Best Chypre de Grand by Maksim Perfume Alternatives & Similar Perfumes

An olfactory portrait of the Indonesian island of Java, featuring its agricultural bounty of vetiver and lime. Green notes blend with tart lime and the tangy sweetness of bergamot. Rooty vetiver anchors this freshness in an earthy and elegant base.

The cologne range has a perfume concentration of around 20%, making them longer-lasting than traditional colognes, while retaining the freshness and lightness that define this type of creation.

Perfumer: Kévin Mathys

In this perfume story, the smoky gaiac aroma is gliding across a fresh and boundless ozonic void.

The story is open to interpretation: you can smell the waterproof canvas of the parachute gear in the abstract clean woodiness of the formula; or the air from under the tarpaulin you pull off a glider in its hangar; or think of any scenario involving flying machinery and an unlimited supply of fresh air.

The perfumer wanted to achieve a hazy floating shadow of an aroma, evoking a sensation of endless dark blue space, the calm humming of an engine, and hints of gasoline or machine oil. A worthy heir to the grandpa of all hazy smoky formulas inspired by airplane wings: Guerlain’s Vol de Nuit.

This formula is a huge bergamot space heated by a resinous background.

It's a bit like a Greek island in August when the aromas of sweet citruses mix with the green balsamic smell of cypresses and incensy vibes of rockrose Everything gets lifted into the air by the heat reflected from the stony ground. You can almost hear the cicadas in tall dry grass in this perfume.

Ithaka is the first perfume in the Versi trilogy exploring the relationship between poetry and perfumery and how to appreciate it.

It's inspired by the poem Ithaka written by C. P. Cavafy, and first published in 1911.

Perfumer: Camille Chemardin

Genesis, Concept and Creative Design: Stefania Squeglia

***

Ithaka (the poem)

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon — don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon — you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind —
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

***

P. Cavafy, fromC.P. Cavafy: Collected Poems.Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Translation Copyright © 1975, 1992 by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Reproduced with permission of Princeton University Press.
Source: C.P. Cavafy: Collected Poems (Princeton University Press, 1975)

Perfumer: Chris Maurice

A smell-good-like-you-feel-good perfume, reminiscent of carefree hangouts with friends powered by “herbal inhalants”. Mainstream is a beautifully modulated cannabis fragrance, its grapefruit and lime kick-off nicely balanced by the long guaiac wood, patchouli and vetiver fadeout. 

Moss' green and citrus aroma of bergamot, oakmoss and petitgrain amplifies with the added freshness of juniper berry and depth of amber. A bold tonic that satiates the senses.

This is the Bold version of Moss — a powerful, room-filling rendition of its Balanced counterpart, infused with deep, dark notes that’ll make your presence known. Also try Moss | Personal and Moss | Balanced & Expressive.

The setting: the aftermath of an unnamed catastrophe. The smell: the sweet meat smell of “just off” corpses, sloppily preserved with embalming fluids. The air fills with the uncomfortable energy of the formerly alive, transforming vitality into a haze of bilge water, metallic discharge and dried saliva. In Rigor Mortis, the mix between indolic florals, seaweed, and animalic beeswax and civet creates an emotional fragrance that needs to be discovered slowly.

From the heart of the Mediterranean scrub, where the air hums with resin and sun-drenched leaves, Ladano rises — a fragrance shaped by the slow pulse of Cistus ladanifer. For centuries, this golden resin has been gathered from the wool of animals, breathing its scent into fabric and skin. Here, labdanum glows rather than burns — thick, balsamic, embracing. It’s animated by tickly aromatics: licorice, celery seed, cinnamon leaf and immortelle.

Chaco is the second largest primary forest of Latin America, called the "impenetrable forest" for its incredibly dense formation. This Paraguayan forest is the only place in the world where gaiac wood grows, known locally as palo santo. The region is also prized by perfumers as source of petitgrain essential oil, as well yerba maté tea leaves. Chaco the fragrance is a cologne style built around a refined tea structure. Perfumer Alexandra Monet placed the petitgrain and maté in conversation with each other, heightening each other’s mellow greenness in the process. Palo santo, with its woody, salty and smoky facets, brings warmth and sensuality, resulting in a unique unisex signature with lightness and modern elegance.

Brocéliande is a bewitching concentrate inspired by the enchanted forest of Arthurian legend. Combining the power of the forest with the magic of the animal world, this extrait’s bergamot and lime opening leads to an unexpected wander through ginger, cinnamon and iris. A whisky sweetness rubs up against the velvet leather of civet and castoreum.

The never-ending war between what you “should” do and what you want to do. Where being loyal to your dreams and desires clashes with societal expectations. Well, here’s where the conflict ends. Inner War is an amber carnival of too-muchness, a stop at the candy floss stand, a ravenous kiss on the big wheel. This extrait is a billowing cloud of talcum powder and almond, suggesting delicate heliotrope. Curling like tendrils into the air is a phantom, licorice-like anise, adding freshness and subtle weirdness. Rose supplies the syrupy “mmmmm” that glues together ambroxan, vanilla and patchouli.