Andrea Maack - Smart

The little sample of Smart didn´t get here in the first place, but Andrea was kind enough to send me a new one. Both the scents and the design are stripped, clean, "nordic" and cool. Still I get a swarm of impressions from them, maybe the minimalistic style gives room for my own impressions much more then the opposite? What ever it depends on, it is really interesting to try Andrea Maack´s scents, Smart isn´t an exception.

Still I thought, during my first try, that Smart is the one among them, reminding the most of common perfume, but then I had to question myself, it is far from THAT common, even though it is somewhat easier to approach then the other two. The notes of Smart is, violet leaf, jasmine, vanilla, white musk and buckskin.

Smart is, on me, the most linear scent of the three. It smells quite the same from the opening until it fade away. The violet leafs gives a soft yet spicy violet green feeling to the scent, and the jasmine is soft and gentle but very present. The note of buckskin is very fascinating, it smells like rubber sometimes and then it smells like soft skin. Together with the green violet and jasmine it makes me think about a crazy fetsih party somewhere out in the wet springtime forrest. Maybe not the best place for that kind of party, even though rubberclothes can be quite handy in wet marshland with flowering little violets...

Smart is a wet scent, I think of wet and shiny, but also soft, natural and wild, a scent with antagonism between the artificial (the fake skin/rubbery notes) and the natural consisting of violets, jasmine and vanilla. Tha vanilla in Smart is quite discrete, but if you can forget about the violets and jasmine for a while, it has some similarities to Bvlgari Black, even though a little more feminine, but also sharper and edgier. Still, Smart is suitable for both men and women in my opinion.

Despite Smart´s minimalistic style, it makes me think about bombastic, overloaded and kitchy style like Prince´s 80'ies classic, Purple Rain. Smart could very well be the scent for that video. Or curvy baroque furniture, painted in gold and with fabric of deep purple velvet or magenta colored leopard print. Jewelry so loaded with fake glitter that they are almost to heavy to wear. Synthetic wigs in impossible colors and as impossible hairstyle. Shoes with impossible to walk in heels and design. Shortly, kitch, kitch and kitch.

Yet, there is that part of Smart that returns to the wild, to the nature, little violets, jasmine scent from afar and a cozy, laidback feeling.

All the scents from Andrea Maack has something to say, a story to tell, but the intersting thing is that they, probably, tell a different story for each person wearing them. Smart, together with the other two, is a must to try if you have the opportunity. They are all well made and have similarites, yet they are very different from each other also. Maybe Smart is the easiest to wear among them, Craft is cold on the outside, but warm beneath and Sharp has a soft and warm surface, with something cold lurking downunder.

Smart has good sillage and lasting power.

I guess that not to many of you have tried any of them yet, but which of them are sounding the most intersting to you?

Pic: Prince, Purple Rain