Grasse

As a personal friend of Anselm Skodstad, I was very happy to be able to try Grasse for the first time back in January. Grasse is a floral fragrance with a somewhat woody earthy base. The scent is quite powdery, floral, slightly sweet and has a sort of earthy, dusty and vintage vibe to it. I also detected a very slight bitterness at the beginning of the floral heart and that immediately gave me an image of beautiful white with pastel purple colours. There are lots of Roses and Iris in this scent and the Rose facets reminded me of Amouage Lyric Woman and Caron Rose. It smells powdery, dusty, somewhat creamy and luxurious. On my cooler than average skin, Grasse has moderate sillage and quite long lasting.

Grasse is a powdery floral beauty. It smells incredibly clean and uplifting. It is floral, but not indolic, just very captivating and romantic. It definitely smells classic, but not old fashioned. This is great for daily wear in spring or summer and in autumn and winter for a classy night out. It leans more feminine, but I think a confident upbeat gentlemen can easily wear it as well. I usually go for more moody ambery and woody fragrances, but I gladly make an exception for Grasse. This makes the full bottle wishlist for me.

“Grasse”, as I suspect, is a tribute to the capital of perfumery, and it definitely has vintage vibes in it. This is an elegant vintage powder box with a white fluffy puff, you can find a sweetish iris powder in it; these are roses, white carnations and violets in a slightly dusty (stemone) velvet hat; the fragrance has waxy aldehyde facets, definitely with an eye on vintage compositions, but at the same time, even I, a person who is far from retro vibes, will wear it with pleasure. As it is an extremely harmonious pacifying composition.

I finally bit the bullet and bought a FB after staring at its name on my wishlist for far too long. I was surprised when I found out that it had been decluttered from their website. But I immediately texted Der Duft on IG and inquired if I could still buy a bottle. Anselm was kind to reply and ship a bottle to me. This is the most expensive fragrance per ml that I have. But I have no regrets having it in my collection. This is a beautiful flowery powdery aldehydic perfume. It pays homage to vintage perfumery style without giving away its modernity. The longevity of this perfume is out of this world which is not something I would expect from a fragrance with this scent profile. I have not yet visited Grasse. But I can very much imagine in my head, a town with small alley ways that are full of soap-selling shops. This fragrance transports my imagination to the South of France. It smells soapy but it’s not the type of smell that reminds you of your grandmother‘s soap from Italy or France (Marseille). It’s a pity that this fragrance and the house are not hyped enough on YouTube or within Fragcomm. But on the other hand, I love smelling like no one else. So I can’t complain. I hope more people discover Der Duft and support indie perfume houses like it.

I love this name. Minimal and "picturist". There have been many, soir de grasse, un hiver a grasse, jardin de grasse, rose (jasmine, mimosa, and many other flowers) de grasse. Never a soli-Grasse scent. Interesting dance of flowers reading the notes.