WENDY & JIM: Drop No. 01 Eau de Parfum

Austria has produced a number of artisanal houses that have brought exquisite perfumes to market in recent years... and it is safe to say that Viennese fashion legend Helmut Lang might have paved the way.
Lang's "universe" is comprised of fashion that is relaxed and formal in equal measures - it is not so much the idea of high fashion, but rather, a sensitivity towards correctness and detailing in garments that appeal as basic items. Few designers can take casual clothes to the precipice of being avant garde, without being "fussy", in the manner way Helmut Lang can. Lang's portfolio of perfumes followed suit... they were explorations in simplicity and refinement; understated, minimalist, and keenly edited.

One can feel Lang's DNA present in the Austrian fashion label Wendy&Jim - a new-fangled fashion house with creative minds Hermann Fankhauser and Helga Ruthner at the helm. This design duo met during their tutelage under Helmut Lang at the Viennese University of Applied Arts in 1999, and have been showing their Men's and Women's collections in Paris since. Their non-conventional designs remain high atop fashionista shopping lists in Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, Berlin, New York, Vienna and Stockholm.
In April 2013, the pair launched Drop No. 01 Eau de Parfum to accompany their fashions.

An overture to wanton sensuality, Drop No. 01 Eau de Parfum is described as:

 "...the result of an orgiastic night, a warm, dark and sparkling fragrance for sophisticated, modern and cosmopolitan women (and men)."

When first applied to skin, one is immediately awash with a zesty, bitter citrus accord, and a rush of Indian jasmine... star-shaped blooms heavy with indoles create a sultry, devoutly feminine aura around the wearer. There is nothing apologetic about this floral opening - it is every bit as 'present' as Robert Piguet's famed Fracas. Amongst the narcotising white florals I sense a ribbon of green - lily of the valley perhaps? - and a soft pink band of rose. Deeper below, a fragrant woody-resinous foundation of amyris / elemi amplifies the sexually-loaded context of the perfume, and brings with it a more masculine facet. There is a certain sexual alchemy at work as the womanly floral facets and vigorous masculine aspects unify. A warmer, ambery characteristic is furnished by fragrant myrrh in the trail.
This fragrance - in its style and approach, at least - shares a similarity with those of Fankhauser and Ruthner's mentor, Lang. It is straight-forward, linear, and uncompromising.

Drop No. 01 boasts 99% natural ingredients, 95% of which are of certified organic origin, making it one of the first (if not the first) natural designer perfumes in the world.

If the description of the scent itself doesn't completely enchant you, then perhaps the flacon will! With a tip of the hat to Austrian craftsmanship, Wendy&Jim have collaborated with the second-oldest porcelain manufacturers in Europe, Augarten of Vienna to produce the magnificent Vulpini "Fox's Head" flacon. The stunning skull receptacle is sold independently of the perfume, and can be refilled at will. It is available in "White" and "Wiener Rose". The fox's skull was chosen as a totem of strength and cleverness and serves as the perfect vessel for a perfume of such a bewitching nature.



Drop No. 01 is available in 30ml and 50ml sizes at a cost of €110 and €180 respectively.
The Vulpini fox skull flacons start from €370.

For further information, visit the Wendy& Jim website and facebook page.
www.wendyjim.com

Puredistance Antonia

Luxury perfume purveyors Puredistance remain at the top of their game with the imminent launch of their second perfume Antonia; a scent made tangible by nose Annie Buzantian. Following closely on the heels of their debut release Puredistance I, Antonia is the scent that redefines the word "sweetness" with its youthful exuberance and soft, gentle character.

Rather than furnish us with olfactive pyramids and dizzying marketing prose, Puredistance prefer that the wearer succumbs to the scent itself, and leaves the perfume's personality intact. I for one appreciate the idea, as Antonia has a compassionate spirit all of her of her own. Just as the name might suggest, Antonia is a European royal... an emerging Duchess with a pure heart and wish to do good. Her laughter cartwheels on the air, and her hair is lifted delicately by a light breeze. This is the perfume of the grounds of a castle during the summertime... green leaves, lily of the valley, and tumbling soft florals dominate over a warm honeyed heart and what seems to me to be a transparent musk base. It's composition is every bit as considered and deliberate as an immaculately maintained parterre garden.

Annie Buzantian has kept this creation much in line with Puredistance I in that both share a commonality that I expect might be a house accord... a soft, powdery aspect that is staunchly feminine. Antonia is ever-present, but worn close to the skin; giggling and speaking in whispers from behind a cupped hand. It contains a generous 25% perfume and will be available at select perfume retailers from December in a 17.5ml perfume spray. For more information, visit www.puredistance.com.

Puredistance: the sum and substance of a woman.

The cathedral-lined streets of Vienna, Austria make home to countless mansions and apartments with stunning ornamental baroque facades. As the birthplace of Mozart, there is a feeling of romance at every turn where one might expect to hear the strains of a harpsichord cart-wheeling down from a window, or the clatter of horse-drawn carriages across worn cobbled stones.

In keeping with the same sense of opulence and lavishness that has permeated the city for centuries, the Puredistance Perfume Lounge was created in the heart of the capital to serve as company headquarters from where one of the most distinctive fragrance and luxury brands has been born.

Puredistance I is the perfume that exemplifies both the imagination of company founder Jan Ewoud Vos, and the efforts of New York master perfumer Annie Buzantian (whose professional portfolio includes numerous commercial successes for Lauder, Armani, Ralph Lauren and Diane von Furstenburg). Presented in weighty Swarovski crystal columns accented with 24K gold or high grade polished steel; and packaged in silk-lined leatherette boxes with magnetic closures, Puredistance I embraces refined luxury and sophistication from the get-go. But beyond the glacial, hard-edged crystal shard and sanitary snow-white packaging, the amber-coloured juice residing inside surprises with its warm, companionable, resolutely feminine air.

Puredistance I, with its exotic topnotes of tangerine flower and cassis and dewy, wet ozone/acquatic characteristics, evokes a resemblance to ritualistic bathing in a secluded forest spring. Delicately blended floral facets of magnolia, jasmine and mimosa tumble like cascading spring petals, which rouse and enchant with a beguiling, sensuous aura. It is as chaste as it is seductive, and its deeply inspiriting dry down of honeyed amber, earthy vetiver and voluptuous white musk lingers long on the skin. These basenotes imbue the air with a mood of carnality and compulsion. If one can imagine a perfume that embraces the fundamental sum and substance of a woman - one that enchants as much as it bamboozles - and succeeds in speaking to every man and his virility, Puredistance I could be it.

Puredistance I comes in a generous pure parfum concentration of 32% and is available as a 17.5ml perfume spray. The bottles can be purchased and used independently of the hand-crafted limited edition crystal columns, but for the ultimate gift, the Puredistance crystal column in either clear crystal or jet black, is the ultimate everlasting jewel. Visit the Puredistance website for further information as to the hand-selected stores where Puredistance I can be purchased.

GIVEAWAY!

Sorcery of Scent has a scarce boxed 1ml sample of Puredistance I (valued at 15 euros) to give away to one lucky reader. To enter the draw, leave a comment on this article - ensuring that your contact email address is visible on your blogger profile - and a winner will be picked at random and announced here in a week or two.

Best of luck!

Dimitri.