Los Angeles by Gallivant

Los Angeles is Gallivant’s most recent release. This house exudes the spirit of wanderlust and urban exploration.
The house, founded by Nick Steward in 2017, is named after the informal verb “gallivant,” which means “to go around from one place to another in the pursuit of pleasure or entertainment.”

That is precisely what I did:
During this last week, I had long and close encounters with all Gallivant perfumes. I gallivanted between Amsterdam, Berlin, Brooklyn, Istanbul, London, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo and walked through each of them.
I was introduced to the magic of urban exploration: I visited and revisited different places, experienced different perfume structures, became attracted to different perfume characters, and developed stronger feelings for some of them.

Gallivanting through Gallivant led me from “one text” to “maybe two, well… surely two.” So, in the second part of my Gallivanting through Gallivant, I decided to start from Los Angeles and leave my beloved few filled under “something else.” 

Los Angeles is created by Karine Chevallier, the maker of London, Istanbul and Tel Aviv, and presented as “neon floral”: “With this fragrance, I wanted to evoke a sultry, shimmering Hollywood. Homes hanging on to the dry earth hillsides, eucalyptus and clary sage, a breeze from the Pacific Ocean. I wanted to conjure up the whoosh of cars. Hot tarmac under the Californian sun, the rubber of limousine wheels cruising along Sunset Blvd. Red tail lights. Fruit smoothies and post-gym selfies. Tiki bars and pineapple cocktails. Neon lights. Pink sunsets. Dry ice and disco lights.”, says the official page.

Los Angeles strikes me as the most panoramic of all Gallivant’s perfumes. It works almost like a story that starts with intense closeups and gradually moves away, expanding to a broader frame, like going from focus to panorama.

The first stages in Los Angeles’s development work as a juicy, sweet mix of popular floral, fruity delights gathered and served to attract, dazzle, and satisfy immediate cravings and needs. 
In a broader sense, floral-fruity-gourmandish opening features a “stereotype served on-demand”, as a necessary justification and fulfilment of accumulated expectations, which places you right on the spot: Yes, this is LA – lights and smiles are brighter, fruits are juicier, air is fresher, the skin and sugar are browner… And all that jazz!

And yet, none of the floral-fruity-gourmand elements served to dazzle, and glam are not turned to stereotype:
While I could vividly smell juicy, realistically as if freshly squeezed sweet pineapple and some mandarin, the fruity opening is also enriched with a fair amount of aromatic herbs. Eucalyptus brings cold relaxation, sage supports it with a warmly sweetish touch, and the final effect of the aromatic infusion is a fresh contrast to the juicy sweetness.

Further, into dry down, tuberose and narcissus express their slightly indolic facets, staying true to their attention-seeking, extroverted, slightly indolic character. They are additionally enveloped in sugar. The gourmand layer is clearly present, but with a twist from the common sugary sweetness to the finest brown sugar, as if sugar got tanned while slowly melting in the sun instead of being burnt or caramelized. 

However, the floral-gourmand heart of Los Angeles does not feel heavy. My overall impression is closer to sweet, with only a bit of sultry warmth, which provides the illusion of lightness in a place where even common pleasures are served in a most glamorous way.

The shift comes slowly as a breeze, and indeed is a breeze: closer to the base, Los Angeles feels as if lifted from the ground, refreshing pools and desert warmth, into the air, above the tables with juices, sweet drinks, and casual, but carefully presented and served pleasures.

Closer to the base, the fruity and floral elements are surrounded by a marine breeze. A fresh saltiness surrounds aromatic woody elements, which keep the base fully structured while being lifted in the air. From expressive, intense, warmth and sweetness, Los  Angeles lifts to cloudless serenity, relaxed, almost fresh and a bit distant.
A change of perspective provides clarity, and the fragrance delivers it. 

Through the pleasantly fresh breeze, I felt that this perfume gave me real wings to fly above the sparkle, glam, and all that olfactive jazz and take a panoramic view of the City of Angels.

Going from sweet, juicy, and intense to airy and serene, from fruity-floral bordering gourmand to woody-marine bordering aromatic, Los Angeles transformed from show to magic.
And in LA, that’s what it’s all about.