It is hard to start your own perfume brand. To find your own space within the niche perfume sector at this point is but one of the roadblocks. One of those spaces is the area of geographical perfume. To create a brand identity around the concept that a spritz or two will take you to the place on the label. Which leads to another difficulty if the named places are cities the wearer knows well; then there are expectations. Which is how I came to the first four releases earlier this year from Gallivant.
Nick Steward
Gallivant was founded by Nick Steward who had spent his career previously at L’Artisan Parfumeur. He also chose to work exclusively with two perfumers for the early releases Giorgia Navarra and Karine Chevallier. With that creative team along with the idea of having them focus on evoking the great cities of the world I approached it with hope only to find it a group of perfumes which zigged when I wanted them to zag. Each one had a moment of olfactory dissonance which kept me from wanting to write about them. When the latest two releases showed up, Berlin and Amsterdam, I was a little more cautious but my belief in the talent behind the bottle had me opening the vials. Berlin was a repeat of the things I didn’t care for from the first four. As I reached for Amsterdam I was losing my mojo, only to be met with the kind of perfume I was expecting from Gallivant.
Giorgia Navarra
The description on the Gallivant website describes Amsterdam as a perfume of “Autumn going into winter.” Sig.ra Navarra is asked to capture the Dutch word “gezellig” which is an all-over feeling of contentedness and coziness. What this means in fragrance terms is an early phase of spices and flowers before finding the warmth of an Oriental base.
Amsterdam opens with one of the most genial pepper top accords I’ve tried in years. Most perfumers take black pepper and serve it up in all its nose-tickling character. Sig.ra Navarra works to dial that way back using pink pepper, elemi, and saffron to wrap it up in a gauzy scarf. This forms a peppery accord which diffuses in waves across the early moments. The floral heart is described as a “black tulip” accord. What it seems to be is tulip made deeper with rose. For a perfume which wants to capture autumn, this does it well; especially with a flower like tulip which is so emblematic of spring. In Amsterdam the tulip is holding on against its eventual final wilting. The rose, which I think is Turkish, picks up on the spices from the top accord while providing a bit of elegiac charm to the tulip. The Oriental base is constructed of sandalwood and cedar along with amber and musk. In keeping with the tone of the perfume this is a soft Oriental and really where Amsterdam truly gets gezellig.
Amsterdam has 12-14 hour longevity and average sillage.
Amsterdam is a bulky sweater of a perfume. It is something which expertly captures the effect of gezellig.
Disclosure: This review is based on a sample from Gallivant.
–Mark Behnke
