Guest post by D
As Neil was otherwise disposed, on Friday evening I attended, on his behalf, the Nose Shop’s event at the Embassy of Argentina, introducing the perfumes of Frassaï. This Argentinian niche brand was featured in Neil’s perfume workshop in Honolulu, as the ‘scent bar’ – a contemporary niche brand sampling station – had three Frassaï scents: Blondine (2017), A Fuego Lento (2018) and Victoria (2022). Blondine had proven the most popular of the three at the workshop, although actually we had warmed to A Fuego Lento and Victoria, which are rather more reserved and unusual compositions. On Instagram Neil wrote: “in this era of unsubtle tooth-rotting scents for women, how wonderful to smell perfumes that are rich yet intriguing and delicately put together” so this was an excellent chance to sample the rest of the range and meet the founder, Natalia Outeda.
The Argentinian Embassy is tucked away in Hiroo, next to Arisugawa Park, in a leafy, upmarket district of Tokyo between Ebisu and Azabu. I was half expecting to have to present my passport/have my bags searched upon arrival, but actually the embassy is pretty chill. There were few formalities; just a smiley concierge and the Nose Shop staff, who choregraphed the whole event with considerable efficiency and charm. I presented our business cards at reception, and was conveyed into the function room, where Natalia was seated with her Japanese interpreter and the ten perfumes that comprise her range, flanked, as you would expect, by the flags of Argentina and Japan. It’s an unfussy space with three rooms in muted tones, hung with oil paintings: a small reception area, a larger room for meetings and presentations and a long antechamber with a large table set for mate tea and wine tasting afterwards.
The talk began with the Argentinian ambassador, Mr. Eduardo Tempone, giving a brief introduction in Spanish, and then the Nose Shop compere introduced topics and questions which Ms Outeda answered in English, followed by an explanation in Japanese by her interpreter. She started by introducing the Frassaï brand, which is now just over a decade old (founded 2013) and has ten scents in its range, eight of which were inspired by the nature, history and musical and literary culture of Argentina. It is one of the few niche perfume brands from Argentina (perhaps the most famous being Julian Bedel’s Fueguia 1833, which has a shop in nearby Roppongi Hills) and the first fronted by a woman. Given the fast pace of most perfume production and marketing these days, Frassaï prides itself on taking its time: developing the scent story behind each creation, sourcing natural and sustainable ingredients, where possible from Argentina, and collaborating with perfumers that resonate with Ms Outeda’s approach. Having worked with top perfume brands in New York from 2005 until she relocated to Buenos Aires and set up Frassaï, she made the conscious decision to eschew the rapid pace of commercial perfumery and make slow perfumes – and this was a concept she continually came back to throughout the talk – with the key inspiration coming from Argentinian culture: the elegant capital itself, the pampas grasslands and the dramatic landscapes of Patagonia, the iconic gaucho, Astor Piazzolla and the tango, as well as influential artistic figures such as the twentieth century doyenne of letters, Victoria Ocampo. Early praise and recognition from Luca Turin set the brand off to an auspicious start.
Ms Outeda started the evening’s scent journey with explanations of four scents from her collection that foreground her touchstone Argentine inspirations, kicking off with Verano Porteño (2017) (potent summer, the title taken from a Piazzolla tango) which aims to evoke a gentle breeze wafting through Buenos Aires of a summer evening, with bergamot, clementine, cardamom, imperial jasmine, vetiver and Argentinian yerba mate. I was struck by the white flowers and green stems: it’s like crushing white summer flowers – jasmine, magnolia – petals and leaves, in your hand – green with gentle undertones of citrus – notes that feel natural and in harmony – no shrill chemicals here to needle the brain. A nice opener.
She moved on to Teisenddu (2018), one of the brand’s most popular products, a spicy, bitter orange and mimosa accented, rum-soaked number, which straddles the wood and gourmand categories, and is based on Natalia’s grandmother’s cake recipe. This black fruit-filled burned raw sugar confection was adapted from a recipe brought to South America by Welsh immigrants in 1865 and Frassaï’s stealthily rich interpretation is far from the characteristic blaring vanillarama of many gourmands. Warmth with depth and mystery. Recommended.
Then on to Cuir Pampas (2020) – one of two scents taking inspiration from the landscape of the pampas grasslands- this more masculine accord (though actually billed as unisex) takes on the nomadic el gaucho cowboys, often pictured on horseback with a stripey blanket about their shoulders (famously, one of the inspirations for spaghetti westerns as well as countless cat walk lewks, gaucho style interestingly evolved from a melange of native fabrics and Spanish settler equestrian garb): as you might expect, a drier concoction of leather, woods and grasses, with green mate and black pepper thrown in for moisture and pep; earthy, leathery, somewhat green.
On to Victoria (2022), (which I was wearing), a tribute to Victoria Ocampo (1890- 1979), one of the leading literary figures of South America for much of the twentieth century, friends to many prominent artists, writers and composers, and an emancipated modern woman who used her fortune to sponsor and promote the arts. This scent features tuberose but in a less powerhouse buttery mode than other renditions, it is combined with oud and pink litchi – an example of choosing “qualitative ingredients to highlight a story.” Ms Outeda commented that the pairing of tuberose and oud is an unusual one and I certainly appreciated the unclichéed restraint in that accord, so used to (and increasingly bored with) rose ouds. The oud seems to make the tuberose less creamy, whilst the tuberose prevents the oud from dominating the composition as it is often wont to do. I enjoyed wearing Victoria, with its soft sweet floral drydown. I’m not sure if it conjures literary or emancipated or, as the blurb has it, ‘bold,’ but its pleasant aura was enjoyable to lean into from overture to dying ember.
Then we moved on to her new release, Dormir Al Sol (2024), about falling asleep in the sun, a metaphor for living in the sun-kissed moment. This is a chirpy scent with notes that include lime and mandarin over mimosa, guaiac wood, saffron, brandy, vetiver and patchouli. I have it on my hand now as I write this and after the initial citrus evaporates, I feel a sweet creamy saffron note predominate. I would like to wear this in the sun to see what happens, and though saffron is not really my thing, I can appreciate the modernity and sunlit optimism of Dormir Al Sol.
When asked about her favourite scents she selected A Fuego Lento (2018), a slow burn of sueded jasmine (that is also Neil’s favourite) and El Descanso (2020), an enigmatic accord featuring bran absolute, ombú leaves (a huge evergreen, native to the Pampas), galbanum, with cedar wood and sandalwood, that is described as the scent of wheatfields stretching into the limitless Pampas horizon. This serene scent was the one I selected to take away at the end, and I shall definitely enjoy it in the coming weeks. On my skin it has a dusky, sylvian soft powderiness which is very calming and unobtrusive and yet somewhat fresh at the same time – it’s shadowy and well, yes, enigmatic. It definitely keeps its distance, hovering on an olfactory horizon which could be a little faint for some.
Ms Outeda was at pains to stress the brand’s efforts to minimize packaging with recycled wood, simple labeling and a no-cellophane policy. The bottles, which have a grounded solidity to them, are labelled over the rounded square edge – an eccentric and unique quirk of presentation. Perfumes are produced in limited batches of 400 or 500 bottles at a time with the slow mission very much at the heart of everything. She praised her perfumers, spoke of the Chinese inspirations behind Tian Di (2017), affirmed her love of travel and new places (the motto of the brand is ‘Embark upon a new sensorial experience’), and hinted at a possible Japan-inspired creation. By this point, we had covered a lot of ground and rather than moving to a Q and A session, we were treated to a selection of Argentinian wines and maté, empanadas, roast beef and cucumber sandwiches and caramel cream desserts and we were able to speak with Natalia, the embassy staff and the Nose Shop assistants. An enjoyable informative night giving a strong sense of the Frassaï aesthetic and its place in the niche market. With these subtle and varied creations that do actually embody the blurb around them, the brand may well find a dedicated following among Japanese consumers. Definitely left me wanting to learn more about the process behind the creation of these scents which was only briefly touched upon – but that is a whole other matter for another day.
I left with Hiro Nakayama who is founder of Bridge and Blend (@bridgeandblend), a contemporary Japanese incense company (whose incense cones we had sampled back around the start of the pandemic – they left a very pleasing ambience in the room after burning), highly knowledgable in all matters olfactory – fascinating to learn about the Japanese incense scene and the challenges of setting up a new brand – and we took a taxi to Hiroo station, going our separate ways. I stopped off in Bistro D’Arbre in Ebisu for a quick apple endive salad with mushroom quiche, washed down with a glass (or two) of C’est Bien Comme Ca! red (delish), then ended the evening with Neil and beer talking over the scents and the week.
The Black Narcissus 