Masque Milano Lost Alice: Whimsical Fun & Comfort

Masque Milano‘s Lost Alice is a lovely, fun, whimsical olfactory escape and comfort scent for a pandemic world where most of these things are in short supply.

Richard Emil Miller, “Woman Reading in A Garden.”

Creatively inspired, original in notes and ideas, and (mostly) successfully achieved, it is one of those fragrances that epitomizes, in my opinion, what niche is supposed to be, the reason why we seek it out over more easily accessible fragrance brands, the reason why we’re willing to pay more money, and the reason why we expect so much more from other brands that claim to be “niche” only to offer the most tired, downtrodden, generic retreads of stale ideas instead. When I write scathingly about the latest rehash of tobacco, vanilla, and amber (or worse still, Ambroxan), when I lament about Serge Lutens’ loss of original ideas and pioneering spirit, it is fragrances like many of those from Masque Milano that come to mind as alternatives where the brand is genuinely making a constant, years-long effort to put something new, interesting, or creative out there. Like Lost Alice.

Continue reading

Bortnikoff Santa Sangre: A Sandalwood Cloud

Bortnikoff‘s Santa Sangre showcases authentic fragrant sandalwood in all its glory. Not only does Mr. Bortnikoff use the very best, most luxurious version, Mysore sandalwood, but he and his co-creator add to the verisimilitude of the bouquet through a plethora of other ingredients that help to recreate the bouquet of a santal tree from the ground up.

Sandalwood. Source: styx.odessa.ua

Continue reading

Bortnikoff Sir Winston

As a tuberose lover, I was eager to try Bortnikoff‘s Sir Winston, a pure parfum whose notes included oud, ambergris, tobacco, and green tea. After trying it, I think you should not be misled by the name because, in my opinion, this is not a masculine fragrance focused on the many things associated with Sir Winston Churchill like, for example, cigars. Instead, it is a unisex, dense, candied floral vanilla amber gourmand dominated by tuberose and loads of real ambergris.

Photo: my own.

Continue reading

Francesca Bianchi Tyger Tyger

In Tyger TygerFrancesca Bianchi Perfumes seeks to contrast but also balance a post-apocalyptic darkness with refined, sophisticated brightness and seductive floralcy. The whitest of flowers are juxtaposed, in theory, with oud, animalics, and the darkest and smokiest of leathers. But as writers going back to Sophocles have made clear, there is a chasm between theory (appearance to be specific) and reality. Skin chemistry made my reality quite different from the intended objective. 

Source: shutterstock.com

Continue reading