OHTOP is s French-Korean company founded in 2021 by Romeo Oh. The brand launched with a range of unisex cosmetics, and in 2023 he added a collection of perfumes (I Hate Rose, Paranoïaque, Ohsphalte, Green Flannel and Fleur d’Oh) that incorporate elements of OTOP’s history, origins and cultural heritage.
At Esxence, OHTOP were showing their latest trio of scents – Októ, Air Oud, and Half Moon.
Októ
“The number 8 is a symbol of both luck and metamorphosis. Vibrating with the positive energy of the number 8, symbol of a world without limits, this is the fragrance of good fortune and abundance. Its mathematical formula contains exactly 8 seeds that carry the seeds of the mystery of rebirth and the hope of a new day. Eight is the essence of Mother Earth bottled with modernity.”
Thinking of ambrette seed, and its earthy facets, the perfumer, Julien Rasquinet, wanted to pull on this telluric thread by invoking other roots, other seeds (angelica, iris, galbanum) to recreate the raw and noble smell of humus.
Air Oud
“A photo of a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, Japan, invaded by moss that has frozen at the foot of the trees. The heady smell of a piece of ancestral oud wood blown into the fresh air of a calm morning. An oud freshness, delicate, clean and white, without the slightest violence or animality, shrouded in a soft voluptuousness. The originality lies in the duality between a very clean start and a more animalistic background. The fluidity of an obvious perfume that has fun playing the opposite of a caricatured raw material.”
Karine Vinchon is the perfumer behind this fragrance, which is described as “The whiteness of orange blossom and rice bran and the opalescent creaminess of sandalwood contrast the subliminal image of oud which warms up in contact with cypriol, saffron, frankincense and patchouli. “
Half Moon
“It all started with the melody of a popular nursery rhyme called “bandal” (half- moon), a kind of Au clair de la lune for Korean children. It tells of a rabbit growing a cinnamon tree, a rice cake, a little girl and a protective moon, a beacon of light for a new dawn. The irresistible insolence of tender age that would have been imprisoned in a perfume dedicated to those who have preserved their child’s soul.”
Cedarwood is surrounded by the sweetness of rose, jasmine and heliotrope and a pure breath of oxygen in this fragrance created by Luca Maffei
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