Summer may be drawing to a close in many parts of the world, but Roja Dove has two Extraits that seem well suited to any time of the year. Each one is a pure parfum and soliflore, a fragrance highlighting one central note. In this case, it is Neroli and Lilac, respectively. Both are lovely fragrances, though not without their flaws. I thought I’d take a look at each one in turn.
Category Archives: Blog Features
Interview: Filippo Sorcinelli of UNUM & LAVS
Filippo Sorcinelli has been called “a Renaissance man,” and the term seems fitting. He is not only the force behind Unum Parfums and the LAVS Atelier that makes vestments for the popes, but he is also a painter, photographer, musician, and conceptual post-modernist artist whose work has been praised by the Louvre.
Photo: Rita Francia for Unum and Mr. Sorcinelli. Source: UNUM.
Reviews En Bref: Six from NISHANE Istanbul
NISHANE Istanbul is a fragrance brand that seeks to bottle Turkey’s ancient scent traditions along with Istanbul’s cosmopolitan style in a mix of the modern and the classical. Nishane was founded in 2012, which is probably why the company says it is Turkey’s very first niche brand. At that time, they put out colognes and scented candles, but they recently launched a 16-fragrance collection of extrait de parfums.
The Nishane Extrait Collection. Photo via Nishane’s Facebook page.
I’ve tried six of them: Duftbluten, Spice Bazaar, Patchuli Khoza, Tuberoza, Munegu, and Afrika Olifant. Unfortunately, none of the six worked for me and none of them had sufficient complexity to warrant spending several thousand words analysing each one individually. Perfume reviewing is a subjective thing that is dependent on individual tastes, experiences, and skin chemistry, but it’s not easy to write exhaustive, detailed reviews on things one dislikes all in a row. So I’ve chosen to write what essentially amounts to blurbs by my (admittedly skewed) standards rather than skipping reviewing the fragrances entirely. In each case, I’ll eschew quoting Nishane’s full description for the scent and all the background information. Instead, I’ll simply give the company’s general categorization, the notes, and a link to either Fragrantica, Basenotes, or a positive review where you can read different perspectives as a counterbalance.
Carner Barcelona Palo Santo
“Sacred wood” steeped in mysticism, and coveted by shamen over the centuries for its ability to protect and purify through its aromatic, earthy, incense, and woody aromas — that’s how the Spanish niche brand, Carner Barcelona, describes the heart of its newest fragrance, Palo Santo. My experience, however, never once evoked images of spiritual shamen purifying the world through mystical, smoky woods. Instead, I was taken back to childhood with memories of sweet treats and hot milk.