König Ludwig Parfümerie Brückner

The obvious first: perfumes are things. I would never call them lifeless or soulless, but they are things - objects that draw some of their qualities only from what we, who have them, had, desire, or condemn, projecting into them. Just as we do with things. With the cameo we inherited from our grandmother. With the worn leather jacket that HE left behind with us. Things.

Next, legitimizing a perfume comment as a comment: King Ludwig is a good perfume. Nostalgic, yet timeless and ageless. With expertise and classically orchestrated, but not stuffy. Its lively green hesperidic opening - more citrus than green, but too green to be called just citrus. Floral and fresh, yet despite the lily of the valley, clearly meant to be masculine. Finally, intimate and warm. I would give it a 7.5.

The truly important thing last - what makes this rare and little-known scent worthy of comment and special to me. One of the cities where I have often considered whether I would like to work and live - at least for a few years - is Munich. And at the beginning of last year, I actually had an offer that would have brought me to Munich. In the aftermath of one of the conversations I had back then, I was at the Brückner perfumery, which has a shop in a side wing of the New Town Hall at Marienplatz, and I tried perfumes from the Brückner private label there. This one appealed to me the most in its classically light-footed manner, something you can only find here - and the mad king is also on the bottle. And then I thought: if this works out, if you do this - then you’ll buy it. To celebrate the moment. To Munich. It was almost like a small vow. A perfume as a pledge for an important decision, a little promise to myself. Superstition. Projection. For that, it gets an extra 1.0. I probably wouldn’t buy a 7.5 perfume. An 8.5, I would.

Conclusion: the offer came. I declined it. And did not buy Brückner's King Ludwig. I would not have been happy in that job (and thus in Munich) - despite Theatinerkirche, Flaucher, and Monopteros. I know that now, but I also knew it back then. And yesterday, I finally bought King Ludwig after all. As my little, winking promise to Munich. After all, you never know what might still happen...