Description
“Nikolay carries a tender-hearted veil of melancholy that hangs unstable and somber upon his soul like clouds continually gathering and bursting, but this also makes an outpouring possible of everything that is unique and valuable in his creativity. The wisdom of his melancholy lies in the understanding the echoes of his own grief. He reveals his inmost feelings only to those who are able to understand that loneliness is universal and it belongs to humanity in general. Nikolay yearns for a deeper, richer relationship with the world and in doing so he explores his own potentials – something he might not have explored without touching the most vulnerable and fragile parts of his soul.
Only with accepting the ebony and ivory on his piano he can see the world in colors of emotion with the full presence of his carving depths. This leads him to a possibility to extract the profound as an invaluable treasure. This is however a heavy burden only the strongest and enlightened souls can carry.
Melancholy opens with light and sweet but at the same time a little nutty, a bit bitter and herbal odor, which is, together with saffron, tenderly supporting the strongly perceptible frankincense note. And still the opening is also somehow waxy. This must be the influence of quite a strong and earthy, subtly sweet and almost musky scent of palmarosa grass.
I can’t smell any iris or violet. The connection of mentioned palmarosa and accompanied ylang-ylang is now to narcotic. The upcoming patchouli note makes everything even more intoxicating. This moment is lately enriched with a beautiful smell of freshly cut timber and just a hint of sweetly greenish aura.
After many hours Nikolay’s creation becomes subtle, soothing sweet and balsamic-resinous with a very delicate floral note arising. But the woody, earthy and quite lingering churchy odor remains highly noticeable. It’s important to mention that with every passed minute a deep, comforting and warm note of tobacco is slowly taking over. Nikolay was again most successful in a really great manner with unfolding something that is filled with sweet melancholy.
The beautiful bitter-sweet symphony of Melancholy layered with strength of his creator makes this fragrance a masterpiece that is hard to resist.” – a note from the brand.
Melancholy. Letters Wallice was launched in 2015. The nose behind this fragrance is Nikolay Eremin.
i.ivan1979 – :
From the old Russian imperial city of St. Petersburg comes the perfume house of Nimere Parfums. The Venice of the north as it has been called was founded and built in Baroque splendor by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703. The city is famed for great art, architecture and history. Drama and beauty are the mortar between every stone in every building of this magnificent city. It is fitting that this house founded by Parfumeur Nikolay Eremin should come from such a place. Mr. Eremin was kind enough to send me sample of the entire line and a few vials of new works. I have to say I as supremely impressed with the wide range of options from the classical to the very modern. There is something for everyone to love from the house of Nimere.
I have spent several months as Fall melted into Winter exploring the line. And at one point broke a vial of Eva while opening it and thus cutting a finger in the process. So that fragrance which I loved was lost to memory as it spilled over my desk. The challenge for me was to narrow down the remaining fragrances to those I truly fell in love with. Among those were Sweet Kiss, a coconutty sweet rich perfume, Melancholy No. 60/3, Time Stood Still No.81 an animalic classically sexy fragrance, Killing Beauty, No Name H.M #2 (a new perfume) and Court Intrigues a masculine beauty smelling of leather boots freshly polished, spices and dry austere woods. What I landed on finally for this review was Melancholy No. 60/3.
The perfume was inspired by a great love story of between King Edward VIII and Wallace Simpson. In particular, the love letters from Wallace to the king. (some of which were scented with spilt perfume) For me this perfume registers in the olfactory sense of the beauty of classic perfumes from the late 1800’s to the late 1930’s. Complex, hypnotic in the way the perfume unfolds and blooms on the skin. The life it has on the skin is sensual, romantic and slightly dangerous and naughty. It is in fact everything that a love affair possesses.
Melancholy No,. 60/3 opens with a fresh spicy Indian Calamus, this note embraces with a carmine red, languorous Saffron from an Eastern Bazaar. It smells expensive right off the top. A rich exotic, near erotic opening that would have shocked the more prudish noses of the early 20th century. Without the traditional citrus in the opening this perfume has flesh impact. It is an erotic invitation to plunge head long into the sensual.
The heart of the fragrance is indigo in color shot through with gold treads like a veil from the far East. And like a veil it floats in floral rhapsodic blending of purple iris earthy and low. A powdery lighter purple of the more elevated violet. jasmine like nuances of a golden Ylang Ylang are tied deep into a green lush Palmarose note. Over this and rising from some deep desire buried and smoldering deep within Melancholy rises tendrils of heady incense. As it develops the florals are enhanced to near intoxicated perfection by this mysterious smoke. The flowers are in fact by the arrival of the dry down, drunk on the incense.
In the final stage of the perfume we find a fascinating and quite crowed house of notes. Woods from the Cedar, Guayak, Sandalwood, and the Araucaria tree. More commonly know as a Monkey Puzzle Tree. These woods give the romantic feminine side of the perfume a strong twist toward the masculine. And that is nice because if makes the fragrance all the more interesting. There is a great patchouli here as well as a dry Nagarmotha (related to papyrus) the classic Oak Moss and vetiver vie for supremacy but are mellowed out my creamy not too sweet vanilla, and its cousin Tonka bean. All of this in the dry down is made all the more stunning by the soothing amber beauty of Tolu Balsam. The perfume lasts on my skin around a good solid seven hours. the projection is at about eighteen to twenty five inches for around three hours. then if falls in upon itself to become an invitation at skin level.
Whatever story you find in Melancholy No. 60/3, be it the forbidden love of a king for a commoner or the fresh first stirrings of erotic young love this perfume is something truly lovely. More beautiful that I can describe it brings me back to my tiny vial seeking yet another story, another romance to explore, to burn out, lose and find again in my ongoing love affair with Perfume.
(FOR THE STORY INSPIRED BY THIS PERFUME CHECK OUT MY BLOG SCENTS MEMORY)