Black Currant perfume ingredient, Black Currant fragrance and essential oils Ribes nigrum

Erik Kormann is a man with universal interests, like Mark Twain. After school he had a series of interesting occupations: a cabinet maker, photojournalist and archaeological expedition technician … Mark Twain became famous as a writer, and multitalented Erik found himself in the fragrant blog Der Aromatisches Blog, but also in the world of soaps, scents and perfumes.

He started his way in the perfume art from Berlin shop “A Thousand and One Soaps” (1000 & 1 Seife), which offers so many different soaps with different scents, colors, functions and shapes, that I believe Hygieia the Goddess would be totally satisfied there. There is a soap for pregnant women and for kids, for hippies and gentlemen, shaving soap and exfoliation soap, soap to remove unpleasant kitchen odors from the hands, honey scented, curry scented, patchouli scented, cinnamon scented, and so on … Erik can find for you almost any soap that exists in the world—and Erik makes a part of the production himself, together with his partner, Xenia Trost.

That’s good, but now to the perfumes. Today Erik has two series of fragrances in his repertoire. The first series of fragrances, Eau de Froehliche (“The Merry Water”), consists of three variations numbered №1, №2 and №3, and legend has it that one happy day Erik got a bottle of incense essential oil in the hands. The smell of this oil was so fascinating to Erik that it gave him the idea to create a fragrance—Eau de Froehliche.

It became the first fragrance (a scent of a chocolate dessert decorated with a pug on the bottle), dated 2010. Then, before Christmas 2012 Eau de Froehliche №2 (a fragrance of roses and incense decorated with a black tomcat) was launched. The latest launch, Eau de Froehliche №3, decorated with a black raven with berries of currants in its beak, was made in collaboration with outside perfumers.

Another series is named Monat (“Month”). Right now there are only Juli, August, September and Dezember perfumes—and I expect that sooner or later you will see all twelve months. The main feature of the series is that the number of aromatic notes in them corresponds to the number of the month. The latest new perfume, Dezember, which appeared in January 2014, is described by 12 notes only, whilst Juli includes seven notes.

What is particularly charming in the Monat perfumes: their open source. Erik reveals the composition of his perfumes openly, giving all the original components to the readers of his blog. Furthermore, he writes: “Imitation is permitted, desirable and welcome, mix with what you want for your pleasure!”

For example, Juli (“July”): it is a sober and simple green perfume of seven notes: mint, grapefruit, mandarin, jasmine, vetiver, fig leaves and cedarwood. Also, it is an example to show that the world of perfume notation (notes or chords) and the world of perfumery chemicals (components) are different enough, as one can see the disclosed composition. Erik has no secrets!

Initial notes of Juli are: Petitgrain essential oil and Grapefruit oil with Methyl Pamplemousse (3:1). The heart of the fragrance is made of floral Hedione, Magnolan, and green foliage note (Stemone is a green and very powerful molecule, which is usually described in compositions as tomato leaves, fig leaves or green foliage). The trail is composed of Haitian Vetiver oil in conjunction with the “molecule number 3” Vetiveryl Acetate (1:10), well-known Iso E Super and dry woody amber Timberol. Wanna do it yourself ? Grab the materials and scales at hand and start now! Perhaps you can get even better! The Erik Kormann perfumes attached to his perfume blog resemble a school for German beginning perfumers, in which all have equal rights (so sorry, I do not understand German!). So I decided to try the perfumes and ordered samples from Germany to make a review. Is Juli Erik Kormann a good perfume? Yes. It’s a contemporary, minimalistic and sharp perfume that will definitely find its admirers.

Perfumers Geza Schoen or Andy Tauer could very well be its authors (incidentally, Herr Schoen has made some perfumes out of a single molecule, and Herr Tauer has made the Pentachord series of fragrances that consist of just five components). Thin and sharp, beautiful and serious Juli is good but has not enough shine and lacks some body (in my subjective opinion). It is like a skeleton. It reminds me of Ariadne’s thread, an endless green cord made of shiny silk, which stretches from morning until evening, almost without change in diameter, only becoming more gray and woody in the afternoon. It has something in common with Azzaro Pure Vetiver, as in both colognes the main role is played by Haitian Vetiver, with dry woods and grapefruit, yet they differ by aldehyde illumination and the wide woody-musky sillage of the latter. I can see Juli by Erik Kormann as a great alternative to many citrus green colognes in summer, because it’s very enduring and completely unobtrusive to the windless heat of July! Especially when you consider its modest price.

Another perfume that I decided to wear was the last Christmas fragrance, Eau de Froehliche № 3: Merry Christmas incense with a new blackcurrant face. I was intrigued by this fragrance, because Erik involved two professionals in the creation, in their spare time: Dr. Philip Kraft and perfumer Alain Alhenberger. I would like to compare it with the first two “merry” perfumes, hopefully next time.

Erik had chosen the perfume base accord: Incense resinoid, Cashmeran and Savory oil (Satureja hortensis L.). Then, Givaudan professionals showed their high class and rich arsenal of captive molecules: blackcurrant molecule Cassyrane, rosemary, lemon, geranium and pink pepper oils, green wet molecule Shisolia, marine and lily of the valley molecule Calypsone, rosy Rossitol, lychee, a raspberry and peonies chord around the molecule Petalia, milky-creamy Ethyl Laitone, aldehydic Mystikal, Ambrettolide and Nirvanolide musks, the soft wood amber sillage of Ambermax, Okoumal, Vertofix Cœur and Georgywood molecules to complement cedarwood and sandalwood essential oils … I should confess that I have read this description in the “Scent and Chemistry” blog with reverence and awe, maybe just like you, forcing my way through the list of beautiful and mostly unknown names of Givaudan molecules.

Despite the fact that the main impression of Eau de Froehliche № 3 by Erik Kormann is that fresh blackcurrant berries and buds gradually lose their bright color and tart natural flavor, turning into milky incense tears—five components are not the limit for modern perfumers. Blackcurrant and incense are just two opposite poles of perfume, and the space between contains a rich variety of many storylines: sappy, fruity and berry, floral, citrus, leafy-green, woody, musky, amber and powdery … Cat owners can find in Eau de Froehliche № 3 even some cat fancy smells!

Smelling this product, amateur perfumers could want to give up, as no one can do the same ever. This is too complicated! It is more than anyone could understand! (Not to mention that it’s concentrate is rather expensive. To quote Dr. Philip Kraft, the cost of the fragrance Eau de Froehliche № 3 surpasses many uber-luxury fragrances from both the luxury and niche side.) And then I realize that there are professional perfumers, and rejoice that with help of modern science and methods, they can already create almost any Miracle fragrance.

First, Eau de Froehliche № 3 recalls both the buds and the berries of blackcurrant, with natural and full juicy bits plus a miraculous resinous and acrid smell, almost tasty. Then, the perfume continuously fades like a painted watercolor awashed, layer by layer. That green sap, the flowers, the woods, the the amber part of coming to the fore, dominating over all the scent for a moment. The alternation of layers and facets resembles the magic tablecloth from Russian fairy tales—one needs just to think about anything, and here it is to smell and taste. It’s hard to single out just one vector of its development. It is best to use a star-shaped metaphor or some multidimensional figure. I would suggest everyone try it and form his/her own opinion, because I believe it’s one of the best fragrances of the last year. And please hurry a bit—nobody knows what will happen after the limited edition runs out.

Photos from aromatisches-blog.de

By Sergey Borisov