters (not a single female pilot had burnt into the sky) and was the first to receive the Flight Merit Cross, previously conferred only to male military personnel.
"Women should try in the same way as men once tried," Amelia wrote in the last letter to her husband, explaining her desire to take the line that had become fatal for her, - flying around the world. And although there is no tragedy in Camélia Intrépide, inspired by Earhart's life, for the fragrance, which is positioned as feminine, it is indeed fearless: it smells like the skin of a flight jacket, strong tea in a metal thermos and ozone of near thunderstorms.
Paloma y raíces
Homoelegans
€140
for 50 ml
The name of the fragrance “Dove and Roots” refers to one of the most famous self-portraits of Frida Kahlo: the artist laid down on the ground, and the philodendron growing from her body, a symbol of perseverance and love of life in Mexican culture, is giving rise to air roots.
Raíces, that is, the “Roots”, is a picture of Frieda’s deep connection with traditions that give her strength and protection. On self-portraits, she often depicts herself in a Zapotec woman costume; in the communities of this Indian tribe, by the way, the traditional system, close to matriarchy, still operates: women head the spheres of management and services and have a lot of weight in business.
Such a culture of Frieda is close: in the picture she, the dove — as her parents called Fried — literally “roots” herself in her. The same happens in Paloma y Raíces: smoky and smoked vetiver grounds a sharp greens and tropical sweetness of tuberose, which practically grows into fertile soil - like a heroine of a picture.
Italian mask Moresque sits on two chairs at once: from the Arab and European perfume in it about equally. With the first, it is related to the fascination with popular forms in the East - agar, musk and saffron roses, with the second - a brilliant work with citrus and a clear love for the tribal nobility, once the only consumer of everything fragrant.
In the collection of the brand there are "Countess", "Emir", "Aristocrats" and - from the same place - "Tiara". Now Moresque swung even higher and released spirits dedicated to Catherine the Great - the fantastic power of the rose, which is not reached by a curve carriage. If you like garden flowers, in dew and greenery, bypass this palace side: Ekaterina - whipped and powdered, like an empress's wig.
1873
Histoires de Parfums
6020 rub.
for 60 ml
French writer Sidoni-Gabriel Colette lived several lives: dancers of the Parisian variety show, author of literary bestsellers, given out by her first husband for her, the second woman in the history of the Order of the Legion of Honor and the first - President of the Goncourt Academy.
"Women's and men's opportunities are about equal, only in the toilet room the situation is different," Colette once said, but she did not get into the prestigious French Academy on the basis that only men were accepted there. However, this did not prevent her from becoming one of the most widely read French authors of the 20th century, equally beloved by intellectuals and seamstresses from Parisian studios - for the sharpness of the language, the believability of the characters and the degree of erotic scenes.
The same contrast between the conventionally high and low is the beauty of "1873", dedicated to the writer (the name is the year of her birth): here the lush, regal orange blossom coexists with a frivolous candy chord, from which you pinch your tongue.
Marescialla
Santa maria novella
9920 rub.
for 100 ml
The woman who gave the name to the spicy cologne of the Florentine home of Santa Maria Novella, was the wife of the odious marshal d'Ankra (hence the name "Marshalless") and the milky sister of Maria de Medici. She, having married Henry IV, the King of France, transported to France and her retinue, including Leonora Galygai, an intelligent and ambitious young woman, soon appointed by the new queen of the city.
Thanks to the ingratiating and consistent protection of Galigai, her husband received many posts and ranks, including the title of Marshal of France - but many said that the country was ruled by his cunning wife. In addition to honors, the couple got a lot of influential enemies, which ended quite predictably: the marshal was killed, and the marshal was beheaded and burned at the stake on charges of witchcraft.
The official description of Marescialla on the brand’s website is silent about the above, but honestly promises a "bouquet of spicy and woody oriental notes." Everything is so: "Marshall" is fragrant with nutmeg, rose, crumbling parquet - and the smoke of the Holy Inquisition.
Eau suave
Parfum d'empire
10 500 rub.
for 100 ml
Josephine Bonaparte, Napoleon I's first wife, was an exceptionally active woman: having bought the Malmaison estate near Paris from a bankrupt banker, in less than a year she turned her into the most magnificent estate in Europe. Three hundred pineapples were planted in the greenhouse. For heating a giant greenhouse built several coal stoves. Dozens of flowering crops were written out from London - rare varieties of dahlias and peonies were accompanied by a British florist throughout the journey, to whom Josephine specially issued relevant documents for this purpose.
But the main pride of the empress was a huge collection of garden roses, replenished to the death of the hostess - after the divorce, the estate remained in her possession. And indeed, Eau Suave sounds like a pink choir, assembled from a variety of “voices”: floral freshness, greenery of stems and sepals, fruit, berry and spicy shades of roses. Do not be afraid of excessive floridity: it is at least pink, but chypre - with mossy speckled shadow around the perimeter of the flower bed.
Photo: Molecule (1, 2), One of those, Parfumo, Roullier White, Luckyscent, Salon Parfumer