Flash Back in New York, official photo

Snow is cascading sideways in white sheets, the few lone souls on the wintry streets clutch their coats to their necks and trundle over the ever-deepening banks to reach … home. The night blows and whistles, arguing homelessly with itself. In the extreme cold, even the cars seem to huddle under the traffic lights. But enter a lit doorway, where the warmth hits you in the throat like a gulp of Irish whiskey, shake the mat of snow from your hat and shoulders, trailing traces of city dirt and damp, and breathe in the indoor smells of booze, damp leather, sweat and distant bar smoke. Working with creative director Celine Verleure of for the first time, perfumer Jerome Epinette grabs it all and bottles it into Olfactive Studio Flash Back in New York, a lovely, heartfelt perfume collage of smoky, boozy, warming notes that somehow also breathe wet city asphalt, damp woolen hats, sweat and snow.

Snowy Day over New York City

Flash Back in New York is Olfactive Studio’s second fragrance, after Still Life in Rio, to choose a city and its architecture as inspiration. New York has a definite fragrance persona, even though it has, to my mind, shifted subtly over time. As it begins, Flash Back in New York mingles a striking mineral aroma, aqueous note and bittersweet melon rind with a waft of high-class perfume. I have a moment of startling, fleeting familiarity: a 1960s 5^th Avenue, wet with snow, slush kicking around stockinged ankles, the golden beckon of store lights in the snowy gloom. But that retro quality quickly fades in favour of an  assertive jacket leather note that moves forward, bringing with it some smoky birch tar and herbal aromas.

New York City – Snow at Night – Empty Street and Lights

What is that smell that city snowstorms have? In the New York where I grew up, it was the commingling of spicy-rubber smell of tarred streets, vegetal steam rising from manholes, cigarette ash and middle- aged barrooms, damp wool, car exhaust, catches of perfume, smoky, doughy traces of the pretzel and chestnut vendors that have recently packed up and gone home, the last New Yorkers to call it a day. Flash Back – while it retains a few of those echoes — brings me to a more modern place.

New York City, East 9 St.

The second stage is all about honeyed, boozy, good-time, saloon lights warmth. Some full-bodied, velvety violet sweeps in, followed by milky-sweet tonka. And, although there are no wood notes listed,  Olfactive Studio Flash Back in New York has a spiritous, casky richness that brings bourbon oak barrels to mind. That saturated wood is kept in check by a piercing green note – papyrus in concert with – that cuts through the whisky and tonka. The cleverness with which Epinette teases out specific facets of certain notes – the car mineral-smoke from birch, the green crackle of papyrus, the wet wool aroma of tonka and violet meshing together – allows the perfume to suggest specific city aromas that tug with aching familiarity for anyone who has spent a snowy day in midtown.

New York City – Snow – Janus – East Village – Restaurants

In certain moments, Olfactive Studio Flash Back in New York is like a sense memory of an older New York: icicles glittering like tiny Chrysler buildings from store awnings, expensive perfume drifting from fur-stoled shoulders over the wilting garbage and cigarette butts of the sidewalks. The tonka bean, asphalt and violet feel like they belong to that time. But then, the middle takes over, and modish leather, craft whiskey, and cumin and sage aromas from a dozen fusion restaurants brings me to the New York of Vivienne Gucwa’s evocative photos.

New York City Snowy night

As I write this, snow falls on my own city on the first day of Spring. So, rather than grumble, I will let Olfactive Studio Flash Back in New York remove me to the pitch of a Manhattan blizzard with its contrasts of damp air and wool, its doorway havens of light, and boozy, sweaty, we’re-all-in-this-together smells. And I’ll welcome that last, poignant pull of winter before Spring blooms.

Notes: Cumin, clary sage, white linen, saffron violet, Tuscan leather, jasmine, birch smoke, papyrus, vetiver, tonka bean.

Disclaimer: Bottle of Flash Back in New York generously provided by Olfactive Studio. My opinions are my own.

— Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor

All photos by Vivienne Gucwa© with the exception of the bottle (Robert Greco) and Michelyn’s photo taken March 21, 2018 

Olfactive Studio Photo Flash Back in New York by Roberto Greco©

Thanks to the generosity of Olfactive Studio, we have a 100 ml bottle of Olfactive Studio Flashback in New York for one registered reader in the U.S., EU or Canada. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what strike you about Olfactive Studio Flash Back in New York based on Lauryn’s review, where you live and if you have a favorite Olfactive Studio perfume. Draw closes 3/26/2018

Michelyn braved yesterday's blizzard  (photo March 21, 2018) to scribble  "I Love NY"on a windshield covered with snow and took this photo

If you recently endured a snowstorm in NYC or elsewhere let us know. We are still digging out here in N.Y.C.and everything is slush and melting

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