Atkinsons
A unique visual signature based on accords, character, and seasonality
The absinthe arrives first, green and bitter with that distinctive liquorice-adjacent sharpness, immediately cut through by nutmeg's warm, almost numbing spice. There's something unsettling about this pairing—it smells expensive but also vaguely illicit, like the opening of a curiosity cabinet in a gentlemen's club no one admits to visiting.
The cocoa emerges as a dry, brown powder rather than melted sweetness, tangling with iris's grey, almost concrete-like texture and sage's herbal astringency. This is where the composition finds its peculiar equilibrium—gourmand elements rendered savoury and oddly sophisticated, like a dessert course that's been deconstructed into something more conceptual than comforting.
Ambrox's salty-sweet skin-scent radiation anchors what's left, whilst frankincense adds a wispy, resinous smoke and vetiver grounds everything with its earthy, slightly bitter rootiness. The spices haven't disappeared entirely; they haunt the composition like muscle memory, warming the base notes just enough to remind you this started somewhere far stranger.
Gold Fair in Mayfair opens with an almost theatrical collision—the botanical bitterness of absinthe meeting nutmeg's warm, slightly narcotic spice. This isn't the polite, powdered nutmeg of Christmas biscuits; it's the raw seed shaved fresh, aromatic and faintly medicinal, made stranger still by absinthe's anisic, wormwood-laced edge. Philippine Courtière has crafted something that feels like a Victorian apothecary reimagined through a modern gourmand lens, where cocoa powder dusts over earthy iris root rather than dissolving into chocolate. The sage adds a silvery, almost camphoraceous quality that prevents the composition from tipping into confectionery territory, whilst the iris itself brings that signature carroty, lipstick-like texture that reads simultaneously retro and sophisticated. What makes this compelling is the tension: you've got sweetness, certainly, but it's the sweetness of cocoa nibs and ambrox rather than sugar, grounded by vetiver's smoky grassiness and frankincense's resinous cathedral incense. The overall effect is peculiar and magnetic—like discovering a hidden chocolate shop on a Mayfair side street where the proprietor also sells rare spices and burned their frankincense a touch too long that morning. This suits those who find typical gourmands cloying, who want their sweetness tempered with dust, earth, and oddity. It's for grey cashmere worn with purpose, for gallery openings where you'd rather discuss Boetti than small talk, for anyone who thinks "wearable" is a four-letter word.
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4.2/5 (378)