Today, my nose smiled at first whiff of up-and-coming fragrance label Joya's two new scents: Composition No. 1 and Composition No. 6.
They sent me a couple of travel-sized rollerball bottles of their new scents under the FvsS line, and I couldn't be more pleased with what I received.
The more feminine Composition No. 1 is sweet and fruity; citrus fruits and white flowers come to mind. However, it was Composition No. 6 that sang to me; its description of being "a jolt of brisk cypress, crisp juniper berries and sparkling yuzu that is like jumping into a cold mountain stream first thing in the morning" couldn't be more true. It's an invigorating scent that is refreshingly not overtly sexual, but what I would describe to be casually elegant.
What I like about Joya's FvsS is the intimacy it suggests. It's an oil-based perfume, so it is absorbed by your skin, as opposed to being rapidly dispersed in the air the way an alcohol-based perfume would work. This way, it remains with you for a longer time as it gently whispers its fragrance throughout the day.
This sensuality carries over to the bottle design, and even in the way the perfume is applied:
The full-sized scents come in these roughly faceted porcelain bottles with 22-karat gold wand applicators.
faceted ceramic bottles in the making
brushing the gold-tipped wands
The video below takes us behind the scenes of the creation of these two scents, led by the (25-year-old!) founder and creative director Frederick Bouchardy.
What makes me happiest to own these scents is the fact that still very few know about them. Nowhere do I value uniqueness and perhaps even obscurity more than in the scents I wear; there are few things more dreadful than the thought of being one of the hordes of mall-roaming teenagers reeking of CK Be or Paco Rabanne. When I like a scent so much so that I wear it so often, it becomes an extension of my personality. My arrival at a crowded party has been known to have been sensed by my friends minutes before they see me: they smell me and know I'm there.
Joya FvsS Composition No. 1 and 6 are available at Barneys New York and at Scent Bar in Los Angeles.
