Best Cologne d'Agar by Maksim Perfume Alternatives & Similar Perfumes

‘All the soarings of my mind begin in my blood’

Rainer Maria Rilke

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A perfumed celebration of saints and superstitions, centred around a fierce fenugreek absolute note lavished with singed pyrazines, sacrificial myrrh and mournful molten honey poured over everything like amber rain.  Meadow blooms, sticky dark resins, pungent balms and ashen clouds of iris swirl like dramatic weather.

In fleeting top notes Myrtle, fragile as the promises of love, encounters the preciousness of saffron, merging into an indomitable desire for eros.

The luxuriant notes of honey are exalted by the jasmine night breeze that pervades the home of the chaste lovers, among the frescoes, on a thalamus of rose petals.

The mysterious notes of incense and sweet vanilla blend with the oriental contamination of amber and labdanum that fades into the ancient aroma of agar wood, sealing the essence of Castiamanti, expression of rich Pompeii.

Messengers of spring arrive, bearing gifts that bring smiles to faces dulled by winter’s chill. The joyous song of the nightingale accompanies vibrant fuchsia-colored aromas of Japanese plum blossoms as they spread, infusing the tepid air. It marks a fleeting moment of emotional awaking: to some a time for celebration and fresh starts; to others, a countdown to a departure for unknown horizons.

Zoologist captures the onset of the Japanese spring through Nightingale, a pink floral chypre that will melt your heart. It opens with rich scents of saffron and rosy, powdery, tart Japanese plum blossoms, enveloping the core of the perfume like a luxurious silk kimono. Deep, warm aromas of oud, patchouli, moss, incense and ambergris seek to escape, seeping from the ruddy petals, to create a composition that’s complex and at the same time, simply desirable.

Perfumer: 稲葉 智夫 (Tomoo Inaba)

The floriental baroquesque parfum St. Paul's embodies an adoration and admiration to the spectacular era of Baroque. This style in architecture, music, art, sculpture demonstrates exalted movements, clear details, intense light and dark shadows, emotional exuberance, richness, extravaganza, which distinct baroque from other style. 

The English baroque represents iconic St. Paul's Cathedral, which dome has long dominated the London skyline. 

The perfume opens with the precious orange flower and jasmine absolutes with a hint of dried and juicy fruits, contrasting with the darker woody and balsamic base. 

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

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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.

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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)

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.

Perfumer: Sidonie Lancesseur

A clean versatile formula with stunning ingredients mixed for you by Marie Jeanne.

Vetiver Santal is a novel fresh sandalwood (coming from an archipelago at the edge of the world), dry vetiver from Haiti and a spark of benzoin from Siam.

Marie Jeanne is a new perfume house from Grasse, founded by a young perfumer from a family connected to Robertet for several generations.

Robertet is a bit like De Beers of the fine natural perfume materials - matières premières, for decades they have been dealing with the finest, purest and most precious stuff a perfumer can dream of.

In Vetiver Santal you can admire and enjoy aromas of a rare variety of sandalwood from New Caledonia, vetiver from Haiti, patchouli from Indonesia and benzoin from Siam among other exquisite materials.

Arabesque takes you on a journey through the enchanting and mystical Middle East by way of flowers, fruits and woods entwined together. Inspired by the most beautifully carved arabesque's of Islamic art. A heart of rose and jasmine absolute dance together to create a sense of well-being and serenity while patchouli and oud transports you to another world.

Vigorous choreography around the featured dancer, French centrifolia rose. This clear and honeyed rose is given spice with saffron and oomph with oud, resulting in a compelling contrast between delicacy and strength. Beautifully diffusive and long-lasting, this is a bright and deep rose/leather that brings pleasure to all within smelling distance.

Carnal pleasure, bottled for your enjoyment. The addictive love fragrance, Night, summons the most suggestive of materials: Bulgarian rose, saffron, cumin, oud and musk, creating the perfect conditions for a night of passion. Spray and let the craving begin.