THE ART OF SCENT

With its art gallery like interior, a collection of original perfumes and an owner, who knows everything about them, Mood Scent Bar isn’t a place to find regular classic choices, but a place, where you can smell… nail polish! No wonder that it’s the only Warsaw perfumery that attracts adventure seekers.

IN THE GALLERY

Mood Scent Bar is a place for individualists and new trends lovers. The ones that won’t be scared off by fish dried in the sun scent of perfume, and associate the word “gallery” more with an art gallery than with a shopping mall, will feel at home here. You’ll find it on Tamka: it’s still in the center of Warsaw, but it’s aside enough to be able to go through the bottles away from the city clamour. It’s also due to the stylish interior. It’s very spacy and a bit raw, but so nice that you don’t feel like leaving at all! 😉 The perfume, exposed on the background of a grey wall, look like a modern art. Collection. Chic, minimalistic Serge Lucas’s bottles lazily sparkle in the sun. The ones from Absinth, with wooden corks are also worth noticing, and are an at least „good” Instagram capture 😉 Some of them look as if they were hardly polished, organic Brancusci’s sculptures, and some of them are closer to modest Donald Judd’s installations. But it’s not the end of their advantages! They hide the most beautiful, very often not available in any other place in Europe fragrances of the most exclusive brands. Just like in Mo61 and Sense Dubai it’s not a place to look for perfumes bought by most of people in regular drugstores. Visiting Tamka, one should forget their habits. It may turn out that it’s not the popular floral composition (created by another celebrity 😉 ), but just the scent of after storm air is the fragrance you’ve been looking for forever 😀 What I heard here got confirmed as well: The male and female scents division is not valid anymore. I find this philosophy very tempting – there’s nothing more sexy than a little bit of male perfume on a female wrist 😉

The plain, minimalistic space is a perfect background for unique perfume. Exposed on a grey wall they look more like modern sculptures than classic bottles.

VICTOR’S LEGEND

The establisher of the shop, Victor Kochetov is responsible for the interior of the store, fragrance selection, as well as great PR of the place. He’s his company’s best business card, and remains unusually modest at the same time. He welcomed me wearing a Raf Simons checkered shirt, dark jeans and designer sports shoes. Elegant, tall and charismatic, from the very first moment he appeared to me as a man worth getting to know closer. No wonder that there’re legends about him going around! 😀 Despite everything he doesn’t like to talk a lot about himself. He decided to start his own perfumery when he noticed that more and more Polish people begin to value being individual and search for unique suggestions. He inherited the weakness for fragrances and impeccable manners after his Italian father, and his openness after his Polish mother. Yet a big dose of personal charm isn’t Victor’s only virtue – his knowledge in the field is unspeakably broad. He could talk about perfume for hours and, as he says, what he loves more than scents about his work are the people 😉 More than celebrities, he wants to invite the people of Warsaw, even if their visits to Moon Scent are a bit accidental, even right from the street. Many visitors come here cause the place has been recommended to them by friends, other are drawn by exotic plants at the window, or a full of inspiring posts Facebook page.

Victor is the Mood Scent art curator – he selects the fragrances and tells their story in a way that you immediately feel the need to have them all 😉

Kochetov lived abroad for many years, working, among others for the beloved Comme des Garcons – a fashion house famous for deconstruction and abstract figures. He managed to get to know the secret of the perfumery business quite deeply 😉 As he says himself, above all he would like the people to “understand” perfume and be able to evoke the intended outcome – regardless, if they want to seem more professional, or make someone fall in love with them 😀 Now he shares his knowledge with his “guests”. That’s what he calls the, as he doesn’t like the word “customers”. Despite his success, he still believes that a meeting and a talk with the other person is more important than the final transaction itself. If you’re lucky, just as I was, and manage to catch Victor in Moon Scent Bar, you’ll leave not only with a new bottle, but also with a lot of perfume info. Such information you won’t even be able to find in specialist magazines! 😉 Everyone can count on his attention even in the most busy, pre-Christmas period. He’ll help everyone, and passionately make the unusual, mysterious scents seem more clear. And for dessert – he’ll tell you the story how each of the scents were created, enchant with a certain ingredient and provide you with a tester. His kindness makes me absolutely listen to his suggestions 😉 Victor even wrote his mission in a manifest. He convinces that perfume isn’t only “scented air”, but a suggestion and a way to express yourself. Just like what I keep telling you everyday about fashion, right? 😉 You’ll find the whole message on the webpage, and you’ll get it attached to each of the bought bottles. Storytelling, namely passing the idea of the sold product is today a very important part of marketing. In Mood Scent Bar they know that each and everyone of us desires to be the main character of the absorbing story of their own life 😉

WHAT DOES METALLIC SHINE SMELL LIKE?

An important part of the offer are the Comme des Garcons perfumes, established by a Japanese, Rei Kwakubo. The  market. The fragrances available on Tamka street perfectly reflect the rebel spirit of the brand. They were the first ones to use a scent of ink (i.e. Comme des Garcons 2) and the synthetic ISO E Super molecule, which abstractive scent activates only after it meets the skin (called just Molecule 01). The star of the Japanese brand is Odouer 53, smelling wit (attention!) nail polish, metallic shine, burnt tires and celluloses 😀 Don’t lose heart for it just by the description, as the perfume is totally awesome! 😉 I guarantee you that everybody can find something for themselves in Tamka street. The sentimental ones will fall in love with Serge Luten’s scent smelling with homemade bread (Jeux de Peau), and rock lovers with Electric Wood – inspired by the Room 1015 guitar case. Pop supporters will go for Pharell Williams perfume, and 21st century affairs lovers – for Les Cocottes de Paris with a scent of absinth. Not sure about it? You may also find exclusive “uslu airlines” nail polishes here (their colors are described with shortened names of airports), and also scented candles by D.S &Durga. My fave is the one called Portable Fireplace 😉 And if you still have trouble choosing one… Trust Victor! You can always fill a special questionnaire which will help him decide what you’re like and what your fragrance profile is.

SHHH… Victor revealed that he’s just working in London on his own perfume line. I can’t wait to smell the outcome! I feel that they’ll immediately join my favorite perfume set 😉