by: Serguey Borisov
Not so long ago a microperfume brand with an unusual name, 4160 Tuesdays, appeared in London. All their fragrances are handmade, in microbatches from fifty to two hundred bottles. The perfumer is a London resident, Sarah McCartney, a self-taught perfumer who spent a perfume-related 14 years as head author of the "Lush Times" catalog. And the influence is quite clear in the amusing and ironic names of the perfumes, not to mention the colorful packaging.
Actually, the brand appeared when Sarah decided to take a break after her work atLush (which has grown from four UK stores into a grand international network of 700 boutiques) and write her own novel. The perfume theme of the novel brought her to the idea of perfumes created by the main character, but this idea turned out to be expensive and not so easy. Not all of the eight perfumes had been created before. So she had to become her own perfumer and try to create the perfumes ... and then she just never stopped.
Thus, the novel The Scent of Possibility was published (and a second edition was issued already!). Also, two dozen perfumes of 4160 Tuesdays have seen the light, and each perfume is a short story that includes characters, a time and place for the action, a mood and a situation. In fact, these are not perfumes, but stories told without words. At the same time, they are something simple and sincere, akin to a sweater knitted by your own hands or a jam you made from strawberries you gathered in the forest. The perfumes are so DIY that you could almost learn the recipe from your grandmother or neighbor (“Oh, dear, your Shalimar is so nice and tasteful! Tell me, how you are doing it? Is there any secret ingredient? There should be one!”). Something that could be done by your hands, and is scary at first, but if you persist things will work out sooner or later. Blended from bottles bought in online perfume materials stores, made of essential oils and synthetic molecules, they don't smell like luxury perfumes. But they smell good enough to use and are able to tell a story. The story will not be a great blockbuster, but it's not necessarily because it's purposed for home video or short film.
I'm going to review some “Short Film Perfumes” by Sarah McCartney first, and leave the story of why the house is called 4160 Tuesdays for the dessert.
The samples of 4160 Tuesdays are wrapped in colored paper, like children's candies. I hope that Bond №9 did not patent this sweet technology yet. This charming feature gives to the perfume samples a secretive, playful mood and protects them from damage. Another convenient feature: the sample tubes have stoppers instead of plugs, so they are easier to open and more convenient to use.
The first fragrance, which I took out of a purple paper candy wrapper is calledShazam! This amber oriental fragrance continues the spirit of natural perfumes, as it keeps close to the skin. This theme is often used by beginner perfumers-- amber orientals are almost the most popular things you can't go wrong with. Amber as a combination based on patchouli, vanillin, labdanum and citrus in the case of Shazam! has got a couple of additional accents in a strange combination: juniper gin and incense.
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Top notes: Basil, Tangerine and Juniper berries;
Heart notes: Atlas cedar, Pink pepper, Cardamom and Frankincense;
Base notes: Amber, Patchouli and Cocoa.
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The second sample I took out of the goblet full of “Tuesdays candies” was namedUrura's Tokyo Café,
in an orange wrapper. Who is Urura? Is it a real cafe? I urge you to make your own investigation. For me it is a gentle fragrance of delicate colored satin ribbons to keep in place the swaddling-clothes and make a clear traditional color code. Just two is enough for the color code: a boy and a girl, cute twins, blue ribbon of violets and pink ribbon of roses. A warm floral fragrance, a little childish, simplistic and naive--but then, that naivete wins in most literary situations? The greatest thing in the perfume is its relaxed attitude to chemistry: violets, as in the 19th century, are depicted by an ionone accord.
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Top notes: Pink grapefruit and Tangerine;
Heart notes: Violet and Rose;
Base notes: Opoponax, Raspberry jam, Tolu balsam.
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A sample jumped into my hands out of its purple paper and it had a fancy name: Time to Draw the Raffle Numbers. Actually, the smell is not easy to put into the framework of perfume families. It is fresh, it is metallic, it is sweet as cakes and bitter as the soil on the vetiver rhizomes. It blooms like flowers; it smells of cut cucumbers and crushed violet leaves. I did not recognize the synthetics—Folione, probably. It should be a fantastic story about aluminium cucumbers grafted on to a vetiver canvas field—a fragrance that can be recommended for both Martian robots and Texan Marlboro cowboys going to a rendezvous in New York, Paris and London.
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Top notes: Lime Blossom, Metallic notes, Marmalade-On-Toast;
Heart notes: Coffee, Leather and Croissants;
Base notes: Tobacco and Vetiver.
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In red-brick-colored wrapping was hidden a Sunshine and Pancakes tube. Let's attract the witchcraft symbolism immediately: the wrapping color should be called "freckled." Let the sun rays come from mini-suns of oranges and lemons. And pancakes, too, we need here only as a symbol of the sun in the Shrovetide week (so it could be Shrove Tuesday, by the way). Pancakes with a bitter fragrant honey(and later, with something fatty and buttery). But if someone needs the real pancakes and the real sun—not just a symbolic one—in their perfume, I suppose that smell would be quite different. It would be less citrus and spicy, and more complex as a Maillard reaction gives a lot of complex and delicious smells, for example, caramel, dulce di leche, roasted nuts, chocolate Nutella, peanut butter, etc. And what are your favourite toppings for pancakes?
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Top notes: Lemon and Orange;
Heart notes: Australian sandalwood, Rosewood and Jasmine;
Base notes: Vanilla, Honey absolute, Musk and Benzoin.
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The Dark Heart of Old Havana perfume in a red wrapper is an interesting and vibrant contrast of sweet and bitter, tender and hot, pleasant vanilla and repulsive naphthalene (although this should be an indole
and coumarin combo). This meeting of naïve vanilla ice cream with a dangerous Latin lover wearing Joop! Homme. I feel it as somehow an unsettled and non-coiffured concept, but with a promised dark core in it. Still, vanilla is more prominent.
and coumarin combo). This meeting of naïve vanilla ice cream with a dangerous Latin lover wearing Joop! Homme. I feel it as somehow an unsettled and non-coiffured concept, but with a promised dark core in it. Still, vanilla is more prominent.
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Top notes: Orange, Peach, Grapefruit and Sugar;
Heart notes: Tobacco, Bergamot, Tonka bean, Jasmine and Coffee;
Base notes: Vanilla, Musk and Black pepper.
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What I Did on My Holidays perfume by its blue label and wrappers seemed to hint to us of an island location of the United Kingdom. Is it a seaside? A wet fresh start, partly violet leaves (the cucumber note from Time to Draw the Raffle Numbers), partly vanilla and sweet creme brulee, plus mint, camphor, mouthwash. A very unusual combination, as people usually avoid consuming cucumbers with vanilla ice cream and lavender soap ... But there could be some whims, I agree.
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Top notes: Peppermint, Coconut suntan lotion, Sea air;
Heart notes: Lavender and Cotton candy;
Base notes: Vanilla ice cream.
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And I want to conclude the overview with the landmark fragrance called The Sexiest Scent on The Planet. Ever. (IMHO), provided with a *sarcasm* sign of 85 inches diagonal. There is nothing dramatic, except linalool alcohol. There is little noticeable at all, except a tiny and nice marshmallow note. Turn the nose magnification on and move in closer, even closer, the closest, you can find some vanillin and some shy molecules: cedar-woody, ambergris-like and lactone-gourmand. Sex will never happen at a planetary distance. One always has to come closer. And of course, Iso E Super's aphrodisiac properties haunt anyone—perfumers as well their customers.
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Top note: Bergamot;
Heart note: Woody notes;
Base notes: Vanilla and Ambergris.
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So, why is the brand named 4160 Tuesday? This is the number of Tuesdays you have to live if you reach 80 years age. Do you think that's a lot? Or not? Keep in mind, they are not Mondays The Terrible and not Wicked Fridays, they are not Free-Timer Saturdays that stretch for 30 hours and not Gloomy Sundays Before Mondays. They are Tuesdays.
Bleak days of the week, if you work on the assembly line every day.
Inspiring days, if you love your job and go to work looking for new solutions and new knowledge.
In general, if you do not enjoy your time, every Tuesday will be the torture and the yoke. Find joy yourself. Find an occupation and a hobby that will make you happy and does not interfere with others. Flowers in the garden. Tales for your kids. Walking or jogging. Embroidery. Mega-cakes. Making fishing flies. Origami. Creating a new philosophy or religion. Graphomania. Growing giant pumpkins.
You cannot even imagine how many ways to be happy humanity can come up with if you do not wait until retirement and do not miss a single Tuesday to try something new. Sarah McCartney does not. I'm pretty sure that Sarah could be one of the best representatives of the Red Hat Society. What kind of society are they? Here, read this.
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
… But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
—"Warning," Jenny Joseph, 1961
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
… But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
—"Warning," Jenny Joseph, 1961
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