Hannibal

March. 2019. Paris. I visit the city very often. The cafés, restaurants and cultural offerings are diverse. As always, I visited the avant-garde fashion store L'eclaireur Hérold. One of the designers there at the time was Maurizio Amadei with his m.a.+ brand. After a while I saw a bottle that was wrapped in leather. Only a cut-out in the shape of a cross indicated the yellowish colour of the liquid. It was the scent Across from m.a.+. The scent was sprayed on me and I enjoyed the earthy spice for a day in Paris, but later more.

The Across fragrance is the result of a collaboration between Maurizio Amadei and Meo Fusciuni. A meeting of two great artists in the field of fashion and perfume naturally brings with it high expectations. It is a versatile unisex fragrance.

"I've listened to the earth, that under my skin flooded, it described in harmony its time, its smell". With these words Meo Fusciuni describes his creation for m.a.+. The perfume aims to tell the story of humanity by highlighting its connection with the earth and nature. I've owned the fragrance for several weeks now and after a long period of testing I feel ready to tell about it. The bottle is particularly striking. It is completely wrapped in pieces of leather and has a punched-out cross on the front and back, which brings out the yellowish liquid. The bottle's cap resembles a piece of silver worked with hammer blows. Folding the leather on the top left-hand side of the bottle reveals m.a.+'s signature cross: two silver brackets forming a cross. With the first spray, things get serious right away. The top note is full of rhubarb and celery. The galbanum indicated in the pyramid moves more in the background. I like that extremely well. The top note reminds me very much of an earthy herb garden or a dish from the haute cuisine. After some time the top note moves into the background. Smoky, woody and earthy notes come to the fore. I perceive tobacco and wood above all. But also hints of cedar wood and myrrh alternate in a kind of childish catch play. One gets used to the woody to earthy situation of the fragrance over time until the top note appears again and again after a few hours. I'm standing at a traffic light in Paris at over 30 degrees and as if from nowhere the vegetable-like and herbaceous scent of celery and rhubarb climbs up my nose. A delight. Every now and then the scent also appears with a certain kind of animalistic touch. It must be the Ylang-Ylang, which now and then fights its way through the jungle of earth and herbs. The fragrance reminds me in parts of Terre d'Hermès, but Across is much more complex, intelligent and "down-to-earth". It is probably the most earthy fragrance I know. Nevertheless, its epochal vegetable orchestra gives it a spicy freshness. Up to now I have worn the fragrance at temperatures of 15 to 40 degrees. Depending on the heat, the fragrance develops differently. The interplay between soil and plant is nevertheless fortunately always present. I am curious about the fragrance in winter.

It is a natural perfume with good durability. Logically, the shelf life cannot compete with synthetic fragrances, but it doesn't have to. The silage of the fragrance is very pleasant and not too obtrusive even in hot temperatures. This is very important because I use the fragrance as an everyday scent and many different appointments are part of my daily routine. 225 Euro for the scent are well invested. The design of the flacon and the scent itself are unique. Honestly. Maurizio Amadei and Meo Fusciuni have done a great job.

This fragrance is a symbol of the following quotation: "The earth nourishes man."
Now it is up to us to find out who feeds the earth.

It was March, March 2019, and like several times a year I was on one of my tours of Paris. As every time, I visited the store of avant-garde designer Rick Owens in the Jardin du Palais Royal. The setting of the Palais always gives the visits a special aura. The flowers always have a special scent. In the store I talked to the very nice store manager as always. She drew my attention to the new fragrance and the only one from Michele Lamy - Rick Owen's wife and muse. The bottle was solid and embedded in a wooden box. The cap is made of solid bronze-silver mis and reminds of Michele's rings. The store manager told me that the monkey adorning the lid of the bottle was the Chinese zodiac sign of Lamy. I was allowed to test the scent and I mean really test it. I was sprayed on both arms with a lot of sprays and another test strip was sprayed on. You have to keep in mind that the perfume is limited to 1000 bottles and a proud $1,700. In an image film the fragrance is described as "blood, sweat and tears". I can't sign that at all. The fragrance reminded me of a herb garden, but with an animal freshness. It also has a certain brutality. It reminds me of a menu at Tim Raue's in Berlin. The scent has something of Haue Cuisine, I was getting hungry in any case. I liked the scent a lot. If you look at the composition of the fragrance, you can find cardamom and bergamot, but also myrrh, amber and vetiver. An incredible creation. All in all an interesting and unique fragrance. I've never seen such an incredible packaging and bottle before. Uniqueness through and through. If the price of $1,700 for a 50ml perfume wasn't much too high, I'd call a bottle my own. On the same day I tested the fragrance "Across" by ma+, which also reminded me of a culinary experience. Altogether a very exciting day