Nanas Eau de Parfum

Friendship, primarily—as well as the late French-American sculptor and painter Niki de Saint Phalle’s early-career decision to only spread joy through her art.

Before I knew Alyssa, she taught me the language of smell through her book called Coming to My Senses, in which she accounts for her process of learning to love perfume and how through that process, she came to better love and connect with herself, the people around her, and the world. Eventually we met in real life, and she sent me off with a decant from her personal, vintage bottle of the late French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle’s eponymous perfume. She checked in on me from time to time after, and I sent her samples of work I released for Chronotope as I made them. Once, I told her about a method of composing formulas I was toying with which mimicked how Saint Phalle created artwork when she was young by shooting guns at canvases loaded with sacs of pigment to create violent, cathartic, actionist “shot paintings.” But Alyssa expressed disapproval at my method. She reminded me that Saint Phalle only made the shot paintings for a brief period of time before she came to her senses—eventually laying down her guns and focusing her energy on producing large, bouyant, colorful, playful and joyous monuments to joy in the form of public sculptures she called her Nanas. Then Alyssa issued a challenge: come to my own senses. Follow both her and Niki de Saint Phalle’s lead, and opt for joy.

Armed with that challenge, I began making my own form of Nanas, a perfume that comes to its senses and a dedication to nothing but joy. From its purely synthetic opening accord of nostalgic, childlike banana candy to its soft floral heart full of cardamom-spiced ylang and dewy, luxurious champaca flowers, to its rich musky, mature, and altogether all-natural base featuring angelica and the soft, cozy purr of civet, Nanas EdP is at once a perfume that “grows up” as it wears down as well as Chronotope's most delightfully playful, altogether lighthearted, inviting, and seriously optimistic perfume on offer.