Theme Fresia. The Freesia Postcard

Sep 2

2 min read

Updated: Oct 16

Olfactorium

It is a gentle touch of spring that makes hearts beat faster.

A postcard with a freesia was pinned to a board of the scaffolding right under the ceiling. Efrosinya's first drawing teacher had given it to her long ago, and since then the postcard had travelled with her to every job.

All winter Efrosinya had been restoring the painted ceiling in the reading room of an old library. The work went slowly, it was grey outside the windows, and the colours under her brush seemed dull and lifeless to her.

On an April morning she put Theme Fresia on her wrists. Orange, lemon and mandarin sounded fresh and ringing, galbanum added a bitterish green, and for the first time in a long while Efrosinya climbed the scaffolding with pleasure.

By noon freesia, hyacinth and lily of the valley had opened on her skin, light and cool, with a berry touch of blackcurrant and raspberry. Spring sun poured through the reading room windows, and Efrosinya suddenly saw that the blue background of the ceiling had come alive.

From below the librarian Boris Glebovich called to her. Every day he brought her tea and made sure readers did not walk under the scaffolding.

"Efrosinya, it's spring up there. It smells as if someone had brought a bouquet into the hall," said Boris Glebovich. Efrosinya laughed and answered that a bouquet would soon appear on the ceiling.

By evening the warm notes of sandalwood, resins and amber remained, soft and calm. The reading room emptied, and Efrosinya unpinned the postcard from the board.

She looked at it for a long time, then mixed her paints and painted a small freesia in a corner of the ceiling, exactly like the one on the postcard.

How it sounds

The opening is fresh and ringing: orange, lemon and mandarin give a citrus spark, nectarine a soft sweetness, and galbanum a bitterish green, like a freshly cut stem.

At the heart is the main theme, freesia: alive, green and cool. Hyacinth, narcissus, lily of the valley and cyclamen surround it with spring flowers, while blackcurrant and raspberry add a light berry juiciness.

In the base sandalwood and resins give a warm woody sound, patchouli depth, and amber and musk leave a soft, light trail.

What makes it special

Theme Fresia belongs to the Olfactorium collection and the Theme series. In the brand's words, the fragrance celebrates the refined elegance of freesia and sings an ode to nature's spring awakening. It is a fresh green floral fragrance for spring.

@sunshineladyvera on Telegram writes: "A real living Freesia with recognisable green fresh notes. As it opens it loses a little of the green and fills with petals and air."

Elena78 on Fragrantica notes: "Very beautiful and feminine, floral it seems, yet there is a slight bitterness too!" Yulia on Telegram writes: "Gentle, compliment-winning, not a single note that is even slightly debatable for me."

*Quotes translated from Russian.*

People wear it for a spring mood: on the first warm day, during long work, and whenever they want colours to come alive again.