SMELL IN THE CITY - AN URBAN OLFACTIVE JOURNEY - PART THREE

If you haven't read the previous posts here you can find the links: PART ONE/ PART TWO.

My smell walk could have ended once I found myself under the lime trees. It would be considered an amazing olfactive experience of smelling scents in natura, after all I have encounter many sources of raw materials. Curious as I am and eager to find more beauty I continued to explore the park and its surroundings.

Location 07: Hortensias.
Even that they were beginning to bloom I caught one that had a hint of fragrance. Truth is that these flowers have a very delicate smell that is almost imperceptible. Slightly flowery, they are more beautiful to look than to smell ;(.

Location 08: Sweet Alissum.

Although Sweet Alissum is a border/edging flower from the Mustard family and said to glow in the dark (I have never seen it) it does not smell like mustard at all!

What a joy to the senses is to experience the sight and the smell of these beautiful little flowers! Originally from the mediterranean region they bloom beautifully in Brazil. And the scent? OMG the scent! Pure golden sweetness!

It is very floral - gourmand mixing notes of honey dew, honey comb and pollen. 

By far my favorite honey note of all flowers.

Location 09: Plumeria.

Most commonly known as frangipani these flowers are natives here, found in white, dark pink, light pink and pink and yellow.

Although it releases most of its scent by night in order to attract moths  (their pollinators), here in São Paulo you can smell these flowers from far. They are everywhere and right now it is an endless display of beautiful trees in the entire city!

I am surrounded by them. All my neighbors have at least one tree in their garden. My right neighbor has a tree that is almost the size of her house.

I smell these beautiful flowers from the time I wake up till I go to sleep feeling blessed by this gift from Nature.

It evokes a sweet tropical scent of sunsets at the beach and picnic under trees. It is a sensual and alluring fragrance reminding tiare and jasmine with fruity undertones. 

When I close my eyes under a frangipani tree and smell the scent of its flowers I feel elevated. It is a mythical experience for me.

In perfumery the fragrance of frangipani varies according to its extraction method.

The British brand Ormonde Jayne has a beautiful Frangipani perfume that I recommend to every person who likes the scent of this flower.

Location 10: Magnolia Champaca.
Here in Brazil they are not yellow at all. In fact they are dark orange, almost red.

Heady-floral, creamy, warm, exotic, Joy-ish (by Jean Patou), magnolia - like fragrance with a hint of a tea note and a apricot undertone, it is by far the most beautiful scent I've encountered in the park. 

Champaca is loaded of carotenoids, ionenes, jasmonates and indoles which are some of the main ingredients of its brilliant scent.

Although lime blossom was equally amazing somehow Champaca is more luxurious, more chic.

Finishing the smell walk in the park I could not be happier to close my fragrant experience with the scent of green mangoes!

Outside the park, near to the place where I parked my car I found 3 mango trees.

Final location: Mango trees.

Unripe mangoes, what a scent!

Luxurious, ethereal, fresh, green-ish floral, delicate with a fading metallic hint (due to acetone molecules). It is a perfume ready to be bottled and sold.

Just like frangipanis, the mango trees are to be found all over town. In my neighborhood I have seen many, but not with this quantity of mangoes.

Yes, it screamed JEAN CLAUDE ELLENA loud and clear!

In my next smell walk you are going to take a walk with me and discover why São Paulo in a way is similar to NYC and the versatility of cultural backgrounds and how they influence in the general olfactive experience. Stick around because it is...

To be continued...

SMELL IN THE CITY - AN URBAN OLFACTIVE JOURNEY - PART TWO

My smell walk in São Paulo City starts with an olfactive exercise of trying to decompose the general smell that is particular of my city. 

Unfortunately the stench of Tiete & Pinheiros Rivers is growing stronger as we approach to Summer, added to the fact that the air is denser and dryer due to a long and severe period of drought. We are facing an increasing amount of dust in the air and also in the level of the city's pollution. The result is a stronger odor of sewer discharge (consisting of industrial and domestic waste) combined with the stench of abrasive metallic pollutants and the smell of a haze of urban dust which is a mix of fine particles of residual concrete, paint, wood and many others materials used in the construction of buildings. 
These 02 rivers with high concentrations of sulfides flow through the city bringing a smell of putrid waste and rotten eggs all together.

It is indeed a very difficult task drift away from that stench, but a trained nose must be succeed by focusing in something else.  

The way I did it was by looking for different olfactory perceptions and experiences and provoking different stimuli dissociating from the nasty stench. 
I set my mind to explore beauty by making the transition from urban concrete to Nature. From gray to green.

Here is how I did it:

An EUCALYPTUS PATH seemed to be the easiest way to find clean air and reset the nose. Due to its deodorizing and decongestant properties, eucalyptus clears the respiratory system and the mind. So my journey started inside the eucalyptus forest.

Location 01: The eucalyptus forest.
It was planted in São Paulo in the end of the 20's and the beginning of the 30's to border the Park and block the dispersion of gases of the avenues surrounding it.

The species planted found today are: E. camaldulensis, E. cinerea, E. citriodora, E. goniocalix, E. resinifera and E robusta.

Walking into this forest I had a multi sensorial experience. I closed my eyes and focused on the crushing sounds of the dried leafs spread all around. The crackling sound under my feet made me relax and smile. I love to crush dried leafs since I was little. 
I reconnected to my childhood.
Hugging an eucalyptus tree is also a mystical way of receiving energy. The secret of the healing power of these trees are long known by Indians, africans, Australian Aborigines, Celtic Druids, among others.

Once I felt my body filled with energy and my mind clean of thoughts I took a long breath to consciously smell my surroundings. The smell of fresh green leafs combined with dried ones. The smell of the decay of humid leafs and soil...the sun warming up the tree branches exhaling a woody scent.

Refreshing, slightly camphoraceus or lemony, the oil of the eucalyptus contains eucalyptol, cineol, pinene, limonene, citronellal ... and 250 of other components. 

In a nutshell it is a relaxing and uplifting fragrance  - A very delicate smell of sauna is spread in the air.

  

Location 02: Bamboos.
Following the track I found myself surrounded by high bamboos. 

Technically bamboo is a grass. Some are delicate, some are more woody and sturdy. In the park they are simply huge. The smell of the bamboos in the park is fresh, green-grass-y and the dried leafs have the smell of straw. 

Bamboos can have a foul smell if they are infected with fungus and bacteria. I have once encountered this stinky smell, but not at the Park. Here they are healthy and well treated. There was a hint of decay on the ground, but only if you bend your torso and look for it.

Location 03: Agapanthus garden. 

Continuing to walk I found myself surrounded by Agapanthus flowers. Although known as or Lily of the Nile is not a lily. It is a flower from the Amaryllidaceae (Amarillys) family and although it is not a flower of Brazilian origin they are fully adapted to our weather and soil conditions so it grows beautifully here in São Paulo.

I must confess I am crazy about these flowers, so walking in a huge garden full of them, widely open in their full bloom, is a dream come true for me. These purple-blueish little cornets are so delicate, so nicely displayed that all that could cross my mind that day was The Walt Disney Fantasy.
Unfortunately they were not scented, but the entire area had a fresh green grassy smell that was pleasant.

Location 04: Climber plants corner - Honeysuckle/sweet peas and jasmines.

The wind brought to me a whiff of a combination of flowers composing a bouquet. I followed it and to my surprise I encountered Caprifolium (or best known as Honeysuckle) climbers. These are beautiful flowers with the shape of little creamy forks that is a treat to every child who loves flower nectars. Frankly I did not have the courage to break and squeeze the honeysuckles to experience their taste. 

Truth is that its diffusive sensual fragrance shouts one word: Summer! 
It is a combination of a solar flowery bouquet with honey notes. 
The scent of the honeysuckles was such a treat that this journey could end at this point and yet, I felt another whiff of a similar honeyed note coming from a different direction. I turned to my right side looking for that perfume and I found the vines just 5 paces from me: Parallel training vines of sweet peas were neatly planted running like a hand caressing the skin.

Sweet peas have a classic scent of fragrances from the 19th Century.

It is intoxicating, romantic, sensuous in a delicate way.

Although native of Italy it smells very English, slightly honeyed with hyacintenite orange blossom notes.

Next to the vines there are also climbers running on pergolas and fences such as Madagascar jasmines, know as Bridal Wreath (Stephanotis floribunda). 
Its fragrance is strongly reminiscent of true jasmines. 
They are quite big flowers and at this time of the year they are in their full bloom. 
It was a hot day so the scent was really intense, warm, narcotic & intoxicating, sensuously feminine, slightly waxy.
It has tropical smell...different from the Caprifolium, which is more "Mediterranean" or even different of the sweet peas that are so British - vintage.
Continuing to explore the beauty of white flowers I found a path of lime trees in full bloom.

Location 05: Lime trees path.

One of the most beautiful spots in the park is a street with lime trees (citrus aurantifolia) on planted both sides. The scent is so strong and diffuse that you can trace it for very far. The tree branches display little bouquets or florets that are not only a treat to the nose, but also very delicate to the sight.

Rich, luxurious and citrusy honeyed this uplifting fragrance smells like a finished perfume itself.

Lime essential oils have a lactonic and woodsy undertones combined with spicy flowery ones. It smells very tropical due to a coconut-coumarine underlayer.

From all the white flowers I've encountered in this smell walk till now they were by far the most fantastic ones.

Location 06: Lilies plantation.

We can find in the park has many types of lilies. The most fragrant I have encounter were the white ones, or Madonna Lillies ( lilium candidum). 

Sweet, penetrating, heavenly scent flowers that bring a duality of good and annoying, of beauty and chastity.

Its heady white floral note is sensuous and sultry and although beautiful, they are not my favorite white flowers' scent to tell the truth.

Apart from white flowers, the park offers many other treats. walking around I got to a hidden place with a disturbing sign saying "entrance for staff members only". Uf! Disappointing!

Although closed for visitation during the weekend's the herbal garden can be enjoyed outside its fences. The aromatic smell of thyme, mint, lavender, sage, rosemary and other herbs is intense. In terms of quality one cannot compare to the ones I have found in the Mediterranean Region, yet still fragrant.

Fennel aroma is the one that I could capture the most from far. The scent is similar to anise-licorice; it is herbal and semi-sweet.

Thyme was also very close to the fence and blooming.

Thyme contains thymol, carvacrol, cymene, terpiene, camphene, borneol, linalol, menthone, geraniol, citral and thuyanol, besides many more constituents, but with those listed, if you are introduced to fragrances and chemistry, you can understand the aroma of this plant.

The only herb that I was able to reach with my hand was sage, which is in the mint family. Its aroma is very spicy, uplifting, herbaceous, and minty. Needless to say the flowers are beautifully growing upwards like purple sticks.

If you are enjoying this smell walk, please kindly wait for part III!

In the next chapter I will bring more beauty of tropical flowers and scents found in the park!! 

Meanwhile...

For more articles on fragrances and scents and places:

Smell in the City - Israel 1
City themed fragrances
Hamman - a Moroccan experience
City themed fragrances trend
City of Kyoto by Della Chuang
The scents of New Zeland
Passeio Olfativo por Nova Iorque I e II e III
Miller Harris and Salty memories - Búzios - BR

SMELL IN THE CITY - AN URBAN OLFACTIVE JOURNEY - PART ONE

Dedicated to VICTORIA HENSAW (1971 - 2014)

In a world of globalization and virtual living we have developed a lack of emotional connection to what is local. We are less aware of our surroundings and we are not fully experiencing the "materiality" of things. Being less contemplative and less emotionally connected to a local environment although it may sound very modern and hip it is also drifting us away from our origins. We are loosing our identities as urban citizens. Where we come from and who we are. We no longer recognize the smell of "home" because we became urban nomads, modern gypsies.

Photo credit: Elle Sweden - November issue 2014

This nomadism social pattern has influenced creations of fashion designers and brands such as Etro brought to fashion week recently in their winter 2014/15 collection a cultural ethnic - boho style. 
Also another example of the nomad style was highlighted in Elle Sweden in their November issue with a complete fashion journey to furs and ponchos.

PATCHOULI ABSOLU EDP

Photo credit: Tom Ford

Tom Ford is showing this trend in perfumery.
This Holiday he is presenting Patchouli Absolu with an iconic note of the 70s, evoking louche sensuality and late-night glamour. Ford’s new fragrance is composed with three different types of patchouli: patchouli oil, patchouli coeur and a breakthrough iteration of patchouli called clearwood – used for the first time in perfumery. 
Other key ingredients are bay leaf, rosemary, moss, woods and amber.

But mostly in perfumery these days, except for the fragrances surrounding patchouli or roses in a new boho- hippie style, we have been spotting the SEARCH FOR THE LOCAL IDENTITY. BEING LOCAL MEANS BEING GLOBAL.
City themed collections, such as the niche brands Le Labo, Bond Nº9 are around quite a while, but the epitome of the theme is found more recently in the project Scent of Departure. 
Outside the niche perfumery world brands like Ermenegildo Zegna are also promising fragrances using local beautiful raw materials. As an example let's check the new fragrance PERUVIAN AMBRETTE, their latest creation for the ESSENZE collection:

"As its name suggests, Peruvian Ambrette features ambrette harvested from a very small yield of seeds derived from the San Martín region of Peru’s Amazonian rainforest. The seed produces an essential oil – described as a sweet, rich musk with nutty undertones – which is considered the only natural non-animal musk ingredient in the fragrance industry. The region’s farmers handpick the seeds, and then separate the ambrette seed shell from the seed itself, as the essential oil is mainly localized within the shell. After distillation, a small amount of oil – which has the thickness of concrete – is obtained.

A further extraction process to eliminate fatty acids yields ambrette absolute – the most pure and premium quality of the ambrette seeds. To achieve the highest quality composition, Zegna’s perfumers intensified the muskiness of the ambrette seed, by combining the absolute with complimentary ingredients to lend a cleaner and lighter characteristic exclusive to the Peruvian Ambrette fragrance according to the brand." (extracted from Moodyreport.com)

MOJAVE GHOST EDP by BYREDO

Photo credit: BYREDO

Another recent example of the SENSE OF PLACE-LOCAL TREND is presented by the niche perfume house BYREDO. Their newest scent is called Mojave Ghost.  
LUCKYSCENT details:

"In the xeric wilderness of the mojave desert, trees and vegetation more ancient than many civilizations defy conditions that prey on human vulnerability. The ghost flower is a rare species that dares to blossom above this baked, hard ground. Despite its arid surroundings and inability to produce nectar, the ghost flower, or mohavea confertiflora, maintains its perfect, majestic beauty and thrives year after year. In an astonishing feat of ingenuity, the flower uses mimicry to attract the pollinators of a neighboring plant species by developing markings that resemble those of a female bee, therefore attracting it and duping the male bee into following suit. This moving human-like behavior and captivating tale of survival lies in the foundation that inspired ‘mojave ghost’, an homage to this most bewitching flower. 

Mojave Ghost opens with a familiar yet mysterious fruit note, like a pear grown on another planet. Languid and almost buttery ambrette and sandalwood facets smooth and stretch these slices of fruit into a golden desert sunset, with petals of violet and magnolia basking in its diminishing light. Warm woods and ambergris remain on the skin for hours, prolonging a magic desert twilight." 

So let's take a deeper look in this trend!

In a multidimensional world where contrast and diversity rules, we want to find our individualism and emotional conection. We are work in progress kind of beings and now to understand who we are in this co existing macro space, we turn to micro, to local, to origin to redefine who we are. We suddenly have a need to recognize familiar smells. To empower what is local. 
To explain it better I think I need to evoke the work of Mrs.Victoria Hensaw (sadly recently deceased this last October), city planner and an odor specialist at the University of Sheffield, who once said that cities are loosing its peculiar smells. She also referred to the fact that brands are expanding globally, bringing their smells with them. 

LUSH BRASIL

Photo credit: site DermaPost 

This introduction of foreign smells is blurring the local smell identity.
A good example in my city, São Paulo (Brazil) is the very unique smell of the International brand LUSH, of English origin, that can be sensed in one entire block of Jardins neighborhood in São Paulo City. Or the coffee aroma coming from Nespresso  store a few meters from Lush.

An example that we all can recognize is the very old American smell of Mc Donald's - sensed around cities of this planet.  Most recently we can add to this chain smell phenomena The Starbucks coffee smell, that seems to proliferate in many cities around the globe like mushrooms after rain.

Japan is an exception in a way. Although eager to have food chains like any other country, according to the specialist it is the country that has one of the most advanced attitudes towards the olfactory sense and its relationship to place, going as far as declaring “One Hundred Sites of Good Fragrance” across the country. 
From the sea mist of Kushiro to the Nanbu rice cracker of Morioka, not to mention the distinct smell of glue that hangs in the air around the doll craftsmen’s homes in Koriyama, all now have protected status.

Well, no wonder! We all know that Japan is one of the countries that cherish the most its traditions and culture.

The questions that are popping out my mind right now are: If cities are loosing their olfactive identity and our olfactive knowledge is changing within time, from generation to generation and globally from culture to culture, is it possible that we are also loosing this local olfactive reference becoming globally olfactive noses? Are we loosing our personal locally scent database?

Adding something to the subject of olfactive identity and odor lexicon Dutch researches of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in The Netherlands found out that the richness in vocabulary to describe smells is also influenced by culture and location. 

According to them a group of hunter-gatherers from Thailand can describe smells using at least 15 different abstract expressions. They organize them in categories according to their pleasantness and dangerousness. They go even further saying that neuroscientists can also draw valuable conclusions such as that the structure of this group lexicon of smells can indicate that pleasant and dangerous smells are processed differently in the brain.

Another question raised: if we became modern nomads and we are loosing our local identity and becoming more global, is it possible that we are expanding our olfactive lexicon? According to the researchers English speakers have more difficulty to name odors. even familiar everyday odors such as coffee, banana and chocolate can be named correctly by the smell only 50% of the time! The researchers also proved that this is not true for all languages. By studying that group they understood that it varies from place to place and from culture to culture. So if there is a biological limitation for our ability to name smells, being global can improve our ability? If so, although we are loosing a bit of our olfactive identity we can also be improving our olfactive vocabulary. Interesting!

These questions lead me to another one: What scents shape a country, a city or a neighborhood? Have you ever thought the smells surrounding you?

In my neighborhood at this season (Spring) the most present smell is the smell of HADROANTHUS ALBUS or Ipê tree.  

These trees exhale a beautiful delicate smell and it is everywhere.

I decided last weekend to do a Smell Walk a bit far from my home and register for a post that is coming soon. If you stick around you will go on a surprising fragrant journey in the heart of a city.

See you soon! :)

FIORE DI BELLAGIO EDP BY SHELLEY WADDINGTON

What can I say about Shelley Waddington? She is a great perfumer. 

But I've already said that. 

That she creates masterpieces...I've already said that too. 

I love her fragrances! 

Are you going to keep repeating that? 

YES, till she stops creating them I probably will.

So what's new with Shelley Waddington? 

She created a perfume inspired by Zelda Fitzgerald. 

Well, that is not news; Zelda EDP was launched in 2013. 

This is another one!

Fiore di Bellagio EDP is the newest fragrance created by Shelley Waddington that seems to be in a retro journey these days. With Zelda she took us back to the roaring 20's. With Chocolate Trio to the court of Marie Antoinette & Josephine and Paris and London of the turn of the century. 

Needless to say she is very good at that. Pêche Noir EDP, a creation from this perfumer launched in 2010 takes me to the French Bohemian Era with dark smokey cafés and jazzy rendezvous like any other perfume. One thing is inspiration; another is time travel. Shelley Waddington perfumes are sometimes travel machines that will take you to an incredible journey somewhere in the past.

Fiore di Bellagio EDP will continue the journey to the Roaring 20's that started with Zelda EDP. This time she will bring you a luxurious and exuberant fragrance represented by an ARTDECO perfume. True that I have seen one before made by Vero Kern called Rubj EDP, but Fiore di Bellagio EDP brought something that IMO is hard to find: 

A REMARKABLE RETRO YLANG YLANG FRAGRANCE!

FIORE DI BELLAGIO EDP

photo credit; En Voyage Perfumes

Notes of FdB provided by En Voyage Perfumes are: top - Italian lemon and Citrus, green leaves and ylang ylang; middle - spicy carnation, gardenia and jasmine absolutes, Bulgarian Rose otto, muguet, violet, Bois de rose; base - dark vanilla, antique sandalwood, iris Fiorentine (orris absolute), costos oil, vintage resins, civet and musks.

Said to be inspired by Caron's Bellodgia (launched in 1927) and combining a high percentage of pure extraits, Shelley offers Ylang Ylang combined with spicy carnations, gardenias, jasmines, violets, roses and orris, bringing exuberance to a majestic status. 

Its warmth is presented with a strong fresh-green citrusy providing a vivid contrast with the curvilineal art deco bouquet that will follow. The opulent bouquet is somehow exotic-tropical and retro granny. Fantastic! There is also a vintage violet-iris-muguet combination that is powdery and pretty. As the middle notes develop you will perceive an extremely positive joyful alluring vibration. As flap dancer on your skin.

Drydown is mellow and sweet with resins and a sensual touch of musk and civet.

A versatile fragrance that despite its opulence is suitable for all seasons. I know what you are thinking... too bold for summer...well, Ylang tree comes from exotic lands with wet hot weather so... you will really enjoy its beauty wearing it on a hot day! 

Fiore di Bellagio EDP is part of The Masterpiece Collectio found at EN VOYAGE PERFUMES website. Sold for USD75 - 0.6oz/EDP concentration or USD95 - 0.25oz/Parfum Extrait concentration.


OBS: There are two other interesting perfumes with spicy ylang combination that I enjoy: Lys Carmin EDP by Van Cleef that brings to us a clove-ylang-lillies experience and Lys Fume EDP by Tom Ford, combining ylang, lillies and nutmeg

* Video provided by aaron1912 - youtube.

MOON DUST EDP BY MiN, MOON LANDING CONSPIRACY AND SPY MOVIES

Thinking that the United States has never sent men to the Moon seems absurd. To some specialists in the field, former astronauts, journalists, and a small percentage of people around the globe it is a supported, highly demonstrated and confirmed fact. Truth or not, these polemic theories are out there being debated over two decades and they have a name: MOON LANDING CONSPIRACY THEORIES. 

According to these theories NASA has hoaxed substantially the audio, video and photo shootings of the landing on the Moon by Apollo Missions, using the Nevada Area 51 to shoot the images. In fact, if you watch the video I posted you will see that it is fair to say that it is indeed a very polemic and complex subject that raises a lot of questions.

Credit: SG TROOP via youtube/FOX 

Another conflicting detail about the Moon landing is the smell of Moondust. In the Apollo Chronicles - The Mysterious Smell of The Moondust -  astronaut Gene Cernan from the mission Apollo 17 attests that the Moon surface is soft as snow, fine as flour, rough and abrasive as sandpaper, provokes hay fever and that smells like burnt gunpowder.

If Moondust was so abrasive as they scooped back then, how come it did not ruin the suits but it made some damage on the boots? How come it smells like gunpowder if it is made of silicon dioxide glass, magnesium, iron, calcium, olivine and pyroxene and modern gunpowder is a mixture of nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin? 

Curiously, back to Earth, the "samples" taken did not have the smell of gunpowder at all! According to NASA the samples taken were placed in vacuum containers that somehow got unsealed and in contact with oxygen and that actually they can't really attest how much these samples were altered by this kind of exposure. 
A question raises here: is it possible that highly trained personnel in a mission that costs millions of dollars be that careless about handling, preserving and bringing samples back to Earth to study? If so, NASA should review its protocols...just saying...but back to scents:

Describing the smell of the Moon ISS astronaut Don Petit states in the NASA website: "Picture yourself in a desert on Earth, what do you smell? Nothing, until it rains. The air is suddenly filled with sweet, peaty odors."

Eugene Cernan covered by Moondust - "Lunar surface" in December of 1972.

Credit: NASA

How do you find the smell of Moondust outside the Moon? In Nevada desert after the rain? Or in the new collection of fragrances developed by Chad Murawczyk and Mindy Yang from MiN New York? 

MOON DUST EDP is one of the 11 scents of the collection or "chapters of visceral moments/volume I" (as the couple is calling them) and inspired by the very description of astronaut Gene Cernan. 

Notes of flint* stone, ozone, tobacco, benzoin and black musk were cleverly mixed to give an overall mineral effect in this wicked perfume! *Yes, you remembered The Flintsones! So did I!!

What MOON DUST EDP has in common with the Moon itself is not the smell of its dust, but the very Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories, in a sense that all is questionable, all is arguable AND CREATIVE. I explain: Mindy and Chad had their share of travels; they come from mixed backgrounds and cultures; they have their very personal way of seeing the world and to express their feelings and creativity in scents. They want you to open your heart and mind and have your very special way to relate to these fragrances. They tell a story at the very first whiff, but you can use your imagination and rewrite your own chapter! Actually they encourage you to do.

Moon Dust EDP by MiN New York - Scent Stories Vol. I

Photo credit: Min website

+ Q PERFUME BLOG IMPRESSIONS

MOON DUST EDP is bold, powerful, extremely sensual perfume with a profuse performance. You need to have an outstanding personality to support this one, otherwise you will be swallowed by it. So if you like intensity and well designed fragrances this fragrance is for you. 

MOON DUST EDP is a black shinning Arabian stallion running free in the wild and need to be domesticated. It will sprint into your nostrils and be carefully smoothed on your skin. Once that happens, it is beautifully developed.

It also has a serious animalic facet to it that it is at the same time both mineral & salty sweet & sensual. The opening has a very unconventional mineral -  wet & hot pavement-ish kind of scent, as if it rain just evaporated on a very hot pavement. I love it because it reminds me of my childhood at the beach, when after a long hot day, the rain falls, bringing up the mineral scent of the sand, pavement and the sea altogether.

It contains layers and layers of darkness with a beetroot undertone mixed with the smell of dry dirt that is very interesting. Here at the heart you will be enchanted by a strong cedar scent a bit rubbery and very unique.

The drydown is very sexy due to the black musk notes. Slightly powdery, sophisticated and also slightly sweeten by a note of benzoin.

If you tried Black Bulgari, Fire Intense by Sonoma, Lonestar Memories by Andy Tauer and even Encre Noir by Lalique or M/Mink By Byredo(all reviewed herein the past) you are ready for the MOON DUST EDP experience. In fact it would be a very interesting and complementing couple's scent experience to wear MOON DUST EDP (for him) paring with Black Bulgari (for her)!

Truth is smelling the perfume I was taken to a Bond movie scene at the beach - in Quantum of Solace - in which James Bond play by DanielCraig (my favorite Bond) comes out of the water and is seduced by actress Caterina Murino on a horse.

MOON DUST EDP of Scent Stories Vol by MiN New York takes you to a journey. If to the Moon, to a Bond movie,  or any other place, it is up to you to smell and discover. I did not write my own story. My memory took me to a journey involving secret agents that started a long time ago with Black Bulgari. My evoked journey was to a beach in the Bahamas where Craig shows his well built torso and Murino shows the sensuality of her body and the curves of a stallion. The script was already written.

But let's come back to the city because most of us lead an urban life. Being more practical what I can say about the fragrance is that I feel that is more suitable for the masculine gender; for colder days and to be better explored at night (due to its mysterious and seductive aura).

You can order a sample or purchase a full bottle at MiN New York Atelier at 117 Crosby Street, Soho, NYC  or online at: minnewyork.com

You can also visit the brand during PITTI FRAGRANZE 2014 from 12 to 14th this month - Booth #9

My next review of the Scent Stories is going to be Magic Circus EDP because it has also a common element with Moon Dust EDP - but that I will reveal in the future. Stick around to be surprised!