Theme Tomato. A Leaf Between the Fingers

Sep 2

3 min read

Updated: Oct 16

Olfactorium

On the first day his grandmother picked a tomato leaf, rubbed it between her fingers and held it under Misha's nose. "That's how a healthy plant smells," she said. Misha nodded and went inside with his phone.

He was fourteen, and that summer his parents were moving to a new flat. He was sent to the dacha until August, away from the boxes. His friends stayed in the city, and the phone only caught a signal by the fence.

His grandmother gave him one job a day. Tie the stems to the stakes, water the beds before the heat, pinch off the extra shoots. After the greenhouse his palms turned green and kept the smell of the vines for hours, bitter and warm.

At first he washed his hands straight away. By mid-July he stopped, because the smell stayed even after soap. In the evenings he lay on the veranda, and his fingers smelled of a summer that had at first felt foreign to him.

Behind the fence lived Varya, the neighbour's granddaughter. She was painting an old boat blue and humming to herself. For two weeks Misha greeted her with a single nod.

In August Varya asked him to help turn the boat over. They lifted it together, and Varya suddenly laughed. "You smell like a vegetable garden," Varya said. Misha smiled and invited her to see the greenhouse.

The first red tomatoes hung in the greenhouse. Misha showed her which shoots he had pinched and why the plants had grown so tall. He talked for a long time, and Varya listened, sitting on an upturned bucket.

At the end of the summer his father came to collect him and was surprised that his son now stood taller than his shoulder. Misha carried his sneakers home in a bag, because they pinched. Before leaving he picked a tomato leaf, rubbed it between his fingers and held it out to Varya. "That's how a healthy plant smells," Misha said.

Misha is thirty now. In the mornings he puts Theme Tomato on his wrists, and his hands smell again of a leaf rubbed in his grandmother's greenhouse.

A great way to lift your mood, even when you feel sad.

How it smells

The opening is bright and juicy: bergamot and mandarin give citrus freshness, pink pepper adds a light tingle, magnolia softens the start.

The heart brings the main theme. Tomato leaf sounds like bitter living greenery, celery adds a crisp stalk, green tea brings coolness. Osmanthus and freesia surround the green with floral light.

The base is warm and clean. Sandalwood and cedar give calm woody support, cashmeran adds soft volume, musk leaves a feeling of freshness on the skin.

What makes it special

Theme Tomato belongs to the Olfactorium collection. The brand conceived it as an étude, an original take on a single theme. The scent is dedicated to the period of life when a person goes through the fastest and most significant changes. Kimiko_Wild on Kosmetista called it "a composite image of garden greenery" with "delicately soloing tomato vines": "Green, warm, natural, truly summery and positive." Kalina-the-Red on Fragrantica writes that "the scent of tomato vines is rendered masterfully here." People wear it to bring back a warm garden summer and a good mood on any day.