Sense and senses

(Oleg Grabchuk: Two; oil on canvas, https://www.saatchiart.com/Grabchuk)

“I can testify that the Russians about other Slavs do not think fraternally, but dishonestly and selfishly (…)These gentlemen start to say and write Slavic everywhere instead of Russian so that instead of Slavic they can also say Russian. ”(Karel Havlíček Borovský (bohemian writer, journalist and politician), circa 1848).

Karel Havlíček Borovský probably knew what he was talking about. He went to Russia as an enthusiastic Pan-Slav, spent a year there, and returned as a relatively unimaginative, not a Pan-Slav. He summed it up fittingly with the sentence “I went there as a Slav, I returned as a Czech.”

In any case, his words became prophetic. Once again.

Why did poor Karel Havlíček unwittingly get involved here? Because a more than a century and a half ago, he precisely described the Great Russian spirit, which haunts us in Europe all the time. In a lot of articles, I read about this war as unprecedented. But it is not unprecedented. In a sphere that Russia arbitrarily considers as its own, more similar wars have happened only in our lifetime. The only thing that makes this one different is, that it is bigger and closer to us

(Disclaimer: It’s probably clear to everyone that this can’t be generalized and that in any nation, there are good individuals and individuals who are bad, and most somewhere in between, but again, that spirit, that spirit is here).

But let’s get to perfumes.

One of my perfume weaknesses is trying perfumes from different parts of the world. I enjoy watching how a different region, a different environment, sometimes different ingredients… simply everything that surrounds a person affects his work.

Since the moment of the Russian attack, probably not only mine, but the eyes of all of us turned to Ukraine. And you know how it is, it’s even anatomically impossible to turn your eyes somewhere and not turn your nose there. Well, try it, turn your gaze to the left side (or right side, I’ll let you have that freedom to decide) and let your nose stick forward and let me know who will succeed :)).

In this situation, it is hard to expect that someone there will be able to deal with perfumes, so when my friend Igor – God bless his good heart – scared up for me 5 samples of Kyiv’s niche brand G Parfums, I’ve been thrilled to bits.

G Parfums is the brand of perfumer Oleg Grabchuk (yes, that’s why “G” … it’s as simple as it is …).

Who is Oleg Grabchuk?

(picture source: https://proza.ru/)

Ukrainian perfumer, he studied psychology, and marketing design, first worked in marketing, in 2015 he founded his brand of perfumes. In addition, he paints, takes pictures, composes music, writes stories….he simply makes sense of as many senses and as many kinds of art (yes, I also consider perfumery as art) as much as possible.

His paintings and photos are full of symbolism and wake up a lot of emotions, as well as the perfumes I have tried, arouse emotions in me and irritate my imagination.

He says in interviews that he started with “heavier” scents and is now trying to focus on lighter ones and that paradoxically it is more difficult to create a lighter harmonic perfume than, I quote, “another rose with patchouli”. So now I already know why there are so many rose-with-patchouli perfumes… :)).

In the 7 years of its existence, the brand already has a respectable amount of perfumes on its account.

These 5 I got into my irresponsible hands, so let’s take a look at them.

Let’s state in the first place, that it’s a men’s choice originally for Igor personally, so you can’t make a representative picture of the brand from it, but let’s take it as a first try, and I’m already looking forward to a better situation and to being able to try others (excellent deduction, my dear Watson, I like these five). And when I try them, I’ll share my impressions again.

(www.edp.ua)

Kirza

It always surprises me immensely when there is a lot of patchouli in the scent and it is still good (ok, I know, this is personal between patchouli and me…). And this one is really rich in it. But it’s not just a one-component etude. A complex scent with beautiful leather tones and greenery. Add little liqueur notes. Liqueur tones gently sweeten to dry vanilla-tonka notes. At this stage – but only at this stage – it reminds me a bit of Patchouli sur Rendez-vous by Papillon Rouge. Patchouli, which I would like to wear? I surprise myself. (Be careful, it stains a little bit).

Sacred Elixir

The cute old-fashioned scent, a complete classic. Animalic notes, spices, rare resins, amber notes… I can’t decide if it reminds me more of the old classic Opium, Youth Dew, Vega without aldehydes (or with significantly fewer aldehydes), or the original Coco. Nevertheless, clearly unisex. Fantastic. Dramatic. It also stains a little, it quickly soaks on the skin, I would be careful with my clothes.

(www.edp.ua)

Alpha

When I grabbed the sample into my hands, such a strong smoke chord came out from the unopened atomizer that I was convinced that this would be on the subject of vetiver. And it doesn’t. But it is a distinctly men’s, smoky-leather scent. The smoke gradually develops, as when the fire is catching up and the leather remains… also not as strong as at the beginning, but sufficiently dominant over everything else. Holds well. It’s a pretty significant scent, certainly not universally applicable, but I would really like to enjoy it on certain special occasions.

Young Hunter

Animal notes in combination with woods from the beginning smell cold, almost raw here. But the impression is gradually disappearing. As musk and cinnamon come on, the scent warms and tames. Nevertheless, something wild remains in it. It evokes the image of a hunter returning from a forest with prey, lighting a fire, and resting, and in the meantime, the cottage starts to be warm and cozy.

(www.edp.ua)

Philosophy

Wonderful liqueur notes again. To my taste a little too interchangeable with something like Becherovka or Jägermeister, but they are beautiful, even slightly intoxicating. Who knows, maybe that name is meant pleasant foggy philosophizing under the effects of a little alcohol, or, conversely, an intoxicating feeling of good thought that adds more dopamine than that booze. Definitely unisex.

At the moment, his perfumes cannot be bought due to the war, partly because delivery does not work, but also because the house in which he has perfume ingredients is shelled. For the same reason, it cannot keep its website functional, but at least it is possible to view his Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gparfums/.

Try to imagine it… you dream of something, you build it from scratch, it becomes your livelihood, and one day you suddenly just look at it all helplessly from a distance and hope that it doesn’t burn to ashes…. and that all only because one despot from the Kremlin decided to write himself down in history at the cost of bombing, killing, destroying millions of lives and destinies. Because. Because he can. Because having that power to take all those human stories into your hands and throw them into the fire like a crumpled newspaper is so intoxicating. And if he has not made a positive contribution to history in those long years he is in charge, he chooses his own immortality at the expense of everyone else.

I very much hope that it will be soon after this terrible war, and just like other people will be able to return to their lives, Oleg Grabchuk will be able to reopen his brand and we will be free to enjoy his scents. I believe it will be as soon as possible.

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