Curtain Call

The curtain has fallen, but you're still sitting there, waiting for an encore from someone who won't return. TOSKOVAT' Curtain Call smells of your favorite pralines that you still buy, of velvet stage curtains, and of hands that no longer know whether they should applaud.

Blood orange, pear, and raspberry pralines open the fragrance fruity, sweet, and almost celebratory. Elderflower and powdered sugar add the nostalgia of a treat prepared for someone else.

Magnolia, white rose, and jasmine appear from behind the velvet curtain accords. The flowers feel like a bouquet left after a performance, still fresh, but already without the audience for whom it was intended.

David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi writes about encores and anchors, about the desire for another act and the doubt whether anything was just acting. The fragrance is not about the performance itself, but about the person who stays to watch their own life fold and unfold again.

Tobacco absolute, gurjun balsam, tonka, patchouli, vanilla, and musk later darken the sweets and flowers. The finish is warm, resinous, and dusty like an empty theater.

Curtain Call is not a cheerful gourmand with raspberry. It is a praline left on a velvet seat next to tobacco and a withered white rose — the final act performed without the other person.