Flower girls, photo by Jonetsu Photography
Two little girls wearing their mother’s makeup and perfumes are dancing deliriously under the trees in summer as the Beatles blast from the portable CD player sitting nearby. The sun dapples the ground, and stipples of light bounce off the windows of the house. Crushed mint drifts on the air. In the damp heat, the sweet savor of licorice ice pops drips onto hands and chins. They play and twirl into the dusk. It is 20 years later. It’s summer, the air as humid and dense as it ever was. Someone hurries past on the street, leaving a faint trail of violet and rose. She stops her in her tracks. Love Me Do rewinds in her ears, she feels herself whirling to the beat, her best friend’s giggle reverberating in the warm air. Time holds its breath.
Diletta Tonatto of Tonatto Profumi
Tonatto Profumi 2426 is a distillation of friendship, a fresh, vintage-modern skin scent of that smiles in thick heat. Named for the birth dates of Diletta and her childhood best mate, Creative Director and perfumer Diletta Tonatto says the scent is “a reminder of innocent friendship. It’s the story of these two girls growing up and meeting years later and remembering those carefree days with nostalgia. An ode to friendship and freedom from the societal pressure of having to be seductive and sensual at all times.” Tonatto wanted to create a fragrance that broke away from clichés of feminine glamour and sex appeal. She dispensed with animalics and heavier scents in favour of vivacious notes that blend fresh and modern with echoing, vintage touches. Mixing an old-style combination of rose and violet, the backbone of so many classic feminine fragrances, with a lifelike mineral accord and some moreish anise, she fashions a scent that is accessible and current but just this side of wistful.
Vogue May 15, 1949 Penn – Italian Shoeshine Children©
The first impression is a minty rain shower, a smell of moisture and spearmint leaf. The mineral accord brings an immediate sense of cool, wet stone. Coupled with the icy mint, it feels jaunty and contemporary. Light, off-sweet anise filters in, gathering weight as its settles down with woody notes in the center of the perfume. But then something older comes forward quietly, and Tonatto Profumi 2426 transitions slowly into the past: violet that smells both dark and velvety one moment, powdery pastille the next; a subtle touch of lipstick rose, both resting on some light, indefinable woods. Ever since 2016’s Apeiron, I’ve known how brilliantly Diletta Tonatto handles retro-style florals notes, especially violet, and last year’s Palo Santo was a chamber piece of anisic woods. But while these notes are handled with Tonatto customary deftness, the standout in 2426 is that cave-like mineral accord; the redolence of dark, wet rocks.
Stock photo
You know the way your skin smells after you’ve been drying off on the rocks after swimming in a lake? That’s the way that 2426 dries down. What lingers is breezy and nostalgic in turns, the mineral accord dominant, but mint, violet, and anise-woods peeking out at different moments like the sun behind fast-passing clouds. Dedicated “to lasting and transformative friendship,” 2426 reminds of how achingly sweet it is to remember what the world was like before it expected anything of you.
Notes: Anise, violet, woods, rose, mineral accord.
Disclaimer: Bottle of 2426 generously provided by Tonatto Profumi. My opinions are my own.
– Lauryn Beer, Senior Editor
Tonatto Profumi 2426
Tonatto Profumi 2426 was released in EDP as a limited edition. But thanks to the generosity of Tonatto Profumi, we have a 50 ml bottle of 2426 to give to one registered reader in the U.S. or Europe. To be eligible, please leave a comment saying what appeals to you about 2426 based on Lauryn’s review, where you live, and what friendship smells like to you. Draw closes 9/ 10/2019.
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