Sigilli - Ferfaen

While mainstream perfume brands seem to be inspired only by youth, beauty, and nowadays fame also, some niche-and indie perfume brands seem to find inspiration in past times, with Hollywood glamour, smiling pin-up girls and the happy days of the 20'ies.


Still, it´s not that common to find fragrances inspired by an era more than 50 or even 100 years ago. But, Italian perfumer, Enrico Buccella have found inspiration from the etruscan culture. The etruscan people lived in what is known as Italy in our time, their culture and society flourished around 500 BC. A lot of information about the etruscna people has been lost, but it´s recognised that they where skilled artisans. Eventually the etruscan power diminished and they become assimilated in the Roman empire.


It´s an interesting challenge to test the different fragrances, Asprosa, Claudiae, Tyrsenoi, Ferfaen, Ea, Athunis, Pyrgos, Thu, Hesperia, Volumnia and Tuscia, but with that many new fragrances to evaluate it can be a little hard to overlock them all. They all have one thing in common, they manage to create a feeling of an long time gone culture in avery genuin and trustworthy way. i don´t like all of the fragrances in the line as much, some of them are even a little hard to pull off, but still they convince at least me, that this is how people some 3000 years ago liked to smell...


One of my favorites is Ferfaen, which means verbena in celtic, and yes, this is a scent with fresh verben in the middle, but also underscored by dark and aromatic notes of tobacco and musk. Ferfaen is complex and changes a lot on my skin, the opening is like a mix between herbal and aromatic citruses and some fresh mint. after about 20 minutes - half an hour the scent darkens, tobacco gives a deepth to Ferfaen, while verbena and mint is still noticable. Something in the meeting of verbena and tobacco gives a dry almost papery feeling, but at the same time something that also smells like rugged leather. I´ve never encountered anything like this in a fragrance.
It´s strange and different, yet Ferfaen is one of the most easier to wear among the Sigilli fragrances.


The base is warm, aromatic, sligthly sweet and with some animalic musk. It´s senual and even a little erotic, so I can see why verbena was used as an aphrodisia.


While testing Sigilli, I was reading a book about Pompeiji and the fragrances brought
another dimension to my reading experience.


Ferfaen has good lasting power (about 6 hours), and not that huge sillage, but I´ve tested it with a dab on sample though. To me, I can see Ferfaen being used by both men and women. And I do recommend you to put on any of the Sigilli scents if you´re about to watch any costume movie taking place under the Anticque era. Or of course if you read a book about that time. Sigilli will bring a little extra something to that experience...