Viktoria Minya Hedonist Cassis: fragrance review

The fallen berries that get smashed and mushed underfoot reflect something of the realization of so much waste around us that even useful, succulent things fall to their unintentional demise through a drive that obeys cosmic rules; gravity, fall, squish. Hedonist Cassis by young but talented perfumer Viktoria Minya is certainly not wasteful, bring the tang of blackcurrant and grapefruit into the core chord of Hedonist, her original creation, making for an intense experience that recalls gathering berries in the countryside waiting for mr.Fox.

hello mr.fox on flickr, via Pinterest

Viktoria Minya has indulged her original composition with a cluster of variations, each highlighting a separate ingredient, Iris, Rose, and Cassis. The latest, Hedonist Cassis, possibly comes in the most attractive bottle, purple-ish with a touch of the late Prince, if you will.

Berry fragrances probably owe their heritage to the cult best-seller by L'Artisan Parfumeur, the original "berry" which spawned a hundred offspring over the decades since its inception.
The composition here however reminds me much more of the appeal of Yves Saint Laurent In Love Again (a combo of grapefruit and blackcurrant) by perfumer Jean Claude Ellena and doesn't fail to make me smile. The rose note is reminiscent of the chord in L'Ombre dans l'Eau by Diptyque; if like me you tend to shy away from overly prim, Jane Austen roses, and appreciate instead the tang that blackcurrants give to the above mentioned Diptyque fragrance, then Hedonist Cassis is sure to hit you with the epiphany of "oh, there's rose in it". Yes, but oh so delicious.

I am reminded of inconsequential things that have to do with late summer: the droning sound of the bees, the lazy contours of the calamus in the distance, the gentle softening of the sky as dusk sets in lilac hues; refreshing juice full of sour and sweet citruses served on the balcony and the canopy shading the rays while we're reading L'Education Sentimentale, the heroes leaping off the page in their game of social graces, platonic loves and carnal disgraces; freckles slowly forming on a long hellenic nose and lashes prettily faning on a smooth cheek, the comfortable silence of well trodden territory.

Extraordinary lasting power in Heodnist Cassis is an added bonus. For those of you who love a tart synthesis with great balance between sweet and sour and a stonking beat of lasting musky-wood this is your fruity floral pick for summer wear.

Fragrance Notes for Viktoria Minya Hedonist Cassis:
Top notes are black currant, grapefruit and rhubarb;
middle notes are bulgarian rose, grass and cassis;
base notes are cedar and musk.

The Scent of Spring : A Collection of Top Spring Perfume Lists, Spring Images & Facts about Spring Fragrances

Perfume Shrine: Spring Clean: Two in One Mar 13, 2015 ... However I have composed a few articles of pertinent nature, which might come useful for those of you in search of new spring fragrances, for a ... perfumeshrine.blogspot.com

Perfume Shrine: Springtime awakenings: Green Fragrances ... Apr 3, 2014 ... Among fragrance families, only "green" scents are classified through a visual connotation, specifically a color coding. You could argue that ... perfumeshrine.blogspot.com

Perfume Shrine: Spring Floral Fragrances: Delicate Beauties ... Apr 5, 2012 ... Spring Floral Fragrances: Delicate Beauties Yielding Under Your Caress. Legend wants it that the goddess Flora created violets out of the body ... perfumeshrine.blogspot.com

Perfume Shrine: A Glimpse of Spring Amidst the Snowzilla Jan 25, 2016 ... In an effort of some welcome diversion of spring-time thoughts, before any floral prints ...Spring Floral Fragrances: Delicate Beauties Yielding . perfumeshrine.blogspot.com

Perfume Shrine: Scents that Sing Spring: Top 10 fragrances Apr 16, 2010 ... So my personal Top Spring Scents for this spring (fragrances I am wearing with much gusto and utter glee) are: Amaranthine Penhaligon's ... perfumeshrine.blogspot.com

Perfume Shrine: Wedding Bells: Perfume Ideas for Choosing the ... Jun 26, 2012 ... In perfume terms, that means your signature scent might be a little too .... I wore Une Fleur de Chanel for my spring 2000 wedding, and it fit ... perfumeshrine.blogspot.com

Perfume Shrine: The aromata of Greek Easter & a Recipe Apr 22, 2011 ... The awakening of spring, which sheds its pagan archetypes shining upon everything, is walking hand in hand with the tradition of a pious ... perfumeshrine.blogspot.com

Perfume Shrine: Season Specific Fragrance Wardrobe & "Rotate ... Apr 15, 2011 ... (as reported by Beatrice de Gea in The Wall Street Journal) "When spring arrives, women may want to tone down perfumes so they aren't ... perfumeshrine.blogspot.com

Perfume Shrine: Spring Anticipation-a Joint Project from Two Sides ... Mar 4, 2008 ... Where I live spring has already come and it's raining sunray upon ... Under the smart recommendation of Vidabo/Lou from Perfume of Life, I am ... perfumeshrine.blogspot.com

Perfume Shrine: Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the ... Mar 15, 2009 ... Spring is univocally here as you can see and my mind wanders on avenues of floral and greenfragrances that like a breath of optimism ... perfumeshrine.blogspot.com

Perfume Shrine: Interview with Dr. Joachim Mensing, Fragrance ... Apr 1, 2013 ... Interview with Dr. Joachim Mensing, Fragrance Psychologist: How we Choose Fragrance andSpring Perfume Moods. “Fragrance and ... perfumeshrine.blogspot.com

Your "Best in Show" Guerlain perfume: Which Is It?

When erotic authoress Anais Nin reminiscences about her relationship with Henry Miller's wife, June, it is a bottle of Guerlain's Mitsouko she is asked for as a gift by the statuesque yet destitute woman amidst sapphic caresses.

via pinterest

When Séverine, the bourgeois heroine of the cinematic adaptation of Joseph Kessel's novel "Belle de Jour", sets out to work the afternoon as a prostitute, it is a bottle of Mitsouko that she accidentally smashes in the bathroom, immersed in her sadomasochistic reveries.

When Jean Harlow's husband, Paul Bern, allegedly driven by impotence, took his own life, a mere short week after his wedding to the silver screen goddess, it is Mitsouko by Guerlain he was drenched with; her perfume.

Originally meant for brunettes, Mitsouko took the gentle but poignant star-crossed lovers of a Japanese brunette and a Russian naval officer meeting at wartime, to inspire women (and men) of all hair colors and ethnicities ever since. Always implicated in sex in a "screw in the brain" sort of way, Mitsouko, with its tender peach skin heart and troubling inky base, is not just Belle. She's Belle Toujours.


You can find my entry on the Best in Show on Fragrantica. Please share in the comments here (and there, if you like) which is your own pick for Best in Show Guerlain perfume! I'd love to read during the holidays for Orthodox Easter.

Fragrance review & perfume history for Guerlain Mitsouko on this link. 

How To Describe Perfume

The perennial and elusive question of how to describe a perfume has risen at one of Spain's top style magazines, EL TOCADOR and journalist Ana Fernandez Parrilla accosted me to provide her with some insights.

via laboratoryperfumes.com

I'm pleased to see the published article and hope that it is of some enjoyment to our Spanish-speaking readers. You can take a glimpse using this link. (click on arrow > to read the next page)

The Medieval Cyprus Birdies (Oiselets de Chypre): Tracking Historical Scents & Fragrance Use

via

"Since she had exchanged one of the most luxurious Courts of the Middle Ages for that of Aragon, chiefly concerned with the ceaseless tumult and turmoil of war. In the fortress-palaces of her husband's kingdom how often she must have pined for the garden-isle of her birth, for its groves of orange, pomegranate, citron, mulberry, acacia, olive, and palm, for the vision of the happy valley of Makaria, across whose far-famed loveliness she was to gaze no more from the casements of her brother's palace at Nicosia! How she would pine to hear once more the merry laughter and the jingling bells of the huntingtrain " sport made ideal in that land of " the richest and most generous lords in Christendom " of their day, one of whom, the Count of Jaffa, alone, kept no less than five hundred hunting dogs. Memories of scented waters " rose, jasmine, and many another of which the secret has long been lost to the distiller " would be wafted to her with the lifting of every lid of her cypress-wood coffers, with their metal inlaying, with every breath of her perfumed " oiselets de Chypre " " that favourite toy of the mediaeval boudoir which she was probably the first to introduce into Aragon. These pomanders of scented paste, generally moulded into the shape of a bird " hence their name " were hung in the apartments of great ladies, in cages or similar receptacles, to serve the double purpose of purifying as well as of perfuming the room. A heavy and disappointed heart beat, we may be sure, beneath the royal robes, thick with " ors de Chypre, o Ma o Aragon ; heavy, because of its homesickness, disappointed, because of her childlessness. Her sumptuous wardrobe itself would grow to be a weariness, since she might not wear it in that Cypriote setting which alone might have fitly framed it."  

[source, Miron E.L The Queens of Aragon: Their Lives and Times. Reprint. London: Forgotten Books, 2013. 152-3. Print.]

I wrote a concrete piece on Oiselets de Chypre, the Cyprus scented birdies of the Middle Ages on Fragrantica. Please check it out on this link.