Beautiful smoke

About Ania Parniewicz, an expert at Galilu Olfactory on Mokotowska in Warsaw, we like to think that if she doesn't know a scent, that scent doesn't exist. The uniqueness of Tonnerre is summed up in two words: beautiful smoke. To the smoke she immediately adds blood, gunpowder, raisins, rum and an abridged version of Admiral Nelson's biography. The fragrance's creator was inspired by… the Battle of Trafalgar.

It was a close thing that today the English might drink more wine than whisky and beer, and speak French fluently. In 1805 Napoleon decided that independent England stood in the way of his plans to conquer the world. The matter was to be settled by the French fleet supported by the Spaniards. Despite the clear superiority of the enemy, the English gave the French a thrashing. From Trafalgar they began to believe they were a power. However, the celebration of the victory was complicated by the death of Admiral Nelson — dressed so elaborately that he could be seen from several miles away and was too easy a target. Supposedly his body was submerged in a barrel of rum — there was no better preservative at hand, and the admiral should, of course, be buried in the capital with honors.

What does Tonnerre really smell like?

To find out what impressions Tonnerre makes, we asked a professional soldier from a unit so special that we can't even reveal his name. K. sails on the Mediterranean Sea. His ship rescues refugees and neutralizes smugglers. K. says that when you're out at sea, your sense of smell sharpens to the limit.

“First you smell gasoline, the stench of a motorboat engine's exhaust before you even see it. You can smell land from 5 km away — it's the resinous scent of forest, rotting greenery, dry grass and earth."

"Tonnerre has exactly the same clarity. Gunpowder comes through, but not aggressively. When you shoot all day in an enclosed space, at the range, your head hurts like hell, the smell of burnt powder in its intensity becomes toxic. After a shot accompanied by fire, and when you open the breech of the cartridge chamber, smoke emerges. That is precisely the scent in Beaufort's perfumes. Strong and sharp like a demonstration of force” — says K.

He continues: “The next strong note of Tonnerre is conflagration, a burning ship: treated wood, resin, tar, canvas, hemp ropes on fire. Blood is problematic — real blood always has the taste and smell of iron. If it appears at all in these perfumes, it's mixed with char, hard to separate. If I were to indulge in reconstructing the composition, it would look like this: 65% burnt wood, 25% gunpowder, 10% other ingredients, e.g. rum”.