Gorod Myortvyx Korolej

Город мёртвых королей / Huế

Anna Zworykina

Of the works I have tried from Anna Zworykina, HUE is the most transportive. It is also the most unusual and unique. A smoky-resinous oud perfume displaying aromatic, floral, fruity, mossy, and aquatic facets.
The perfume delivers a vivid olfactory experience of HUE, the former ancient capital of Vietnam, cruising the Huong River in a rustic rowboat through the pillars rising out of the water to support the wooden houses of the villagers. Stopping by the river market to purchase some aromatic herbs, spices, and fresh fruit, followed by a visit to the many temples in the city for some agarwood incense burning and meditation. Anna uses a combination of seaweed, choya nakh, and pink lotus to suggest the green waters of the river, oakmoss, vetiver, and mitti attar for grounding the imagery of the shore. Green waters adorned with lotus flowers and mosses embellishing the pillars of the houses. A combination of exotic fruits, florals, and aromatic herbs follows the green-aquatic opening, welcoming the wearer to the nearby river markets flanking the shore. These facets are delicately carved. Don't expect big strokes of mango and champaca or frangipani. They are used with a light touch to stimulate the imagination. Finally, the base greets you into the temple with a prominent agarwood note displaying a light ceremonial smoke accord, lavishly adorned with resins like myrrh and spicy-lemony elemi. The buzz outside the temple goes silent allowing for deep meditation.
I love HUE but only wear it as a personal scent. It feels more like an experience rather than a perfume. I tried wearing it out and felt like wasting it. Unique and transportive for when you crave those South-East Asian trips and you want to skip the airport queues.

Review of the Pure Parfum version.

IG:@memory.of.scents

A few friends and I are backpacking in Vietnam.
Of course, we are out for adventure,
wanting to explore the country.
With the help of inadequate maps, we try to explore a forest.
We have been on the road for hours,
probably hopelessly lost.
On the moldy-smelling earth, a multitude of identical mushrooms grow.
Tempting, we haven't eaten anything in ages.
A cautious test with the tongue,
no, they don't taste bitter,
more like the earth.
A bite, everything spins....
Falling...
Depth...
Impact...
Saltwater...
I taste the salt on my lips,
try to open my eyes...
A cave,
a glance upwards,
no chance....
Around me, the roots of trees in the swamp,
they seem to reach for me with their long fingers.
The damp walls covered in moss.
Hissing...Squeaking...
I see white figures,
with eyes that bulge from their skulls.
I remain still...
They don't seem to see me,
the eyes are glassy...blind.
One of these monsters with razor-sharp teeth is very close,
it smells musty, like decay.
It turns away.
I try to free myself,
stuck in this slimy pool of seaweed.
A wave of claustrophobia hits me,
I struggle with the swampy kelp.
It pulls me deeper and deeper.
By now, I'm stuck up to my neck.
Above me, the night...
a hopeless fight.
My senses fade,
everything spins in circles again.
I smell essential oils....

A search party found my friends and me,
unconscious from eating the mushrooms,
and brought us back to the present with the oil.

When you test this scent, it is not necessarily pleasant,
but it takes you on an adventurous journey,
telling stories.
That's why it deserves the 7 points.
Buy? - You would have to like something like this.
It's not to my taste, but it will find its admirers.
I don't smell the incense sticks here.

... this is exactly how this fragrance, now called HUE, smells, if I'm correctly informed...

Even though the old name sounds a bit more Christian, that doesn't change the fact that the scent is a true experience.
This is likely to be one of the shortest comments I've ever written.
The fragrance is incredibly multifaceted but at the same time so complexly constructed (masterfully one might say) that an elaborate description somehow seems impossible...

Time travel back to the wildest 70s.
Right in the middle of a tent full of smoking, drumming, guitar-playing hippies.
Music, singing, bare skin.
There is dancing, flirting, sweating, and smoking.
A lot, a lot of smoking.
Incense sticks in all possible and impossible scent forms - and as if that weren't enough - fragrance lamps and scented candles. Spices, herbs, and various liqueurs.
It’s as if all the smells of a complete hippie market were stuffed into a drop of perfume or into a single hippie tent.
Add to that a big whiff of green forest floor air.
In the morning I wake up. Still euphorically dazed, I sniff my shirt, which still smells of all the nuances from the night before. The scent of the brewery wafts in through the window and joins in as well.
Exhausted but completely satisfied, I turn over again.