Even in my wildest dreams never did I imagine an independent natural perfumer in Russia. Is her apothecary facing the vast tundra? Or hidden in an abandoned shed in the kolchoz? Maybe it's a posh Moscow boutique, with checkered marble floor, where ladies in Russian furs and Chinese silk tafetta marvel at her new creations over caviar and black tea drizzled with sour cherry preserves... Either way, I was intrigued. And lo and behold, not only does such a person exist - she is also talented and adds a fantastic dimension to the international indie perfumers scene. Her name is Anna Zworykina. All the perfumes of hers that I've smelled were of a similar style and character: sophisticated, intriguing, purely natural, with depth and complexity that is usually achieved by incorporating house-made botanical tinctures.

It has been my absolute pleasure to have spent many months with the perfumes of Anna Zworykina, and I wish I could review all of them as each one is worthy of a dedicated review. Alas, favorites must be chosen, and Black Gardenia rose to the top rather quickly with its heady mix of white flowers and leather. A lot of leather, and a lot of smoke as well. Anna writes about Billie Holiday and jazz as her inspiration for this perfume, and it would fit right in at a dark smoky club with the scent of a balmy gardenia tucked behind thick sultry hair. Black Gardenia is not a fresh-from-the-garden flower, and it’s not purely gardenia either. It’s an indolic jasmine merged with powdery iris, in addition to notes of bitter crushed leaves amidst the aforementioned leathery backdrop. This is one of those shape shifting perfumes that smells intensely smoky one moment, then utterly inky or floral the next. Complex and sexy, I adore it.

Anna Zworykina is an olfactive artist (a term she likes to use when referring to her profession) who creates "art in a bottle” - what some of us eventually know as perfume, but are indeed works of artistry and imagination.
The complexity of Zworykina’s work is essential to their allure. She instinctively mixes up our expectations of genres. What at first appears to be leather smoothes into something darker, more woody and animalic. Something cool and reserved with citrus and spice suddenly erupts in sweetness and warmth, like one’s face entering a house after a day in the snow, with the perfume Winter Blush. This is unique to Anna Zworykina creations - they defy expectations in nearly every case. In a day and age when we are constantly underwhelmed by what perfumeries offer us, Anna’s work reaches for creative spaces and points in the imagination not yet charted. The fact that she’s chosen an all-natural palette adds to the intrigue.

They're really fascinating and unusual and they get locked into your head. I need to try more!

To the craft, Anna brings her enthusiasm about the olfactory side of life, a scientific mind honed through her Ph.D. in Biology and work as a Biochemist, her creative thinking, passion for unusual things and non-conventional solutions, and her love for life. These have aided her success on the path from a beginning perfume to a master whose works are appreciated by perfumery lovers as well as by the professional perfumery community.

"Tobacco Tuberose (Anna Zworykina) ★★★★ inky machinery As in the brilliant Twilly d’Hermès, tuberose here subs in for the lavender in a traditionally masculine coumarin context, to excellent effect. Though Zworykina’s stated guiding principle is a perfumery of entirely natural materials, it somehow smells pleasurably of photocopier machines. ts"