15 Comments
Aug 24Liked by Luca Turin 🇮🇹🇪🇺

A pleasure to read a review of several successful scents, and also to learn about Poland blooming! I was not aware of this. Apparently my News of the World reading is still a little too much “parochial North American Continent the only hope in the world”centric. I will have to do something about that. Once again, I learn something I really did not know from your posts! Thanks!

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Aug 24·edited Aug 24Liked by Luca Turin 🇮🇹🇪🇺

Fascinating! My mother’s side of the family is from the northern reaches of Prussian Poland; Patac w Jankowie was built by my great-great grandfather. One of these days we will take our son to see it (it’s a museum now).

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I love Antea. It reminds me of traditional new year treat here made with Rice flour and lots of Cardamom and pepper 😊

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Polish perfumery is a space to watch nowadays. A few months back I got two samples from Chronicles - Scents of History, the permanent brand of Alan Balewski who does small batch perfumery under his BALE house. The 1773 Boston Tea Party sample was a standout, and one I would go so far as to get a full bottle of. Starts of almost rubbery from the castoreum but dries down to a tea scent par excellence in my opinion. Is the golden age of Eastern European perfumery upon us? Time will tell.

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Will ask for samples. I agree things are beginning to fall into a pattern :-)

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founding

I was sure you would appreciate them. I know the firm almost from the start and was very happy with the change of their aesthetics, as they moved on from the all natural approach. The full palette really helped them hone already beautiful compositions to their best.

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These sound great! Thank you for the review and noted for the next trip to Poland... I love picking up something by a local perfumer when travelling.

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That’s a first I hear about people from EU wanting to move *to* Poland, and I sure know people who are still trying to leave. I’m glad my home country is seen in a better light. However the part about economy seems like a cruel joke. Universities and academic culture - it’s complicated. And I still would not recommend anything more than a short visit, if you are a woman or belong to some minority and like having basic human rights.

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These kinds of things make me really miss living in a big European city and being able to stop by a specialty perfume shop to try the latest. I'd love to try the cologne and the woody-violet one.

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I am absolutely drooling in anticipation of LT's take on the resurrections of Balmain classics under Olivier Rousteing, since I have vivid memories of his musings on the old Duftnotes about the inglorious fall of the House of Balmain.

https://www.balmainbeauty.com/les-eternels

As for myself, my hopes are fairly low, given that Ivoire is now described as a tuberose perfume. With any luck at all, they will have assigned Vent Vert to Calice Becker.

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How very interesting! Who would have thought it? Poland (the book by James Michener), refers to Poland as "the center of the earth", As always your reviews are the best, I would love to try all three fragrances. Wonder if I could locate them in US?

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Lomonosov university... :)

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author

Lev Rudnev strikes again!

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Luca, if you like Polish perfumery please give JMP (Jakub Peterynka) a sniff. He’s based in Krakow. Lovely stuff.

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Pleasure to read as always. I am visiting Warsaw in October and will be visiting the JB perfumery for sure.

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