White Silk

Home :), a photo by Iro {Ivy style33} on Flickr.

Though the idea can fuel the imagination profusely - even in my wildest dreams never did I imagine an independent natural perfumer in Russia. Is her apothecary facing the vast tundra? Or hidden in an abandoned shed in the kolchoz? Maybe it's a posh Moscow boutique, with checkered marble floor, where ladies in Russian furs and Chinese silk tafetta marvel at her new creations over caviar and black tea drizzled with sour cherry preserves... Either way, I was intrigued. And lo and behold, not only does such a person exist - she is also talented and adds a fantastic dimension to the international indie perfumers scene. Her name is Anna Zworykina, and her eponymus line is not very known (probably due to the fact that her marketing is done entirely in Russian. 

I can't find much information about the perfumer or most of the perfumes I have samples of, as it is mostly in Russian and I can't read the Kirillian alphabet - so I don't even know what most of the names mean.  A couple of the labels were in English though, so that makes it a tad easier to at least differentiate between the several vials... All the perfumes of hers that I've smelled were of a similar style and character: sophisticated, intriguing, purely natural, with depth and complexity that is usually achieved by incorporating house-made botanical tinctures.

White Silk is complex yet not suffocating. Like a silk moth seems to orbit around its Chinese inspiration, with juicy citrus top notes of blood orange. The gorgeous, full-bodied osmanthus flower heart notes fade into a suave, mellow base of sandalwood powder, reminiscent of the burning incense sticks in a Buddhist temple. It is luxurious yet subtle; smooth yet with a certain rough texture. It truly reminds me of raw white silk, which is fine and rustic; simultaneously mat with shimmering light running through its threads. Beautiful.