I arrived in Kramatorsk in April to blooming apricot trees. Now, in September, this city on the advancing front lines of eastern Ukraine stands dressed in autumnal colors. Some days, the grape leaves turning crimson catch my attention before I notice that another building has been destroyed during the night. What’s impossible not to notice is how the city is dying–the streets are emptier, the parks deserted, the homes abandoned. In any other war, all of the newspapers would be writing about Kramatorsk, but this war has been going on too long, and everyone is tired.

I stay here to do volunteer work, helping with civilian evacuations. In my free time, I study Chinese, write, and give perfume seminars online. If you follow me on Substack, you also know that I have rescued a kitten, and now my teaching assistant is present whenever we talk about accords and notes.

Some of the articles you might find interesting about my life:

Things That Inspire Me

Rose Petals Instead of Ashes

I also started a series on perfume study, based on only 10 materials. Later, we will expand our palette and learn how to work with other ingredients:

Perfume Lesson 6: Fall in Love with Clary Sage

Perfume Lesson 5: Lavender Master Class

I also have a series to deconstruct iconic fragrances:

The Anatomy of an Icon: Diorissimo

The Anatomy of an Icon: Christian Dior Eau Sauvage

And since I still wear perfume, I write perfume reviews:

Chloé Cedrus Intense Perfume Review

Our “Recommend Me a Perfume” thread is open this week. You can use this space to find perfume recommendations, to share your discoveries and favorite scents, and to ask any questions about scents, aromas and flavors. Or you can just tell us what perfume you are wearing. If you received recommendations from this thread, please let us know what you sampled.

How does it work: 1. Please post your requests or questions as comments here. You can also use this space to ask any fragrance related questions. To receive recommendations that are better tailored to your tastes, you can include details on what you like and don’t like, your signature perfumes, and your budget. And please let us know what you end up sampling. 2. Then please check the thread to see if there are other requests you can answer. Your responses are really valuable for navigating the big and sometimes confusing world of perfume, so let’s help each other!

To make this thread easier to read, when you reply to someone, please click on the blue “reply” link under their comment.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin

I’ve been on a rose trail for years. I’ve collected roses in France, Bulgaria, Morocco, India, Pakistan, Iran and even China. From the velvety richness of classical French perfumes to the luminous transparency of contemporary compositions, the rose is one of my favorite ingredients in my palette. Now in eastern Ukraine, I cannot delight enough in the intense aromas and colors of the roses grown under the generous sun of the Donetsk region. Even at 10km from the frontline, the flowers bloom with devastating lushness.

As a thank-you to everyone supporting our humanitarian work in Ukraine, I’m delighted to invite you to a special online seminar titled Rose: From Classics to Contemporary Masterpieces.

During this one-hour session, we’ll explore how great rose perfumes are constructed, how rose accords have evolved over time, and what distinguishes a classical composition from a modern interpretation. I’ll discuss iconic fragrances, explain the architecture behind successful rose accords, and share practical insights from my own work as a perfumer and perfume educator. There will also be plenty of time for questions.

Event Details

Friday, August 7
17:00–18:00 CET / 11:00–12:00 EST
Google Meet

A recording will be available to all registered participants.

This seminar also supports a cause that has become deeply important to me. Since April 2026, I’ve been living in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. I join the Kramatorsk Volunteer Organization run by the local volunteer Bogdan Zuyakov on their humanitarian missions. Along with Ben Kochenburger, my fellow American volunteer, I fundraise to help this local grassroot organization continue evacuating civilians, transporting people to hospitals, and responding to emergencies in Kramatorsk and vicinity.

Thanks to you, we were able to raise enough money to obtain a new evacuation vehicle.

However, the work doesn’t stop there. While we wait for the vehicle to arrive and become fitted with the necessary armor and drone detectors, we still need to keep our existing fleet on the road. One of our evacuation vehicles urgently requires repairs, while fuel, maintenance, and operational costs continue to grow as the security situation deteriorates. Every day matters. Russian drones and missile strikes are more and more numerous and we need to do everything to get people to safety.

For that reason, we have extended our fundraising goal to $20,000. Of course, we will be over the moon if we exceed our goal. Every additional contribution will help ensure that evacuations continue without interruption while the new vehicle makes its way to Ukraine.

How to Participate

Donate $50 or more to the fundraiser, and you’ll receive an invitation to the seminar:

https://gogetfunding.com/humanitarian-support-for-relocating-civilians-in-ukraine/

More importantly, you’ll be helping local volunteers rescue people and help local communities.

Thank you again for your trust, your generosity, and for standing with us.

With gratitude,

Victoria and Ben Kochenburger

If you’ve donated and didn’t receive your Zoom invitation, please contact me and I will resend your invite.

Join Luca Turin and me for a live online seminar on new perfume launches, industry trends, and insider observations from the fragrance world. Luca will be joining us from Milan during Esxence, the world’s largest niche perfumery exhibition. I will be speaking from Ukraine.

Scientist, critic, polymath, and co-author of Perfumes: The A–Z Guide, Luca needs little introduction. Expect lively discussion, strong opinions, and plenty of opportunities for questions.

This event supports a cause close to my heart.

Since this spring, I have been working with the Kramatorsk Volunteer Organization in eastern Ukraine, helping evacuate civilians from frontline communities. The team is made up entirely of local volunteers. They receive no salary. Their leader, Bogdan Zuyakov, works at a local music school and spends his free time organizing evacuations, transporting hospital patients, and helping people escape the war zone.

I join the team’s missions whenever I am in Kramatorsk, and I have seen firsthand how vital this work is. As the front advances and drone warfare expands the danger zone, the window for evacuation is shrinking.

Unfortunately, one of the team’s vehicles recently broke down. Without vehicles, evacuations stop.

Together with my fellow volunteer Ben Kochenburger, we have already raised more than $10,300. We are now just $4,700 away from our goal of $15,000, which will allow us to purchase a replacement vehicle and keep these missions running.

Spend an hour talking perfume with Luca Turin—and help keep a lifesaving evacuation vehicle on the road.

Event Details

Friday, June 5
17:00–18:00 CET
11:00–12:00 EST
Zoom

How to Participate

Donate $50 or more to the fundraiser: https://gogetfunding.com/humanitarian-support-for-relocating-civilians-in-ukraine/

Everyone who has already donated $50 or more is automatically eligible and will receive a Zoom invitation before the event. Be sure that you enter your email address, so that we can contact you.

A recording will be made available to the registered participants.

If you are unable to contribute, sharing this post would be a tremendous help.

It’s not every day that a conversation about perfume helps to save lives.

Luca’s Substack: https://lucaturin.substack.com/

You can follow the reports of my work with the Kramatorks Volunteer Organization via my Substack or Instagram.

I’m back in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine. We had 110 hours of air raid alerts over the past week  alone. I’ve learned to sleep through the blaring sirens. I’ve seen what drones and mines can do to a human body. I’ve smelled the smoke and tasted ash on my lips. Against it all, life continues relentless. Every day a new flower blooms on the sidewalks and a new bud unfurls its sticky leaves. An apricot tree embracing the wall of the old synagogue blooms in such a graceful way that it looks like a Japanese painting of itself. The skies during the blackouts are full of stars so vivid and bright that they seem within reach.

I travel to the frontlines. I volunteer on the evacuation missions. I record people’s stories. And I make time to smell violets in the park, wear perfume and teach fragrance classes. I continue writing my Substack newsletter. Your support enables me to continue my work and help here in Ukraine.

74 Perfumes We Had to Learn by Heart at IFF

5 Things That Stayed With Me in February

Three Mini-reviews of New Perfumes (short videos)

Perfume Class 3: Structure, Tension, and Control

What I Learned From Memorizing 74 Classics

The Art of Seduction: Field Notes from a Perfumer and a Former Ballerina

Victoria Reading Map: Iran

Our “Recommend Me a Perfume” thread is open this week. You can use this space to find perfume recommendations, to share your discoveries and favorite scents, and to ask any questions about scents, aromas and flavors. Or you can just tell us what perfume you are wearing. If you received recommendations from this thread, please let us know what you sampled.

How does it work: 1. Please post your requests or questions as comments here. You can also use this space to ask any fragrance related questions. To receive recommendations that are better tailored to your tastes, you can include details on what you like and don’t like, your signature perfumes, and your budget. And please let us know what you end up sampling. 2. Then please check the thread to see if there are other requests you can answer. Your responses are really valuable for navigating the big and sometimes confusing world of perfume, so let’s help each other!

To make this thread easier to read, when you reply to someone, please click on the blue “reply” link under their comment.

Photography by Bois de Jasmin

Iris is an ingredient that almost always sways me, and yet the more iris fragrances I smell, the harder it becomes to be genuinely surprised. Iris is among the most complex materials in perfumery, whether natural or reconstructed. It originates from the rhizome of Iris pallida, and its scent moves effortlessly between contrasts: violet petals and frozen roots; green buds and powdery floral softness. It is elegant and ethereal, yet anchored by a strong, unmistakable core. That is precisely why Iris Hermit by Lapot Studio felt like such a revelation when I discovered it in Shanghai. It gave me my iris ideal type when I least expected it.

What struck me immediately was the texture of the iris. Soft, but not vague. Delicate, yet not fragile. There is a beautiful opalescence about it, like the pale interior of an oyster shell, smooth, luminous, and quietly sensual. The iris is gently cushioned by light peachy nuances that add a hint of sweetness, while green accents shimmer through the composition. Notably, there is no overt woodiness anchoring the scent. Instead, the structure feels suspended, airy, and finely balanced.

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