Altruist

This is the new Eau de Parfum version of Altruist, originally released in 2016 as a collaboration between J.F. Schwarzlose and the Berlin artist Paul deFlorian. The result of a series of intense conversations between perfumer Véronique Nyberg and deFlorian, every note in Altruist represents a color or brushstroke from one of deFlorian’s paintings. It is an unusual concept for a perfume, but one that works so beautifully it’s been shortlisted for the Independent Perfume category in the Art and Olfaction Awards 2017.

Altruist opens with fresh, sparkling notes of bergamot, lemon, and ginger representing the swirls of light green and aquamarine colors on the painting, while the warmer slashes of red and orange on the canvas are translated via the explosive heat of cracked black pepper and nutmeg. The almost sterile “froideur” of the man’s sightless gaze in the painting is portrayed through use of a special MANE captive molecule called Aqual, which gives the scent a cold, crystalline shimmer, like sunlight on a diamond. For the new EDP version, the perfumer and artist decided to add Ambrarome, a material that gives the perfume a dense, dry woodiness with an undertone of something moist and bitter, creating the delightful effect of paper dipped in Japanese calligraphy ink. DeFlorian himself calls Altruist a “scent for feminists, cyborgs and survivors”, and in our opinion, it is the perfect summer fragrance for those who like a balance between the sappy freshness of citrus and the tinder-dry crackle of woods and spice.