Beauty

Are you looking for a truly special perfume?

May_Britt in the Otentic store, she is in front of a pink display with a lady in blue holding perfume bottles

If the program ‘Wetten, dass..?’ still existed, I could participate with my scent recognition. Let someone walk past me with Chance by Chanel and I recognize the scent. From Armani to Zadig & Voltaire. Just because I see them so often in my profession, I think. Yet I increasingly notice that the desire for individuality is manifesting itself in more and more areas. In fashion (there is no longer really a trend that we all follow, we pick from the range that underscores us), but also in the beauty world. That is why layering scents is becoming more and more applied because this way you create your own scent. Even better is discovering a new perfume house. And that, you have now found.

Otentic is a French perfume house that is now run by the eighth generation of perfumers. The current perfumer, a particularly charming man, is Jean-Denis Saisse. He manages the fragrance empire from, how could it be otherwise, Grasse. That is the heart of the perfume world where the best ingredients grow. Jean-Denis sees it as his task to create scents that underline someone's personality.

Because we want choice, Otentic has 73 different perfumes divided into eight fragrance styles and two specialties where you can discover your unique perfume(s). You can also combine them with each other. They have divided the scents into different fragrance families such as Lemonia (warning: you will immediately want to go on vacation to Italy when you smell these perfumes), Grasslands (where you find very earthy scents) or the Pure series, which consists of a single ingredient of the very best kind. I am in love with Lily of the Valley.

I find this such a nice concept because I really love connecting different chapters of my life to a scent. So I buy a new perfume for every summer vacation to get into the mood and to always remember that specific vacation when I smell that scent. But autumn also calls for a different feeling than summer, and a workday for a different scent than a Sunday.

I would say: go to an Otentic branch and let yourself be guided by the people who work there. Sniff the scents, close your eyes and let your taste guide you.

My favorites:

  • Grasslands 4
  • Pure Lily of the Valley
  • Pure Rose
  • Aguamondo 1
  • Anno 1785

All information about the scents can be found at www.otenticperfumes.com and the boutiques are in Amstelveen (Binnenhof 35) and in Haarlem (Barteljorisstraat 8).

Really a recommendation if you want a different scent experience.