Monday Quick Sniffs, part 56

I’ve been a fan of Atelier Cologne since 2010 when the brand was established. Over the years they released many fragrances that I liked and have in my collection. When Jasmin Angelique was introduced 4 years ago I got a travel spray as a freebie when swapping with someone. But I didn’t like it at that time. After spending years in purgatory drawer I found it while looking for something else. I tested it once more and to my surprise I find it pleasant now. The opening combines spicy sharpness of sichuan pepper with a brisky smell of lemon, both its juicy flesh and aromatic zest. After a few minutes angelica joins the composition and from that moment the scent will remain green until the end. Angelica introduces stem-like kind of green, quite crispy and warm at the same time. Addition of fig makes Jasmin Angelique more fruity and milky, therefore rounder and more approachable. Galbanum is a source of more sappy & resinous variety of green note, there’s something tad more dark behind it. When jasmine appears the perfume is very verdant, like a secret garden in which white flowers begin to unfold their petals. Jasmine is rich and strong, heady a bit but not indolic. In dries down revealing notes of soft and sensual tonka mixed with frankincense and amber. It’s a rather elegant and unobvious take on a green theme.

Essential Parfums is a new brand that debuted in 2018 and in the world of niche perfumery, where price increases are seen almost everywhere, it’s like a breath of fresh air. The brand works with perfumers of well-known names, their packaging is minimalistic, fragrances are totally fine and yet they charge less than 70 Euro for a 100 ml bottle. At Esxence I tried the entire range of five compositions and I liked Orange x Santal the most. Welcomed by a duet of super juicy and naturally smelling Italian orange and bitter orange, I can smell the pulp, the juice and the rind. It’s an uplifting and invigorating opening that is sure to wake you up. It’s almost as if someone served you a glass of freshly squeezed juice. A touch of basil introduces and aromatic vibe of green, Mediterranean landscape. This picture is even more visualized in my head thanks to cypress which brings forward a slightly different aspect of verdant note, more dry and shrub-like. Cypress is also like a prelude to the woodiness that Orange x Santal has to offer. Sandalwood (from Australia) in this perfume is really pretty. It’s more on a dry and rugged side rather than on creamy side and there’s something about it that makes me think of color red. It combines nicely with the juicy fruitiness of orange. Oakmoss introduces a parched, aromatic vibe that’s slightly like a chypre. It’s a nice option for summer days.

The collection of Cuirs Nomades at Memo Paris has just gotten bigger thanks to Oriental Leather that joined the family very recently. As someone who thinks that all 6 (now 7) leathers are well done, I’m quite eager to smell what new ideas Memo might bring to this range. Oriental Leather opens with a soothing scent of aromatic lavender. The smell is quite deep, relaxing, inflected with fougere elements. Geranium introduces a green-aromatic and crunchy facet. Pimento and coriander bring something spicy and dry to the scent. Very soon patchouli joins the composition and completely changes the scent. Oriental Leather becomes dark and mysterious. Patchouli is very earthy and damp here, also carrying the facet of rotting vegetation. There’s an impressive depth and multi-dimensional effect to it but the scent is specific. Finally leather appears – it’s quite bulky, rugged and still smelling slightly of the chemicals it was treated with at the workshop. It blends with patchouli making these 2 hard to separate. Later on things get more round and smooth. Cinnamon adds a nice fizziness and clove appears next bringing a spicy vibe that is more tenacious. After a few hours there’s a vanillic trace hovering in the background but it quickly gets lost under a resinous, balmy, slightly caramelized benzoin. To me it’s probably the most oriental part of Oriental Leather. Additional notes include anise and tea but I didn’t notice either of them. Some will like this one, some will like it less.  It sure is far from the one I like the most. I’m ready to forget it.

Advertisement

Hungry for Inspiration – Day 3 of Esxence 2019

By the time my third day in Milan came to be I grew a certain level of tiredness, so I decided that I don’t need to push myself anymore and just try to enjoy my final day at Esxence, whatever it might bring. As usual weekend was open to the public so you could expect a bigger crowd of people anyway, which quite successfully reduces one’s chances of being a productive explorer.

Michael Edwards always tells his stories in a mesmerizing way

It was lovely to meet Pissara and talk about perfume

Splendiris had its official premiere

Stopping by the stand of Osmotheque. Gotta know your classics

I started the day by attending a lecture by Michael Edwards titled “From niche to niche: the evolution of French perfumery” in which he talked about the greatest perfumers of different times, from Guy Robert to Dominique Ropion and Calice Becker and how niche were their ideas for the fragrances that were released in their respective times and how over the last century they’ve been using the ingredients nobody dared to use until they did. He also used this opportunity to share with the audience the news about 2 new books he’s been working on but I already knew about this.

Immediately after this lecture ended I was supposed to meet with Pissara Umavijani, creator & perfumer of Parfums Dusita but when I arrived at her stand she was missing. Just a moment earlier she started a livestream outside and continued as she came back. We started talking about the idea behind the name that I chose for her new fragrance (Reve d’Aurore, one of the winners in naming competition), in the context of Splendiris we also talked about working with iris and we had a deeper discussion about what it really takes to create a successful scent and how many people were involved. All this was recorded so it felt a bit as if Pissara was interviewing me, not vice versa.

On that day I ended up talking with a lot of people, mostly friends with whom I wanted to chat even if they were not showing any new releases at that particular time. So I talked with Olivier Durbano, with Celine Verleure, Nicolas Chabot, a bit more with Megan Paki & Jean Philippe Clermont.

There was also a moment when I could sit down together with Rania Jouaneh at a more quiet moment and talk about her newest creation + smell it of course. She decided to work on a musk. Even thought it’s a very popular note, with Musc Moschus she managed to create something between white musk and filthy musk. The scent is animalic but in an elegant way and with a lovely creaminess in the drydown. For unknown reasons I didn’t take a photo of the bottle…

Discovering FO’AH range of fragrances inspired by the palm tree

Essential Parfums – a proof that niche can be affordable and smell great

New look of Uermi

Uermi NU Leather by Luca Maffei

Encouraged by Ana who tried the fragrance before I decided to stop at FO’AH stand. This new brand which launched in 2018 is owned by Emilie Dewell who wanted to combine her two worlds: French and Arabic into a perfume line. Emilie thought palm tree would be the perfect symbol so the bottle the brand uses resembles a palm tree trunk structure. In addition to that FO’AH teamed with Givaudan in creating a special and unique palm tree note incorporated into each of 5 scents the brand is offering. I enjoyed two of them, Memoires d’une Palmeraie 02 and 08.

In the afternoon I had a chance to meet with Neela Vermeire, a person who I believe needs no introduction to anyone who loves a niche perfume of top sort. We sat for about 30 minutes and talked about the show and what is generally happening in this segment of perfumery. Unfortunately Neela had to back out from exhibiting with NVC this year but she still came to Milan and did some meetings with business partners outside of Esxence. I hope it was a fruitful trip to her.

One of interesting new discoveries of Saturday was this brand named Essential Parfums. The concept is to use a simple bottle, an eco-friendly packaging made of couple layers of carton glued together and to feature at least one sustainable ingredient in each fragrance. They’re working with most renowned and recognized perfumers while the brand itself is super-affordable, charging 69 euro for a 100 ml bottle (or 18 euro for 10 ml travel spray). After smelling the entire range I was surprised in a very positive way and it’s a proof that niche can be great without costing a fortune.

My very last stop at Esxence was Uermi. The brand completely changed the look of the bottles to the round bottom ones from previously used rectangular shape. They also reworked a couple of fragrances to make them more polished. The brand new thing at the stand was NU Leather – a fragrance developed by Luca Maffei. It was a soft and embracing take on leather.

Goodbye Esxence

I think this is my best shot at Esxence. Gorgeous bottles of Atelier des Ors Collection Riviera

A visit in Milan is not complete without seeing Duomo

Last evening in Milan, having dinner & drinks with Elena at Obika Mozarella Bar. The restaurant is placed at the rooftop of La Rinascente

A view of Duomo from the restaurant terrace

And so Saturday at Esxence came to an end and it was time for me to say goodbye to everyone and to say goodbye to the exhibition for another year (hopefully). In the evening there was a “Gala Party” organized by Esxence founders but since it was a themed party (dresscode: formal attire) & I got my invitation just before Easter when I was already packed I decided that I’m not going. Luckily I wasn’t alone as Elena was in a similar situation. As a party replacement we decided to meet in front of the Duomo and have a nice dinner together. We went to La Rinascente, made a tour around a ground floor dedicated to fragrance – mostly exclusive designer lines (as if we didn’t have enough perfume during last 3 days). We got a table at Obika at the rooftop of La Rinascente, at the patio outside, so we enjoyed our pizza, pasta and drinks as we were looking at the top of Duomo by our side. I bet it was much better than the party. That was the end of my little adventure. We both took different metro to go back to our places, I had to pack to be ready to leave at 6 AM on Sunday.

A couple of final thoughts. I didn’t count but there must have been a lot of new fragrances that were launched at Esxence and I only managed to try a part of them but I must tell you that the air around The Mall smelled of stagnation. There were a lot of nice scents but “nice” is a clue word here. They were “nice” – nothing more than that. Lots and lots of repetitiveness, a lack of originality and no new ideas. There were a lot of fresh creations, quite many inspired by seaside or Mediterranean cost. Green florals and soliflores were also quite common. It starts to become more obvious that niche is becoming more commercial and mainstreamed, fragrances are much more safe and appealing to a greater audience. Even brands that we know they took some risks in the past and prevailed are not as open to experimentation anymore. Each year I came to Esxence there was at least one fragrance that would mesmerize me, that would make me go wow! and fall in love with it immediately. This year I didn’t experience that feeling & because of that I feel kind of disappointed.

Another phenomenon that has shaken the ground of Esxence was that 2019, like no other year before, saw a huge number of vloggers, Youtubers and so-called influencers coming to the show. Every now and then you’d see one of them filming another video or an interview with a brand. They were all over the place and you could easily recognize them as they were walking down the aisles with handfuls of bags with full bottles. I’m not here to judge anyone because I don’t know these vlogging people. If brands want to be promoted via Youtube or Instagram it’s their choice but I have a feeling that this is not the rightest way and that to some extend it can even tarnish their good reputation and luxurious character in the eyes of the other people. But when you hear loud voices of these people trying to convince the brand to give them something of big value as a present or some waiting until Sunday to score a free tester bottle from the stand… this just leaves me speechless and thinking that they don’t come to Esxence to meet people, to connect and exchange opinions but rather to get a big “haul” as they say, to brag about how much they got and how much it’s worth.

And with this non-optimistic accent I’d like to end this 3-part series of my Esxence 2019 report. It was a great experience to meet with friends and with new people. But to discover new & exciting perfume – not so much this time… May these last lines be your food for thought. Niche, where are you going?