Viktoria Minya Hedonist Rose & Hedonist Iris

Viktoria Minya is a representant of a young generation of perfumers who have been following a succesful path of fragrant career. Originally from Hungary, Viktoria has studied the secrets of perfume art in Grasse and currently lives in Paris, where her studio is located. Viktoria launched her first fragrance called Hedonist in 2013 and it quickly became a huge success, her creation made it to all major niche perfume boutiques all over the world. This rich and self-indulgent mixture of rum, peach, vanilla and osmanthus mesmerized thousands of perfumistas on different continents.

This month Viktoria oficially presents her latest works, which are two new, and also very different chapters in Hedonist collection. Centered around precious rose essence – Hedonist Rose, and modern, elegant scent featuring a noble iris accord – Hedonist Iris. Both of these fragrances were based on the concept of perfume as a hedonistic pleasure and they share similarities with the first Hedonist perfume from 2013. Main difference is that these new creations are lighter, not that opulent.

Hedonist Iris opens on my skin with a very subtle citric and a bit cologne-like scent of aromatic bergamot zest and within few minute the opening becomes much more juicy and tart due to black currant note infused in this composition. 10-15 minutes later, these two notes disappear completely, marking the progress of the composition. That is when Hedonist Iris starts to effuse gentle woody notes which become stronger and more substantial in the next couple of minutes. This fragrance features a cedar wood note but it’s surprisingly smooth and polished. It’s simply beautiful.

Cedar is usually a rugged woody note but in Hedonist Iris it is very elegant and adds a twist of sophistication. Perhaps it’s perceived that way thanks to the beautiful iris note which brings a lovely portion of powdery notes that soften the entire blend. Over some period of time the powderness from iris transforms into more gourmand powderness of cocoa. It smells yummy, like Hedonist Iris had a bit of chocolate inside of it. This scent makes me salivating. In the course of the day this iris composition from Viktoria Minya becomes musky in a soft, fluffy and cuddly way.

To break the impression of innocence Viktoria added some darker elements to this perfume – I’m speaking about labdanum here, which adds a little bit smokier and resinous sensation that is transparent enough not to overwhelm the other notes and it’s evident enough to be noticed by the person who wears it. In the drydown Hedonist Iris also becomes a tad more spicy thanks to pink pepper accord. In the next couple of hours the perfume becomes more complex, the notes of cocoa, iris and woods entwine. After many hours Hedonist Iris feels more floral once again but it’s creamier this time, making me think of narcissus and mimosa, although these are just my guesses…

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Hedonist Rose is a very playful composition which starts with a bubbly accord of white wine. You can smell the aroma of ripe grapes from this composition, mixed with sparkling and energetic bubbles that add a young character to this perfume. After a couple of minutes I begin to smell the rose. At first it’s very sheer and dewy, also accentuated with facets of lemon. At first this rose note is pink but as Hedonist Rose gets more time to fully bloom, it becomes much more intensive, more red and richer. After a while the result is a beautiful rose with mildly oriental background.

What I love about Hedonist Rose from Viktoria Minya is the fact that she created a rose perfume being very conscious of what she was doing. The depth of rose oil is softened here by the note of peach which adds just a tiny hint of fruity style to the scent but most of all it creates a delicate and lactonic background for it. At a certain point these two notes become unity, creating a very soft and refined blend. I also mentioned the oriental background in this scent. Well, it’s oriental to me – intorduced by the use of cloves that smell warm, spicy & sweet at the same time.

Cloves in Hedonist Rose reminded me of saffron at first and but later it became clear to me that what my nose is smelling is a clove accord. This note also brought to my mind one of my favorite clove perfumes (Sonoma Scent Studio Sienna Musk). The combination of cloves and rose is my favorite part of this perfume because it’s floral and spicy at the same time and I like this kind of combinations. This beautiful stage lasts for a couple of hours before rose becomes more transparent and a concoction of musk and amber bring a very warm, soft and comforting sensation.

If these two perfumes represented types of personalities, Hedonist Iris would be a modern and self-confident type of woman who knows what she wants and who knows how to get it. She loves to wear smart clothes. On the other hand Hedonist Rose represents more ethereal woman with a girly nature who loves to dream, read romance books. Her favorite outfit would be a colorful dress with different patterns. Both perfumes are very feminine, sexy and charming; rather not for men.

Hedonist Iris & Hedonist Rose come in signature bottle for the house of Viktoria Minya. Iris edition is infused with white genuine bohemian crystals while Rose edition has pink crystals inside of the bottle. Both scents are of eau de parfum concentration, they are priced at €155 for 45ml each. Perfumes are already available at Viktoria Minya website where you can also buy individual samples (€5 for 1,75ml) or a sample set (€15) consisting of 4 fragrances: Hedonist trio and Eau de Hongrie (to be reviewed) which Viktoria kept as a secret until the very launch. Other stockists will get the novelties soon. Anyone who seeks beauty and femininity in perfume should try these new launches.

[note] Samples were a courtesy of Viktoria Minya, pictures are from the press