Scent-hunting at the Adora Fragrance Bar

Gals like myself don’t usually ?belly up to the bar until cock-?tail hour, but approaching ?these gleaming long counters lined with beautiful bottles of all shapes and sizes, I made an exception at four in the afternoon.

Instead of an uncomfortable stool, I eased onto a plush chair made for lounging. A bartender approached and handed me a menu, and I named my poison: “I’d like something soft and powdery, please, and also something clean but not too soapy.”

I didn’t worry about being tipsy in the office because this wasn’t a regular bar; it was the Adora Fragrance Bar, and I was talking to one of their four fragrance bartenders.

The chic department store launched this novel idea two years ago, but the concept is the most fully realized it’s ever been. Physically the bar is Adora’s “haute parfumerie” area on the second floor of Greenbelt 5. Home to rare and exclusive brands like Comme des Garçons (CdG), Maison Francis Kurkdjian (MFK), Etro, Floris and The Different Company (TDC), and manned (or woman-ned) by highly trained fragrance bartenders, it’s the ideal place to find your perfect scent.

What’s on the menu: Adora’s Fragrance Menu divides fragrances into scent groups like Florals and Woody (above).

I told my bartender a little more about my personality, lifestyle and preferences, and together we pored over the Fragrance Menu to find four suitable scents for me to try. (Apparently, after sniffing more than four, olfactory fatigue sets in and the faint-nosed among us get dizzy.) The menu is divided into groups like Fresh, Florals, Orientals and Woods, and these groups are further subdivided into olfactive families like Fruity-Florals, Dry Woods or Soft Orientals.

I got the sense that — like a typical bartender — the young woman looking after my fragrance needs would be open to hearing a sob story or two, but at Adora the inverse is true: instead of telling the bartender your troubles, she will regale you with stories about rare aromas from exotic lands that will seriously tempt you into pushing your olfactory boundaries and sampling way more than your allotted four scents. But since I had specified powdery, her first suggestion was Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Absolue Pour Le Matin, a unisex perfume made for daytime wear. For fresh and clean, Adora’s most popular category, she suggested sampling a fragrance from each of the fresh families: The Different Company’s Bergamote (fresh citrus), Etro’s Lemon Sorbet (fresh green) and Comme des Garçons’ Odeur 53 (fresh water).

Not for the first time, I felt like I was in a real bar as she proceeded to spray perfumes into crystal champagne glasses and jiggers and, as a wine connoisseur would, I’d raise them to my nose and sniff. Adora employs this unusual technique because, according to fragrance experts, paper strips have a tendency to alter some notes, giving you an inaccurate sensory impression. But for customers who want to take samples home and remember what they’ve smelled, your bartender will gladly spray a paper blotter and write down the name of the fragrance on it.

Paisley perfumes: Etro’s fragrance collection is based on the Principle of Color Therapy.

I learn that men make up 50 percent of Adora’s Fragrance Bar customers, and their Top 3 “cocktails” are MFK’s APOM (A Piece of Me) Pour Homme, TDC’s Sel de Vetiver and CdG’s Wonderwood.

From picking the brains of my bartender, I learned quite a lot more interesting tidbits about all five brands.

ETRO (Italy) Etro the fashion house is known for its vibrant colors and eye-popping prints, most especially its famous paisley, which you’ll find decorating the boxes of its addictive scents. Color being an important part of the Etro story, they use the Principle of Color Therapy, associating certain personalities with a color that best represents them.

Key fragrances: For example, if you’re passionate, you’re a red who should try the fragrance Raving; freshness equals yellow (Lemon Sorbet), while innocence is associated with white (Vicolo Fiori or Musk).

Comme hither: Comme des Garçons’ line is highly sought after despite — or because of — its eccentricity.

COMME DES GARÇONS (France) Lots of customers look for CdG despite — or maybe because of — its eccentricity. Notes like “dust on a hot light bulb” and “flaming rock” clue you in to the fact that you’re not dealing with conventional perfumes here, but these staunchly unisex “anti-perfumes” are very popular. Even the bottles don’t stand up but lie down, and the juices are not named but numbered. Mixing synthetic smells with natural ones, and finding beauty in the weird or mundane, the “C” in CdG could also stand for “cutting-edge.”

Key fragrances: Odeur 71 and Wonderwood for guys; the Energy C series for girls

Opulent art: The Different Company’s best-selling Osmanthus and Bergamote fragrances contain the highest concentrations of the best and rarest essences.

THE DIFFERENT COMPANY (France) In terms of “noses,” if Francis Kurkdjian is the rock star of the perfume world, Jean-Claude Ellena is its Mozart, composing beautiful, utterly refined symphonies with scent notes. Some of his most renowned sonatas include Bulgari’s Eau Parfumée au Thé Vert (Green Tea perfume), L’Artisan Parfumeur’s Bois Farine and Hermes’ Elixir de Merveilles.

But, as revered and successful as Ellena is, when you’re a hired nose blending a scent for a company, staying true to your art is difficult when you’re working under someone else’s vision and budgetary constraints. Tired of such limitations, Ellena formed his own company with his daughter Celine, where the philosophy is no restrictions — monetary or otherwise — just pure artistic freedom, the best ingredients and the highest concentration of such essences on the market. What makes this company so “different” is the contents of that bottle, which is unbridled, opulent art.

Key fragrances: The floral-fruity Osmanthus and “sunshine in a bottle” Bergamote

A favorite among men: Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s APOM Pour Homme

MAISON FRANCIS KURKDJIAN (France) MFK invented the concept of “a perfumed life,” and supplies everything you need to live it 24/7, from perfumed bracelets to incense papers to laundry detergent. Just when I thought I had a fragrance wardrobe, I find out I can have a perfect scent for every moment of my day: Kurkdjian created colognes and highly concentrated perfumes (or, in MFK terminology, “absolues”) specifically for day and night. A native Parisian, Kurkdjian grew up amid luxury and fashion, and he distills his experiences as a fashion designer, artist and perfumer in every fragrance he creates.

Key fragrances: APOM Pour Homme, Aqua Universalis and Aqua Universalis Forte

FLORIS (UK) Many fragrance houses claim to be “the fragrance of royalty,” supplying scents to this king or that queen, but Floris possesses real cred: Having formulated fragrances for every royal house in Europe, they’ve been issued two Royal Warrants.

Key fragrances: Special 127 was composed especially for the Russian Grand Duke Orloff in 1804 and took its name from the page on which his formulation was written. Gent’s scent No. 89, on the other hand, is the number of the Floris store on Jermyn Street in London; if James Bond were flesh and blood, this is the scent he would have worn. Though there’s no Kate Middleton cologne yet, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

Royal fragrances: Among Floris’s creations are Special 127 for the Russian Grand Duke Orloff and No. 89 inspired by James Bond.

Adora also has an Olfactory Journey booklet featuring one specially chosen scent from each brand, for those who want to embark on the ultimate fragrant tour.

After all the smelling, debating and sensory traveling, I found my holy-grail powdery scent, which ironically was what my bartender first suggested: Maison Francis Kurkdjian’s Absolue Pour Le Matin. At Adora’s Fragrance Bar, it was Happy Hour for me indeed.

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Comme des Garçons, Floris, Etro, Maison Francis Kurkdjian and The Different Company fragrances are available only at the Adora Fragrance Bar, 2/F Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati. For more information, contact info@adora.ph.