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

Andrea Maack - Craft

With notes of aldehydes, elemi (a resin with scent of spicy citrus), cold metal, ice, cedarwood and patchouli, Andrea Maack´s Craft sounds really intriguing. But, I didn´t really think that I would like it, since metallic notes in fragrances seldom seem to mix well with my skin chemistry. I was almost sure that I would like Sharp better, but then, when I tried Craft I got really surprised!

Craft is a really unique scent. Somehow it´s like a scent beyond the post-modern, a scent created for science fiction, space ships and cyborgs. With the aldehydic opening notes, it´s like being greated by a steamy cloud with a tart metallic scent. Like being lost in a foggy forrest with metallic trees and articial citrus fruits hanging from the metallic branches. Or maybe, this is how it smells like in Starship Enterprices hallways? Or is it the perfume that seven-of-nine put on each morning before shs ready to face another space adventure?

Well, somewhere right there I realise that I LIKE Craft a lot! One of few scents with dominant metallic note that actually work well with my skin chemistry. At first Craft is cold, wet, tart and extremly strange, but also interesting, exciting, unique, but most important, wearable. It is far easier to like then I first belived. Somewhere on the way to the heartnotes I detect a scent so much like those tart, papery flying saucers candy, so spot on I can even taste them in my mouth.

Like Sharp, Craft is also a white kind of scent, even though with elemenats of metallic and a hint of lightest green. While Sharp is soft and soothing on the surface, but with something evil/poisionous going on underneath, Craft is the other way around. Cold, wet and strange on the surface, but slowly warming up on my skin.If Sharp is layer on layer, Craft is with the notes parallell developing. It´s in the top notes and for the first hour I think of Craft as a cold scent. When it slowly warms up on my skin a warm, aromatic, woody, earthy and slightly green scent occurs. Still something otherwordly is present, but in a way that ewokes my imagination and curiousity.

During this phase in Craft, it´s like I´m slowly have worked my way to the heart of the spaceship and found out that there´s a giant, wonderfully scented tree that enpowers the spaceship instead of a more common motor (come on, this is sci-fi, anything is possible, at least theoretical). Or is it the little space kids that are having a lecture in biology and growing little miniature trees in petri-dishes?

-Does trees and plants really smell this good for real miss, a little space student wonders.

However, I discovered that I after all are more found of Craft, than of Sharp, even though harp in a way smells more "me", but also is more demanding to wear. Craft is easier to like and also not reminding of any other scent I´ve tried.

Craft has a huge sillage, especially at first when you get surrounden by a humid cloud smelling of citrus and metall. The sillage however are becoming much less dominant when the warmer notes of patvhouli and cedar wood occurs. Craft has good lasting power, even though Sharp has even better. Craft works really well on men too. Craft, as well as Sharp are really a must try scent. It´s not that often this different scents also is so easy to like.

Which is your favorite scent with metallic notes?

pic: seven-of-nine, geeknews

Andrea Maack -Sharp

Andrea Maack is an Icelandic artist that in her work is interested to interfer or complete the visual dominance in art. Andrea has chosen to do so by creating three different fragrances, Sharp, Smart and Craft, that olfactory correspond and mimic other of her artwork, like pencil drawings. With her perfumes Andrea has chosen to enter the commercial sphere and they´ll be launched worldwide. Andrea is fascinated ny the thought that people around the world will wear her art, and every single perfume bottle will be like people having their own Andrea Maack installation in their homes. Not only the scent itself, but also the bottle, the protecting pouch and the box is part of the artwork. You can read and learn morea bout Andrea Maack, her art and her perfumes here: http://www.andreamaack.com/

http://www.andreamaack.com/EauDeParfum.pdf

I have to admit that I´m very, very happy to evaluate these scents of several reasons. First of all, I think it´s really nice, that Iceland, a country not at all on the perfume map, finally have got some representation in the world of perfumes. That the line between art and the commercial interest that runs pretty much everything in perfume industry is getting thinner is interesting. The fact that we´re living in a visual dictatorship, but that it´s possible to interfer with it´s dominance is also very interesting. That these scents are very interesting and unique don´t make it any worse either...

I get Sharp as a very white scent, it´s white on white on white, but with little differences in nuances. Notes for Sharp: orange blossom, angle skin, sweet vanilla, white musk and soothing softness.

Yes, I think of Sharp as soft, powdery, unresisting and feminine, but below the surface there is something sharp (as the name suggest) and edgy lurking. Is Sharp a baby farmer? Or a sweet poison blender? A beautiful, but evil queen that sucks the life out of little children? Or Snowwhite´s cruel stepmother that have poisoned the juicy apple?

For me, the scent Sharp holds a story, a multifaced fairytale. The different notes are piled in layers, and each one is only briefly exposed. Flower petals resting on matt, white paper, on skin as pale as snow, a note of something medical, sharp, poisonous, narcotic and even though I almost experience the scent as repelling I am also extremly attracted to it. The "poison" note is very subtle, and gives Sharp am un-expected character and makes it very unlike most scents.

However, I find that Sharp has some similarities to Dior´s Hypnotic Posion, but like a version with the real thing. The papery floral notes has something in common with Van Cleefs & Arpels Gardenia Petale, but much more complex.

Sharp is in a way beyond comfort, softness and smoth vanilla, but a scent that demand my attention while I´m wearing it. I feel being in some kind of Tabula Rasa-situation, and that I can fill in the contents myself, it isn´t given. I guess this is what I would have wished Nasomatto´s China White to smell like. Sharp has an element of almost icy coolness that feels very comfy amon the mostly warm notes. Sharp is also quite a sweet scent, but that tart medical note wears out the sweetness quite well.

Sharp has great lasting power and could stay with me for a whole day, but however, it is a demanding scent and I can feel like I´m having an "overdose" after several hours with Sharp. It´s manage to evoke a lot of imagination and questions, and I discover new elements every time I try it. The sillage is quite huge, you´ll get notice when you´re wearing Sharp!

Soon, Andrea Maack´s fragrances will be launched in Stockholm, and every perfume lover should try her scents. The price is very affordable for this kind of scents. This is fragarnces that you really, really, really must try! What will you fill your Tabula Rasa with?

Don´t miss the drawing for some Andrea Maack samples coming up soon!

Pic: Andrea Maack