There’s a lot that appeals to me about Nishane’s emergence in the niche perfumery world. For one, I always get a thrill when I see an unusual top-level country domain like .tr on a company URL. The world is a big place, and a combination of Web and FedEx means that everyone in perfumery gets a bite at the apple. No point in pretending to have a PoBox in Grasse when Istanbul, where they were making perfume when Grasse still stank of leather tanning, is your home.
Second, Nishane perfumes are composed by Jorge Lee, former Quest perfumer, now at MG Gülçiçek (the name means rose flower), a Turkish oil firm. Typically this sort of firm would be mostly working for the home market, and often copying fragrances released by the big worldwide brands. Niche perfumery could well be a novel way for small firms to show off their skills and get a toehold in worldwide fine fragrance. Everything that levels the playing field is to be welcomed.
Nishane’s range is huge, 22 fragrances. As may be expected, it consists mostly of compulsory figures of perfumery, i.e. an oriental, a vetiver, a citrus, a rose, a tuberose, etc. All of them are well-constructed and smell like proper cash was spent on the formula, with mostly natural materials of good quality. My favorites are Sultan Vetiver which, dare I say it, reminds me of the original Guerlain vetiver before they started messing with it and lost that exact earthy-liquorice accord that made it great; and Mūsīqá Oud, a bittersweet composition that very cleverly uses the unique inky facets of oud in a woody-oriental context without the overwhelming off-notes. All in all, very nice work.
Categories: niche houses
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