Bortnikoff Triad

Today I'm wearing Triad from Bortnikoff. Bortnikoff is a brand that's really known for materials. The perfumer behind the brand, Dmitry Bortnikoff, is a real specialist at sourcing rare natural materials and creating magical compositions from them. In fact, he distills a lot of his own oils that he then uses in the compositions. The effects are so beautiful. I'm going to make this analogy. Let's say you go into a department store and you put on a floral perfume. It smells really pretty, might smell like flowers, but it also smells like perfume. And then you go into a garden and you smell a real flower and it's a totally different thing. Maybe the scent is more subtle, more nuanced, but maybe more complex. You're actually breathing in life and that's remarkable. I get that kind of magic in Triad, this particular fragrance from Bortnikoff. It's an oud scent. Oud has been very popular in the past few years and there are countless mainstream oud fragrances out there that really pack a punch and have insane longevity and projection because they're using a lot of synthetic aroma chemicals which will give these effects. And there's nothing wrong with that. I can think of a lot of great examples where that's exactly the kind of oud fragrance I want for that evening or the statement that I want to make. But this is not that kind of oud. This is so much more subtle. It's so much more nuanced than a lot of mainstream oud fragrances. The oud that's in here, there are actually three kinds. There is a Sri Lankan oud, which Dmitry Bortnikoff distilled himself into the oil. A Chinese oud and a Thai oud. And I want to describe this oud style as more green and vegetal and clean as compared to that more barnyard, funky, blue cheese oud. And you oud fans know exactly what I'm talking about. For me, it's a much more wearable. It's my style of oud, if that means anything. And then it's paired with florals. So the florals here are Rose de Mai and Magnolia. Rose and oud are combined all the time. It's like peanut butter and jelly. But usually the effect is more sultry, boudoir, exotic. This is more light-dappled. It's actually like petals in a garden. And I love that. They're more transparent floral notes. And then the third aspect of the scent, I guess that's what triad is referring to, is the benzoin and tonka bean, which give it a nice creaminess, a nice resinous, aromatic base. Now I'm a huge fan of tonka bean and benzoin. But honestly, I don't smell them so much in this scent. Maybe it's my skin. Or maybe they're just essential to the composition of the scent, but they're not meant to really stand out. It's really all about that beautiful, natural floral smell with that very specific oud. It's so special. Very few fragrances that are out there that get anywhere close to this. And they are in small, limited edition batches. So when they run out, they run out. But that just makes you want to know what Dmitry Bortnikov is going to come up with next. I recommend this so highly. Triad from Bortnikov.