YANINA YAKUSHEVA
RAVENNA

2019

PERFUMER
Yanina Yakusheva

Tuberose
Peach
Gardenia

Milk
White Honey
Coconut
Frangipani
Cedarwood

Musk
Vanilla
Ambergris
Suede

Ravenna tells me two stories. The first and most prominent is the one that will appeal to a lot of people, especially women. Straight away, Ravenna has a beautiful lactonic floral, musky vanilla scent.

It’s hard to explain; it has coconut, honey, milk, frangipani and vanilla, but it’s not cloyingly sweet and it doesn’t smell overly tropical or gourmand. It has elements of both; sun tan lotion and a milky gourmand, but also a very strong peach note and white florals.

The descriptor on the side of the bottle speaks of a young woman, but to me, Ravenna is quite mature. It’s no Guerlain Mitsouko, but the peach and suede pulls it slightly towards that direction. From my collection, Perris Absolue D’Osmanthe comes closest when I initially tried it, but later I found out that this wears very similarly to Cartier Panthere (at least the Parfum version that I acquired).

Which brings me to the second tale in this composition. There’s the most subtle, but present, animalic tinge to my nose. Ambergris is listed and as mentioned there’s white florals and suede. I’m honestly not sure what I’m smelling.

It has the slightly screechy, sharp peach scent, like an animalic osmanthus, but it is drowned out by its soft milky pool of sweet florals, so it never becomes overbearing. Some people might not even notice it, but for me, it elevates Ravenna from a pleasant lotion to an interesting niche scent. It also pulls a fragrance that could potentially be leaning about as far as possible ‘girly’, back to unisex territory.

Ravenna intrigued me from the first sniff and hasn’t stopped doing that yet.