Cristian Marianciuc Fragrant Awakening was Essential Parfums Rose Magnetic

I don’t know whether there is such a thing as a set of universal, zodiac-like qualities that we possess depending on where we find ourselves chronologically situated in our family: I am sort of a middle child, number 8 of 11 to be precise. Young-middle? Recent-middle? Something like that perhaps. I like to think that my “universal” personality description would include traits such as: curious, artistically inclined, equipped with an affinity for deciphering or translating one’s environment, very curious, prone to experiencing goosebumps, guided by one’s heightened senses and curious to the point of being a nuisance.

Cristian Marianciuc, age 2 and his family, he is sitting on his father’s lap

Now imagine that in every family of eleven kids, the eighth one can be described by some or at least one of those characteristics – then I would be spot on! Because I am all of those things, among others.  I come from a minuscule town in the north-east of Romania and I was fortunate enough to have had a pleasant, bucolic childhood. My springs smelled like wet dirt, summers were all about hay and spending my days in a nearby forest with the family cows, the autumns were marked by the scent of smoke (that’s why a particular kind of wood smoke will forever remind me of the start of school), and our winters were magical and they smelled like oranges: those (for us, back then) exotic and precious indulgences that we got to enjoy only at Christmas time.

‘Surrender for him’ from Avon campaign photo via Avon

I cannot say that I was consciously and actively interested in fragrances from an early age. I just know that during high school I had a “signature” scent – ‘Surrender for him’ from Avon. Otherwise, I’ve had a rather late awakening to the beautiful world of perfume! But my sense of smell has helped me map out my existence! And somewhat similarly to Dumbledore’s ‘Pensieve’, smells help me revisit memories in vivid detail and, more often than not, they engage all my other senses in a muscle memory-powered walk down memory lane. If that makes any sense at all? My professional background is in languages: linguistics, translations and interpreting, with a dash of diplomacy, as my Bachelor of International Studies can attest to (I was awarded a scholarship to study in Sydney, Australia for 3 beautiful years). You see, there is a pattern emerging already – I am curious, guided by senses, into interpreting stuff… And I put all that to good use for quite a few years. But shortly after my return to Eastern Europe following my graduation, I was having a hard time re-adjusting to my new-old life. And things slowly got dark and I became entangled in a hopeless cycle of repetition, which eventually led to a full-on depression. The worst part about it all was that I seemed to have lost the ability to create new memories. Time was visibly passing by, but I had nothing to show for it in my personal life.

Cristian Marianciuc Behind the scenes

That’s when my artistic inclination kicked in. I decided to start a public yet very personal visual diary. I joined Instagram in late 2014, and on the first of January of 2015 I posted my first creation: a terribly photographed and clumsily folded traditional origami crane. My intention was to fold and decorate one origami crane, every single day, for 100 consecutive days. Which by some celestial miracle, I managed to do. The initial 100 days became 365, and eventually 1000. One thousand consecutive days of folding and decorating one crane a day, and then sharing them with a supporting and growing audience on Instagram. I did that all while working full time.

The first crane Cristian Marianciuc ever posted on his Instagram account

It’s a mystery to me exactly just how I managed such an ambitious feat, but I attribute it to the restorative power of what I was doing. I was processing my inner struggles by creating something visible and tangible. Something that I would later on be able to look back at and recall creating. That was the ultimate purpose of what I was doing, you see. I was consciously creating new memories for myself. And they were (and are) contained in paper “vessels”, my decorated origami cranes.

The crane that was inspired by Floraiku In The Dark

Which brings us to the matter at hand, my fragrant awakening! At the start of 2020, I timidly and cautiously “stepped” into the world of fragrance. My first encounter happened in a Floraïku boutique in Paris. This happened BTP (before the pandemic, because I feel that we could use an acronym for this). I walked into the boutique and was introduced to the brand’s offerings by a patient and enthusiastic assistant. I only had a very vague idea of what I liked in terms of notes, so I asked to have a “tasting” of all that was on display. I later walked out of there with a spring in my step and some ideas germinating in my brain. I was struck by ‘In the dark’ in particular. A beautiful creation with notes of green cardamom, peppermint, clove, rose, cedarwood, incense and patchouli. I believe that this fragrance provided me with that *spark*, the initial, rough idea that I wanted to somehow incorporate scent in my work. And the first step was to “translate” scent. I did that by way of assigning imagery, music, shape and an emotional baggage to each piece I created that had a fragrant muse. The piece I created directly inspired by the fragrance ‘In the dark’ by Floraïku. In the case of ‘In the dark’ by Floraïku, the “translation” took the shape of a haiku:

walking in the dark

explosions in the black sky

a soft summer’s dream

Essential Parfums Rose Magnetic as muse

What I do is all about layers, both physical and metaphoric, so it was imperative to add yet another dimension and another layer to my creations. It was a very organic evolution: memory and memories in general are a leitmotif in my work, and since the sense of smell is so closely and intimately linked with memory, the evolution was inevitable in many ways.

But the fragrance that I attribute to having put in motion my fragrant awakening is Essential Parfums Rose Magnetic. It is the embodiment of a gentle rose; with notes of grapefruit, peppermint, lychee, cedarwood, natural Madagascar vanilla, and natural tonka bean. Essential Parfums Rose Magnetic helped me hone in the concept for my most recent (and current) project which sees me “translate” fragrances into decorated paper cranes. And it also dissipated my preconception of rose fragrances being predictable and boring.

I see this project, and my “birds”, as vehicles for an active construction of new, multi-dimensional memories. It is still very personal, and many of the layers I add are only visible to my own eyes.

But if I can look back at 2020 and pick something positive that redeems that year, it is my fragrant awakening of Essential Parfums Rose Magnetic and my Olfactory Peregrinations project.

– Cristian Marianciuc, Guest Contributor

Follow us on Instagram @cafleurebon and @icarus_mid_air

Cristian was a co art director for editor dana sandu’s Fragrance du Bois Oud Jaune Intense. Senior Editor Despina Veneti’s review of Essential Parfums Rose Magnetic can be read here

For commissions please contact marianciuc.cristian@gmail.com

ALL PHOTOS BY Cristian Marianciuc©nunless otherwise specified