Often times in any business or industry, a trend can be established when something seems to take hold of the audience that the industry serves. Whether it’s in fashion or film, technology or music, cuisine or politics; there are certain things or phrases that seem to pop up in every product or material that comes out of that industry. Over the past several years, rose has been an ingredient that has found its way all over the fragrance world. What was once thought to be a note simply for the floral fragrances of yesteryear, has now become a signature part of so many different fragrances across many houses and in many women, men and unisex fragrances. As early as twenty years ago, you wouldn’t find any floral notes in men’s fragrances, let alone the note of rose. As time has evolved and what is considered masculine is being redefined, you have perfumers all over the world incorporating rose in a number of ways into feminine and masculine fragrances. From Jo Malone, MFK, Gucci and Byredo to Kilian, Dior, Frederic Malle and Tom Ford, you can find a fragrance with rose in it at any counter. How do you reimagine an ingredient that everyone else has used over and over again? Well, it takes a special master perfumer to rethink or recreate a new way to experience a familiar scent, and that’s what Alberto Morillas has done with Epine De Rose.
Alberto Morillas is a perfumer that I have written about before. He was the creator of the Palissandre D’or fragrance for Aedes Perfumery. Well, in 1999, Alberto Morillas made a decision after working in the industry for nearly three decades to create his own fragrance house called Mizensir. This was Alberto’s opportunity to allow his creativity and inspiration to express itself freely. WIth over forty years of experience and with incredible, massively successful creations such as CK One for Calvin Klein, Aqua di Gio for Women by Giorgio Armani, and Panthere de Cartier for Cartier, creating a company for himself to fully explore his creativity on his own terms was bound to foster even more iconic fragrances. The one thing about the iconic CK One that appealed to almost everyone who came across it was its incredible balance and palatable composition. It was a fragrance that wasn’t too strong, or wasn’t too light. It was something that regardless of the person wearing it, it was very distinctive and easy to the noise. It was a fragrance that could be worn at any time, any season, and at any occasion. You could never go wrong wearing it and it became a go-to for people of all ages and walks of life to wear. The ambiguity of its wearability skyrocketed the fragrance to a place that will stand in history as one of the greatest fragrances ever created.
I was on a trip to New York and of course, I decided to look up some boutiques to find fragrances. I did a bit of research and asking around, and I discovered the Mizensir boutique had just opened only a few months before my trip. I was excited to go in and try some of the fragrances, especially since I had tested a couple prior to my trip. As I walked in, I was greeted by Danny and he went through the different fragrances, and I settled on this amazing fragrance called Épine De Rose. The word “épine” can be translated into American English as thorn or spine. The top notes of this fragrance are mandarin, agarwood and ginger; the heart notes are Bulgarian rose, pink pepper, black pepper; and the base notes are cedar wood, incense and Limbanol, which is a very intense woody amber essence. A rose scent isn’t just about putting a bunch of rose in a bottle and calling it a rose fragrance. Rose has to be an ingredient that is properly executed, or it can come off too floral or sometimes have an metallic after note. What’s amazing about Alberto’s execution is, he chose to take a different inspiration point, differing from the pedal of the flower and reimagine the scent from the root. This not only makes the scent not as overly floral, but it yields the same universal appeal similar to what CK One had, where anyone can wear this regardless of classification.
The scent is delicate, but it’s not quiet. The top notes are very front and center when you open the bottle. The combination of the mandarin and ginger give this scent a bit of a punch without irritating your noise. I love the dry down of the pink and black pepper, to have a balance of spice to counterbalance the rose that is used is such a creative and smart use of the rose. To have that heart sit on a classic base of cedar and amber, it really allows the rose to shine in a way that is classic and distinctive, and yet appeal to almost anyone who smells it. That’s the beauty of Alberto noise and creativity, he’s able to understand to compose ingredients that are palatable to anyone, while not being muted by everyone. I love wearing this fragrance in the evening at events where there multiple people because of its draw to so many, but also because it’s a fragrance that is distinctive and it allows me to stand out amongst the crowd. If you have the opportunity to grab this fragrance, please do so… you won’t regret it.
One of the amazing things about fragrance, especially in the niche fragrance world, is the element of discovery. It is a world where there never seems to be a point where you know everything that it is out there. There are so many independent and niche perfumers that hidden is small cities and large metropolitans across the world that you never seem to come to the end of the discovery of new scents. What’s also amazing is when you can find a shop who knows and understands these fragrances, the artists behind them and the stories in which they are derived from. In any passion you are involved in, it becomes less and less about the social capital of the passion and more about the essence and craft involved in it. You end up forming a community among those who share the same passion, and that community will also become a safe space for exploration, discovery and freedom to fully immerse yourself into where your heart flutters and your mind runs free.
I was having my normal conversation with my friend, who is also my self-assigned sales rep at the local store where I grab my fragrances and do a bit of discovery, and I was telling them that I was traveling to New York for an extended weekend trip for friends. In that conversation, I was informed that there was a small shop in New York that was amazing and they specialized in niche, independent fragrance houses that were not mainstream. Of course, that sent my internal happy meter through the roof. When I landed in New York, I made sure to put time on my schedule to visit that store, and I will never regret it. Aedes Perfumery is a wonderful perfume boutique on the Lower East Side of New York City, nestled right on Orchard St. and in a way could be described as unassuming at first glance. When you walk into the boutique, you are transformed into a different era in time, when warm tones on the walls, regal shelves that are filled with fragrances, candles, and much more. It truly feels like you are walking into a mid-century home or parlor, where the ceilings are low, there are plants and different textures, and the aroma of the space is a fragrance enthusiast dream. It is very comfy, cozy space and the sales representative was incredibly knowledgeable and thoughtful. We ended up having an hour conversation, we explored the different brands that were located in the boutique, to the history of the owners and their journey through the fragrance industry as executives and how the opened Aedes Perfumery. After minutes of an amazing fragrance conversation, the boutique executive pointed me towards the relaunch Aedes De Venustas line, the boutique’s own fragrance line and I tested many of the scents they had. After some deliberation, I landed on Palissandre D’or…
I am not much of a woodsy fanatic, but it was hard to deny composition of this fragrance, especially on the initial and dry down of the aroma. The Aedes De Venustas line is one that is an Eau De Parfum line with 80% volume, but is also incense based. So when you come across a fragrance titled Palissandre D’or, where ‘palissandre’ is the French word for ‘rosewood’, there is an interesting story and complexity to the fragrance that drew my attention and attraction to it. This fragrance was crafted by perfumer Alberto Morillas, one of the world’s most renowned perfumers born in Seville, Spain. He has created some of the most iconic fragrances in the world, including Calvin Klein’s CK One, Giorgio Armani Acqua di Giò for women and Marc Jacobs Daisy, just a few of more than seven thousand fragrances he has worked on. The notes of this fragrance are sandalwood, Virginian, Chinese & Alaskan cedar, coriander, copahu, ambrette, pink pepper, patchouli, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Alberto Morillas is quoted with describing the fragrance as “a ‘monochrome’ by its color and its density with a strong signature and very special, bold ingredients,” which you can find in the fragrance description on Aedes Perfumery website.
There is a particular type of rosewood called ‘palisander’ that has its origins in India, which was the inspiration for this fragrance. Yet, when you look at the ingredients of the fragrance, you don’t find rosewood in there. That is something that I love about fragrance, when you have artists who can use a variety of different ingredients that can resemble or be inspired by the scent of another material. This fragrance has a very creamy, rich body to it. One of the ingredients that hits you immediately is the ambrette and coriander. Ambrette is an an aromatic medicinal plant, also known as musk mallow, is native to India. The beauty of the fragrance is that it is complex, but it’s not something that seems awkward or disturbing to the noise. None of the ingredients seem heavy or off-putting as they show up throughout the day. Although centered around the inspiration of rosewood, this fragrance isn’t particularly stringent on being “woodsy”. It’s a very soothing, easy to the smell of wood; very warm and inviting due to the nutmeg and cinnamon that is in the fragrance. This could be something that’s reserved for the fall or winter, but I’d say you can wear this in easy cozy environment, regardless of the season. Although the notes may be bold in nature, the overall aromatic disposition will slowly envelope you and anyone near who detects it.
As an individual who is on a never-ending rabbit hole path into the world of fragrance, and in particular the subculture of niche fragrances, sometimes you still want to walk into a mall to a department store to see if there’s something you’ve missed. As a young fellow who was enamored with the compliments that came with smelling good, trips to the fragrance counters in the department stores at the malls were like going on a safari into the wild world of fragrances. When I was in high school, I would take my check that came from my after school job and go to a department store called Burdines in South Florida and I would go around the counter smelling colognes, and leaving the mall with two or three sets just to have something new for my school mates to smell and the folks at church to rave about. It was there where I first learned how to build relationships with the sales reps and merchants. The gentleman at the counter knew me by name because I frequented the counter weekly, and he’d have a list of different fragrances that I either previously liked or hadn’t tried. It was also the place where I first learned how to explore different categories of scents, and what would smell good on your skin versus what smelled great from the bottle.
Recently, I decided to go to Dillards and visit the men’s fragrance counter. As I was walking around the counter, my eyes were engaged by this Tiffany blue packaging in the fragrance case and I decided to stop and see what it contained. Unfortunately, the customer service at the fragrance counter wasn’t mindful of the looming customers around and just continued conversation with one patron for over an hour. Yet, the gentleman at the sunglass counter stepped in to help and grabbed this fragrance for me to test out. He stated that the fragrance was Tiffany’s latest release and that it was a citrusy, fresh fragrance that would be great for the spring/summer months. I remembered walking into the Sak’s in the Union City area of San Francisco and testing the Tiffany for Men over a decade ago. I loved that fragrance then, but I passed on purchasing it. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake again, so I wanted to give this one an honest look. I’m glad that I did…
Tiffany released in 2019 a set of fragrances called Tiffany & Love, in whom they’ve collaborated with world-renowned perfumers Sophie Labbé and Nicolas Beaulieu. Sophie Labbé has created fragrances for BVLGari, Givenchy, Salvatore Ferragamo, Yves Saint Laurent, Hugo Boss and others. Nicolas Beaulieu has created fragrances for Salvatore Ferragamo, Lanvin, Jimmy Choo, as well as exploring and creating fragrances from unknown plants. These two minds would come to create Tiffany & Love, a pair of fragrances for men and women that signify the love shared between the two. The common base ingredient between both fragrances is blue sequoia, a particular type of sequoia tree that grows in a pyramid type shape. It brings a very bright and vibrant woodsy base to this fragrance that tickles your noise throughout the dry-down and settling of the fragrance evaporation process. The top notes of the For Him variant of Tiffany & Love are cardamom, ginger, mandarin. The heart notes of the fragrance are juniper-cypress, geranium, lavender; and the base notes are Blue sequoia, sandalwood, vetiver.
At first smell, your noise is awakened by the notes of ginger, mandarin and juniper-cypress. It almost lifts your senses like the morning sun opens your eyes. As the fragrance begins to dry down, the cardamom and lavender hold court and take full presence of the aroma. Yet, what I love the most about this fragrance is the way the notes of ginger, cardamom, geranium and vetiver give this fragrance a deep, layered spiciness that truly catches the attention of those who will walk by and envelope the wind of the fragrance. Having both sandalwood and blue sequoia at the base undergirds the citrus and spicy notes, while giving the fragrance a long-lasting performance and a nice residual note that is surely memorable. Tiffany may not have an extensive catalog of fragrances, but what they have truly will be impactful. So, stop by a mall near you, find a department store, and ask for this… You won’t regret it.
On July 7th, I made the trip down to the COVID-19 infested hotbed of South Florida to visit my great-grandmother Birdella “Bertha” Bennett. Just over a century ago, we lived in a world where Black people didn’t have access to or trust hospital care. That means that there weren’t accurate birth records kept on people. This is the time during World War I when the United States of America was at war with Germany. This was a time that the war actually was a good thing for the American economy because of the jobs created due to the increase business needs to supply the war, especially in the industries of agriculture and textiles. My great-grandmother was born in a small town called Scotia in South Carolina. In the town she was born in there was no hospital or medical facility there, so she was born through a midwife. Actually, there wasn’t a facility that kept records of births in the town she was born in, so those records had to be sent to the nearby town of Hampton, SC. My great-grandmother was born and raised in that town, working as child and going to school. When my great-grandmother moved to Florida, she received a license with a birthdate of June 1922. It was later updated that her birth date of July 7, 1920. My father later discovered a census document from January 1920 that stated my great-grandmother was 2 1/2 years old then. Yet, on July 7th she celebrated what is recorded as her 100th birthday.
I learned so much about my great-grandmother that I hadn’t know or heard of ever before. I learned that my great-grandmother actually lived in Detroit for a while and then moved to Savannah, GA before moving to Florida. When she moved to Florida, she ended up working as a custodian for the Broward County School Board for almost 40 years. I never really knew the road that my great-grandmother traveled to Florida or really what made her come down here in the first place with my grandfather. I learned that she ended up moving to Florida to follow a pastor who was starting a church in Fort Lauderdale. It’s just amazing and daunting to grasps what experiences my great-grandmother has had over a 100-year life span. My great-grandmother was born without the right to vote, eat anywhere she wants, without access to fair housing, without fair wage, being able to drink out of the same water fountain as white people and more. She lived through the Great Depression, World War II and the Civil Rights movement. She had to leave home and take care of her son, travel across the country on her own and find ways to survive. Yet, somehow her path led her to Florida where she would become the matriarch of a church organization, develop relationships with one of the top lawyers in state history, and become a known figure in the Black Christian community. She would live to see her son live and build a family and see 3 generations be born after her, and there is a possibility she may see a 4th generation born after her. She has outlived all of her siblings and even her own son. She has lived through 18 presidents and only had the ability to vote for half of them. She’s seen more life than I could ever imagine, and I didn’t understand the magnitude of longevity of life until that day.
Well, the celebration she stated was the best birthday celebration ever. My great-grandmother lives in an assisted living home, and on Friday’s she’d attend a senior’s center where they care for assisted living patients, give them activities to do and allow them to socialize with others as well as the staff there. She really enjoys going to that center. So, the center decided that they would do a drive-by birthday celebration due to the COVID-19 restrictions to celebrate her birthday. I flew to be a part of it since she had the center to call me and ask for me to be there. So, when I arrived, the center doctors and nurses showed up with cards, gifts and speaker system to play music, which my great grandmother loves to hear when she goes to the center. They brought a bus load of people, danced around and sung happy birthday to her. The home she lives in had a cake made in her honor and she wore a crown. My immediate family came around, and sometime later part of her old church family showed up including a woman who she raised like a daughter. She sung some of her favorite hymns and songs and really enjoyed the crowd. She was the center of attention, and that’s what she loves to be. She loves the Lord and loves “talking junk” to everybody. She taught me how to write checks, put me in pre-school when I got on her nerves, always cooked for me (best cornbread ever), gave me a little monetary seed every time she saw me, told everyone she loved me, put me on display to her whole church because she was proud, and always wanted her “shugah”. She loves people and loves being “loved on”. She loves to be pampered and catered to, and loves starting stuff. She has lived an incredible life with stories I’m sure I’ll never know. Yet, that’s ok by me because I love her just the same. This is what 100 years of living looks like. Happy 100th Birthday Grandma Bennett! Or… Happy 103rd real birthday.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis Theme natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis Theme natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed.
Sed pulvinar, hendrerit id, lorem. Maecenas nec odio et ante tincidunt tempus. Donec vitae sapien ut libero venenatis faucibus. Nullam quis ante. Etiam sit amet orci eget et eros.
fringilla mauris sit amet nibh. Donec sodales sagittis magna. Sed consequat, leo eget bibendum sodales, augue velit cursus nunc. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis Theme natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis Theme natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed.
Sed pulvinar, hendrerit id, lorem. Maecenas nec odio et ante tincidunt tempus. Donec vitae sapien ut libero venenatis faucibus. Nullam quis ante. Etiam sit amet orci eget et eros.
fringilla mauris sit amet nibh. Donec sodales sagittis magna. Sed consequat, leo eget bibendum sodales, augue velit cursus nunc. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis Theme natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis Theme natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed.
Sed pulvinar, hendrerit id, lorem. Maecenas nec odio et ante tincidunt tempus. Donec vitae sapien ut libero venenatis faucibus. Nullam quis ante. Etiam sit amet orci eget et eros.
fringilla mauris sit amet nibh. Donec sodales sagittis magna. Sed consequat, leo eget bibendum sodales, augue velit cursus nunc. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis Theme natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.