VTrancoso

I imagine myself inside the peace of a rural landscape that includes a stable with harness and saddles stowed to an open door on a hill where the fresh smell of flowers and hay comes from, carried by the early afternoon breeze. The buzz of cicadas echoes in the distance in the serenity of the horizon. I sat on a small bench in the shade of a resinous wood of a leafy tree. Next to it, there are a bunch of blood oranges already semi-dehydrated, waiting to be made into homemade jam, which give off a slightly bitter but pleasant aroma.
I kept a slice of a fragrant orange that I carried in my pocket. Its sweetness rests on the roof of my mouth.

Nathalie Feisthauer evokes her memories of Koh Tao (Turtle Island) in Thailand with a floral and spicy aroma with musky undertones and lightly gourmand-built with high quality ingredients. A natural fragrance with strong notes, but soft and calming. The proganism belongs to black tea, around which a cool and serene atmosphere is created – very suitable for the hot Summer mornings ahead.
There's a coriander arm-in-arm with spicy ginger, while the black tea displays a slight gourmand vibe.
The blend of black tea and the introduction of Thai spices are reminiscent of the delicate tea ceremonies in the East. In the air hangs a sensation of freshness from the aroma of ginger and lemon - balanced with the combination of vanilla and tonka bean.
Grouping with jasmine and champaca provides an almost meditative experience. A feeling of languid, relaxing pleasure.
Vetiver and cedar give a discreet green and earthy texture around the floral heart.

Here everything is light, cheerful but smooth, elegant and transparent.
We imagine a table with colorful flowers that spread a subtle perfume in the silence of a room. Through a half-open door, you can see the rhythm of hills covered by rainforest dotted with rustic wooden houses. In the distance, the emerald sea calms us down. Happy moments. Wellness and Beauty.

Sagan Dalya (meaning "White Wing") is a famous Siberian perennial medicinal plant of the Ericaceae family that was used in medicines and in tea by the Mongols as a stimulant drug - believed to prolong life. The characteristics of Sagan Dalya tea are known and used by herbalists. However, its most famous property is its immediate tonic effect, similar to that of caffeine. Sagan Dalya is therefore a natural stimulant (without caffeine) significantly superior to coffee and ginseng. An overdose can lead to hallucinations (probably one of the reasons shamans prized it so much).
In this fragrance it manifests itself with a quality that is first fresh and then warm, mystical, earthy and resinous.

It opens in an “explosive” mode with a leafy green rhododendron, with pine tones and slightly “boozy”, which complements the herb/green apple aroma of the spicy marigolds (calendula) with a hint of camphor.

The inclusion of immortelle softened with honey/beeswax and combined with a woodsy tobacco is genius. A resinous, warm and sweet/ambery labdanum envelops the blend spiced with a slightly floral musk.

As it transforms into a scent skin, the immortelles and tobacco gain prominence, benefiting from the texture that the overall composition provides.
On the skin it smells totally different from paper, it has a longevity of 24 hours (the next day I still have immortelles and tobacco accord stuck to the skin) and a medium sillage.

Casablanca by Diane St. Claire.
Awarded "Best Rising Star" of 2018 it is one of my favorite fragrances. Nowadays is very "exclusive" because it is practically impossible to find.
Extract (30 or 13 ml sold out) with 50% concentration. 50%!!! The extracts that we have known do not exceed 30 to 35% (eg Puredistance and Areej Le Doré) or even 43% (Profumum Roma). Here we find the same concentration that probably exists in mid-century fragrance extracts. XX after decades of slow evaporation. It took about a year to build, deconstruct and rebuild – always with the highest quality materials.
If I were asked to try to give an idea of Casablanca with just one image, I would say that it reminds me of a beautiful woman (preferably similar to Ingrid Bergman) wearing only a half-open black mink coat over her skin to give shelter to a naked lover who kisses her romantically.
Casablanca is a beautiful, complex, sensual fragrance with a huge personality and a huge heart. There is a “vintage” feel to Casablanca that recalls (without copying) great classics from the past like Bal à Versailles and Lucien Lelong's Indiscret. Or even as if it were the result of a menage a trois between Fracas, Maai and Miss Dior.
The name immediately evokes the film of the same name about Humphrey Bogart's novel as “Rick” with the beautiful Ingrid Bergman as “Ilsa”.
However, it was not originally created as a reference to the film, but rather as a nostalgic vision of someone who lives in a large American metropolis and dreams of a Mediterranean paradise.
Ingrid… ooops pardon… Casablanca opens on my skin with orange blossoms (like those in a backyard from my childhood) and notes of bitter orange announcing the fleshy and succulent accords of a tuberose with ivory petals. An unusual aroma, dense, enigmatic, vintage, ripe, vigorous, pulpy, sweet and natural. There's a jasmine that's still hidden behind the tangerine tree, there's a feel of an orange-infused brandy note, there's a cloud of spice, musk and patchouli on the horizon. The “labdanum” used almost imitates distant notes of leather and tobacco. We're definitely not in the present and we're traveling to the past with a somewhat complex and very specific handcrafted fragrance.
At 12/15 minutes it “blooms” and unfolds like an emerald-colored carpet covered by fruity and oriental florals.
Something highly atmospheric and special is happening as in the movie of the same name. After 60 minutes, jasmine stops hiding and starts singing “a kiss is just a kiss…”. It's a dark jasmine cigarette in the mouth on blue moon nights, with a sensual and slightly animalic vibe under a chorus of partially smoky musk notes and sprinkled with light hints of civet.
The intermediate phase is the one with the greatest variations and lasts approximately from the beginning of the second to the eighth hour. Here, sometimes, oakmoss, vetiver, leather, animalic / musky and resinous notes - always accompanied by orange blossoms - pulsate with such vigor that they all together seem like an appeal/song of a group of mermaids diving in the fantastic light of a moonlight that finally reveals the simultaneous presence of the masculine and the feminine united in a ying and yang embrace.
Drydown begins in the middle of the tenth hour. The view is that of a dark forest, semi-carbonized by a fire last year, where notes of clove, cinnamon and jasmine emanate on a base of green vetiver. The background is still marked by some spicy floral dust and a “procession” of ylang-ylang, benzoin, toffee caramels and a musk that is rarely found today – with vintage and soft characteristics like that mink coat. We see Ingrid's eyes pleading “Kiss me again” and we enter the last part of the drydown, around the 14th hour. Now drier, sweeter, woody, still orange and discreetly spiced with traces reminiscent of amber.
All very well tuned and balanced. The next day it's still “under my skin”.
In conclusion: A different, exuberant, sensual / carnal, romantic, warm, elegant, magical, timeless, deep, mysterious fragrance that creates a sublime atmosphere. Its aroma projects me through the screen of a B&W film. On the other side of screen I feel Ingrid Bergman's head resting on my shoulder.

Akkad or Akkad was a city of ancient Mesopamia and capital of the Akkadian Empire, which was the dominant political force in Mesopotamia for a period of about 150 years in the last third of the 3rd millennium BC. It is not known what its exact location would have been (the location along the Tigris River is the most likely) but its existence is known from cuneiform writings and the Bible. It prospered under King Sargon (its founder) and his successors. The chief goddess of Akkad was Ishtar-Astarte (Inanna), who was called 'Aštar-annunîtum or "warrior Ishtar". Ishtar was the "bright goddess" or "refulgent", the tutelary deity of the morning and evening star and goddess of war and love (cf. Venus, Aphrodite), whose cult was practiced in the absolute beginnings of Akkad and who inspires this perfume that envelops, comforts and seems to protect us.
Lubin's information reads: “Essence of Akkad is a gift from the beautiful Ishtar, who loves and protects me. It contains all the most precious ointments from Punt, and also those from the islands of the great sea, and others from still further afield.”

Silky, oriental woody featuring a super elegant and luminous amber sprinkled with spices. With cardamom and frankincense (it makes an essential contact to the sweetness of amber) joining the party animated by a small orchestra of tobacco, leather, animalic labdanum and patchouli that together play a sensual, balsamic and slightly “dirty” melody.
An “outstanding” and sophisticated fragrance that seems to give seductive and extraordinary characteristics to the wearer. An aroma that transforms us exhaling a mystical atmosphere and, at the same time, evoking a descent into the profane pleasures of an ancient Orient - with the use of sacred oils and precious spices.
On the skin we feel a sweet and golden sunset born in a distant desert. With high quality raw material presented in a beautiful and original bottle, it is a distant cousin of LDDM. With great personality and “aura” Akkad is good for all seasons but is perfect for autumn and winter and is a natural candidate for a “signature scent”.
It is part of the Lubin palette and “renaissance” from 2009 – after the decline started in the 1960s. It has moderate projection and lasts about 12h (as a scent skin from 6h). It earned a place in my Top 10 fragrances with dominant amber. Divine.