Get your passports ready, pack your bags and come fly with me as I take you through the 7 scents from the London based Indie house, Gallivant. The founder and creator of Gallivant is Nick Steward, who has worked with perfumers from Paris and Venice to create this unisex set of fragrances that focuses on various cities of the world. Each fragrance’s objective is to capture the experience of travel, and the pulse and vibe of a city. All the fragrances in the set are Eau de Parfum concentration and are available in travel friendly 30ml bottles.
Amsterdam
We’re in Europe for our first destination, Amsterdam. Amsterdam is one of the most interesting fragrances in the collection. It contains floral, spicy and woody notes including saffron, tulip, rose, elemi, sandalwood and pepper. It’s a hard one to pin down but the main notes I detect are the tulip, which is of course ubiquitous with Amsterdam, and the saffron and sandalwood. Lasting power is excellent, I get well over 10 hours longevity from Amsterdam. The predominance of tulip in this fragrance perhaps has this one leaning slightly feminine. Not one I’d wear myself but wouldn’t mind smelling on someone else. The perfumer behind Amsterdam is Giorgia Navarra.
Berlin
Sticking in Europe, this time for the German city of Berlin. I really enjoyed this one and it’s up there as one of my favourites from Gallivant. This is a fresh invigorating fragrance made up of black tea, vetiver, grapefruit, clementine, lemon and pepper. A great one for the warm weather, the black tea and citrus notes are dominant on my skin, especially in the opening. The dry down is a simple vetiver, cedarwood and patchouli mix, with the vetiver being the main player. If you’re a fan of Kiehl’s Black Tea and Vetiver fragrance you will like this one. The added citrus notes in Berlin kicks it up a notch from the Kiehl’s offering. I get 8 plus hours of longevity and the perfumer behind Berlin is Karine Chevallier.
Brooklyn
Across the pond to Brooklyn and we’re greeted with a sweet, orange, lemon, and benzoin fragrance, almost candy like in nature. There is also a magnolia note hovering in the background that becomes more prominent in the mid. The amber in the base combines with the citrus notes to give Brooklyn a fizzy sweetness. This one lasted about 6 hours on skin. Brooklyn is a different, sweeter take on citrus, but for mine there is just too much going on here and it didn’t quite work on my skin. The perfumer is Giorgia Navarra.
Istanbul
Istanbul, Turkey is next on the itinerary. Istanbul opens up with powder, spice and amber. Opoponax dominates right through the fragrance, and the sweet myrrh gives the fragrance a balsamic, almost honey like feel. Notes of vanilla, tonka, patchouli and sandalwood contribute to a sweet woody base. I enjoy this fragrance from start to finish, and it really does feel as though you are at a crossroads, in a city where east meets west. There is a complex blend of notes in Istanbul, but they all work together beautifully. I get 8 plus hours of longevity. The perfumer behind the fragrance is Karine Chevallier.
London
Another one of my top picks from the collection is London. London opens with a wet green rose and a fresh cucumber note. Slowly, a dirty leather and patchouli comes into play, hinting at a seedy underbelly. The fresh top notes still hover in the background and to my nose the rose is the dominant note. The blending of the fresh and animalic notes conveys, in its creative concept, the contrasts of London’s neighbourhoods perfectly. The have’s and have not’s, East End Boys and West End Girls. I enjoy 8 plus hours of longevity. The perfumer behind the fragrance is Karine Chevallier.
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv is a beautiful fruity floral fragrance. At the top, I pick up citrus notes. These citrus notes, according to the Gallivant website, are clementine and bergamot. There’s also a juicy blackcurrant that fades quite quickly. The floral mid notes are where the fragrance shines. Jasmine, freesia and ylang-ylang dominate this feminine leaning composition. It all sits on a sweet, woody base of sandalwood, musk and benzoin. If you’re into floral fragrances, add Tel Aviv to your sample list. It lasted 6 plus hours on my skin. The perfumer behind the fragrance is Karine Chevallier.
Tokyo
Tokyo is Gallivant’s latest perfume. Tokyo is a fresh, spicy take on incense. It opens with yuzu and pepper, but these notes don’t linger around for very long. Wasabi is listed as a top note, but I do not pick it up. There is a lot going on in this fragrance, with woody undertones of hinoki, cedar and sandalwood intermingling with notes of amber and nutmeg. Incense and cardamom dominate this scent though, with none of the sweeter notes becoming cloying. It’s a solid incense fragrance, without being one of my favourites from the collection. Tokyo lasted 6 plus hours on skin. The perfumer is Nicolas Bonneville.
I really enjoyed going through the seven EdP’s in this collection. Not all of them worked on my skin, but they are all worth sampling. My favourites are the black tea / vetiver combination of Berlin and the dirty green rose of London. As mentioned in my introductory comments, they’re available in 30ml bottles, a godsend for perfumistas with large collections. I tested the fragrances from samples I purchased myself.
Have you guys tried Gallivant? What were your favourites?
