Naomi Goodsir Nuit de Bak\u00e9lite Eau de Parfum won the Best Perfume Price in the Art and Olfaction Awards in 2018 in the independent category, as well as The Best Niche & Independent Brand Fragrance FIFI Awards in France 2018. It was selected as one of the \u201c111 perfumes to smell before dying\u201d over a period of 130 years, from Jicky (1889) to Nuit de Bak\u00e9lite (2017) by the french journalists of Nez la Revue. It eached 2nd place of the top 10 niche perfumes of the decade (2010\/2020) among almost 20,000 launches, by Au Parfum.<\/p>\n
Naomi Goodsir Nuit de Bak\u00e9lite Eau de Parfum is an obsessive green niche perfume featuring stems, flowers and foliage corrupted by narcotic latex and glossy resins. Nuit de Bak\u00e9lite opens with wet, juicy angelica and richly green galbanum. However, this refreshing tangle of green purity does not feel entirely wholesome. Like wild nature lapped in an oil-slicked expanse of molten resin, Nuit de Bak\u00e9lite\u2019s clean translucency seems always to be hovering above something darker. This tension within the perfume is key to its decadent allure.<\/p>\n
Nuit de Bak\u00e9lite Eau de Parfum is partly inspired by bakelite, the early 20th century precursor to modern day plastic. Often associated with the stylish accessories worn by the beautiful young things of the 20s and 30s, bakelite has a glossy, warm sheen and unique resinous smell all its own. Naomi Goodsir\u2019s Eau de Parfum, reconstructs a seductive bakelite note through a blending of leather and styrax, which converge to mirror the material\u2019s resiny richness. Like lacquered vinyl in floral form, tuberose adds another layer to the darkly polished gleam with its rubbery, plasticy sexiness<\/p>\n
Despite the mention of hard-hitting facets above, Nuit de Bak\u00e9lite is not a scent of olfactive aggression. Rather, the subtle evocation of oil, plastic and rubber brings texture and sheen to the base. Nuit de Bak\u00e9lite is complex and majestic. It is modernity viewed through vintage lenses. It is pure nature adulterated by the big city. But it is the big city of yesteryear – with its risqu\u00e9 nightclubs and early neon signs; when flappers wowed crowds in burlesque theatres and jazz bars challenged musical norms. <\/p>\n
Like the old world emerging into a new age – Nuit de Bak\u00e9lit\u2019s sharp and sparkling green tones seem to capture the first wave of modern cosmetics: when the fragrances were musk and leather, rich and unrefined; reminding us that these pioneering consumer products were far from perfected, and all the better for it. <\/p>\n
Naomi Goodsir Nuit de Bak\u00e9lite is a jazz riff of adjectives: old-school, soapy, luscious, floral, green, clean – all floating on a smoothly fashioned background. Like bakelite it is tactile, feels texturally chewy, amberlike but brittle, harking back to a time when opulence went hand in hand with innovation and the future was beautiful.
\nInteresting fact: Naomi Goodsir is also a devotee of bakelite and all caps for her perfume bottles are made from this beloved material. <\/p>\n
The nose behind Nuit de Bak\u00e9lite Isabelle Doyen (Annick Goutal, Les Nez).<\/p>\n
Perfume notes: angelica, artemisia, tuberose, leather, styrax, carrot seed, karo-karounde, ylang ylang, cardamom<\/p>\n