Playing Two Sides: Istanbul and Bulgari’s New Jasmin Noir

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There is no other city in the world that can offer you the geographic coup of skipping from the one continent to another. Istanbul straddles the Bosphorus Straits with one foot in Europe and the other in Asia and each side is accessible by famous Bosphorus Bridge.

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While the culture and finance centre of Turkey is known for its sublime heritage and historical sight, it is also on a modern style offensive. It is now one of Europe’s hottest centre’s of chic. Downbeat neighborhoods have re-emerged as artist and night-life enclaves Medieval Ottoman motifs are wending up on T-shirts and design products. Boutique hotels stand next to minarets. Plain kebabs are getting epicurean makeovers, and Old World hammams (also known as Turkish baths) are being converted into jet-setter’ spas. With architecture from the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods as a backdrop, Istanbul is now the rare place where readers of Archeology and Wallpaper magazines can clink glasses with equal zeal.

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Think it not as an identity crisis, but as a harmony of the old and new, the funky and haunting colliding. This unique duality is also the basic ingredient of what makes Bulgari’s new Jasmin Noir fragrance such a standout. The 124-year-old Italian jewellery brand makes some of the best fragrances around, the kind of scent that make a unique impression, without overpowering. Since its first in 1992, the unisex Eau Parfumee Au The Vert, each new one that followed (there are four so far) has been consistently appealing. And its well-designed bottles look sleek and cool too. Kind of like most things Bulgari makes: from heirloom-worthy jewellery and watches to exotic-skin handbags, to US$1,000-a-night hotel rooms.

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Bulgari fragrances are based on the premise that simplicity equals timelessness. All it takes is only one neutral ingredient to create something powerful that lasts. Like green tea used in the timeless Au The Vert, the jasmine sambac is central to Jasmin Noir. Originating from the northern parts of the Himalayan valleys in India, it is an extremely delicate flower. Because it wilts easily, only gentle female hands may cut it, and only at dawn, when it has just opened. The process in incredibly tedious. About 700kg of the flower results in just 1 kg of jasmine extract; 1kg works out to about one and a half years of harvesting.

But like Istanbul’s play on contradictions, jasmine’s strong, deep narcotic scent is unexpectedly out of proportion to its fragility. At first whiff, the green sap (a kind of cancer-treating plant) and gardenia petals added to the top notes, smells rather citrus-sweet. Let it set and the satin almond in the heart notes and precious woods and liquorices in the base notes turn it into a woody-floral scent, mush like smoke, rubber and jasmine combined. Yet, it isn’t overbearing or overly musky.

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One word: Sensual. But not in a skintight way. In fact, the only thing that justifies the noir (think darkness) in its name is black packaging. Consider Jasmin Noir a paragon of minimalism, the kind of scent you can wear with a chic Le Smoking suit – feminine but never in a sugary way, beautiful but never conventionally so.

That’s the modern part of it. If you take luxury in the style of the 80s, you’d have thing that are extremely obvious. In the 90s, it was so light, it smelt like nothing. Now we move with the times. Now, Fragrances are much more sophisticated and elegant, without having to kill someone. Which goes to show – being two-faces can be a good thing.