Nouveau Monde Louis Vuitton 2018

It actually started inconspicuously, with a decision that had long been maturing within me: I no longer wanted to just like or dislike scents, but to truly understand them. So I signed up for a perfume course. From the very first day, it was clear to me: A new world was opening up. We smelled individual raw materials - bergamot, vanilla, leather, patchouli - and suddenly they became building blocks, like words in a language I had never been able to speak properly before.

I remember the feeling when we tried oud for the first time. Dark, mysterious, almost overwhelming - a note that evoked both attraction and respect. Or the moment we smelled saffron: warm, spicy, golden like a sunbeam in a glass. I soaked it all in, curious and with a kind of childlike enthusiasm.

After the course, I felt the need to apply this new knowledge immediately. I didn’t want to buy just any fragrance, but one that reminded me of this journey. So I went to Louis Vuitton, long fascinated by their perfume line, but never before with this awareness.

The boutique was bright and elegant, almost like a gallery. When the consultant placed the bottle of Nouveau Monde in front of me, the moment felt significant. A spray on my wrist, and then it happened: the warm, velvety embrace of cocoa, instantly deep and sensual, like a secret memory of familiar comfort. Yet at the same time, saffron pushed to the forefront, bright, spicy, almost like a reminder of what I had smelled in the course. And underneath, oud. Dark, earthy, serious. Suddenly, it felt as if everything I had learned came together: the top notes that unfold, the base that supports, the heart that connects.

I stood there, and for a moment, I was not just smelling a fragrance. I was smelling my own development, my learning journey, my curiosity. Nouveau Monde was not a coincidence; it was like the answer to the questions I had asked myself in the course.

When I finally bought the bottle, it didn’t feel like I had simply indulged in a perfume. It felt more like a promise. A promise to myself to experience scents more consciously, to not just view them superficially, but to discover stories, feelings, and memories within them.

Since then, I don’t wear Nouveau Monde every day. It is my special companion for moments when I want to remember this journey: the scent of saffron on a test strip, the first deep inhalation of oud, the realization that perfume is more than an accessory - it is a piece of identity.

And every time the warm, dark notes unfold on my skin, I am briefly back in that classroom, surrounded by small bottles and curious gazes. I remember the moment when a passion began.