Gallivant Gdansk postcard image via Nick Steward

We wander again with Nick Steward and his Gallivant perfumes. This is journey number eleven, and we are off to the Polish city of Gdansk on the Baltic coast to explore a fantasy concept of warm, honeyed golden amber. Weathered pieces of amber often wash up on the beaches and people wandering along amber hunting is not an uncommon sight.

amber photo by Nick

I remember being at the press launch years ago for a well-known English perfume brand listening to their head of marketing describe how lumps of high-quality Asian amber were pulverised, tinctured in alcohol and the scented result used in their perfumes. To say I was astonished is an understatement. I asked him after the event if he realised that was utter nonsense. ‘Really? I have no idea; I just say what they tell me to.’ Weirdly it’s an idea that persists like Richard Gere and hamsters, Marie Antoinette’s cake comments, aliens building the pyramids and Diana being killed with laser pens under the Pont D’Alma. But in reality amber in perfumes is a fantasy aurous mood, skin caressed by King Midas. A high-quality vanilla absolute is usually blended with resins like myrrh, frankincense, styrax, opoponax, labdanum or benzoin and anchored with synthetic musks like Muscenone, Galaxolide, Ambrettolide or Velvione.

Julia Rodríguez Pastor and Nick Steward via Gallivant collage by Michelyn

With Gallivant Gdansk Nick hasn’t gone down the predictable Middle Eastern or Guerlinade mood of amber, instead opting for something more quirky, Slavic and golden sweet. The hints of saffron, cardamom, honey and plum echo spiced bread and central European desserts: seeds scattered on swelling loaves, piquant compotes and floral honeys drizzled over thick home-drained yoghurts. The amber vibe that perfumer Julia Rodríguez Pastor and Nick have conjured up is quite different from the tsunami of identikit ambers that flood the market every year.

 

Gdansk, Poland photo by Nick

Nick has never really done big, maybe Istanbul is a bigger scent than the others, but it works in context of the city it pays homage to. But generally, his gallivanting is introspective, the perfumes composed to be detected intimately like privately communicated emotions Galivant Gdansk is a gorgeous scent, it really is. I was intrigued to see where Nick would go after Naples, made for him by Luca Maffei. Sometimes Luca’s work can seem a tad formulaic, just because he is so prolific, but Naples was top form Maffei, an atmospheric mix of sun, citrus, harbour and God, capturing the scoundrel days of this most potent and edgy of Italian cities.

Gallivant Gdansk photos  courtesy of Nick: Main photo bottle, upper left, amber, mid by the seashore, bottom left tobacco leaves and bottom right ambergris

Many moons ago when I was a languages student in Edinburgh, my faculty was in the heart of the Old Town opposite the iconic National Museum, a Victorian building with well-worn stone steps sweeping up to towering wooden doors. The university library was labyrinthine, pews repurposed from old churches with a beguiling odour of accumulating books and dust permeating the air. I wandered, slept, researched, flirted and kissed my way through these quiet spaces. I’d smoke roll-ups out of windows; the illicitness obviously making the tobacco sweeter.

Round the corner at 48 George IV Bridge was M.T. MacDonald, one of the few remaining tobacco blenders and cigar merchants left in the city at the time. His tiny tobacconist smelled sublime, all impregnated wood, piled high with old jars filled with tobacco of every permutation, odours that just obsessed me. I smoked Gauloises and bought them there, he stocked St Moritz menthols, Lucky Strikes, chic YSL, Sobranies both sleekly black and coloured, Camels, Gittins and the aromatic Turkish cigarettes that inspired Fabrice Pellegrin when he composed Volutés for Diptyque. But it was the damp mossy crumble of the jarred tobacco that thrilled. My favourite was a black cherry blend. It is this I can smell with startling clarity in Gallivant Gdańsk. It is listed as plum, but dark stone fruits share a certain shadowed prune and Armagnac vibe I love in perfume. In Gallivant Gdańsk this note combines with the carefully chosen spices to counterbalance the salinity and spume of the Baltic Sea. The third olfactive part of the formulation is of course the amber, luminescent against low buttery European light, exalted by honey, sandalwood and the basmati tones of golden saffron.

Gdansk Boardwalk at sunset photo by Nick Steward ©

An intricate base has cypriol, styrax, vanilla and musks fitted together to reinforce the woody, wandering smokiness of the ambered smoke. Julia Rodríguez Pastor has created a perfume with flavours to savour. Gdańsk is quite different to any of the other Gallivant perfumes, this reflects the choice of a new perfumer, but also I think an unexpected destination and a captivatingly abstract Gallivant interpretation of amber and ambergris. Saline, skin and the mysterious golden awe of tree resins pressured into pebbles of glassy gold.

Galivant Gdansk is a beautiful perfume of layers and wonder. I imagine myself walking a cold Baltic beach at night, soundtracked by the sea sucking at the shore smoking my roll-up, the dark fruity plumes of smoke rising into the night, my mind alive with library dreams.

–Alex C. Musgrave, Guest Contributor aka The Silver Fox©. (Alex is a Fragrance Foundation Awardee for CaFleureBon in 2015)

I received a sample from Gallivant; opinions my own

Thanks to the largesse of Nick Steward, we have a draw of a discovery set plus a sample of Gallivant Gdansk (11 samples) for one registered reader in the UK and US. Please be sure to register. To be eligible please let us know what appeals to you about Alex s’ eloquent review, where you live and if you have a favorite Gallivant Perfume. Draw closes 5/11/22

Gallivant Gdansk is available for pre-order now, with following SHIPPING DATES- UK : from Wednesday 11th May, EU : from Wednesday 18th May, USA: from Friday 20th May

Please note: Gallivant Naples is a Finalist in the Art and Olfaction Awards 2022

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