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Post by Portia

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Hi there Art Fraggers,

Way back in February of this year 2016 I was at the Tranoi Paris with the Le Galion boys, Neela Vermeire, Pierre Guillaume and Ulrich Lang. I know right. It’s like a name dropping extravaganza. Ulrich was trying to introduce me to a new brand called Map Of The Heart that I had walked past, looked at, squirmed with revulsion and wandered on. They have the fragrance in bottles shaped like hearts. No not the cutesy hearts of childhood and Hello Kitty. NOPE. These are replicas of anatomical hearts created by master bottle maker Pierre Dinand, and frankly BLEAUGH. They remind me of the cow and sheep hearts Mum used to get to feed the dogs and cats of our childhood, gawd I thought they were SO disgusting. Seriously…….. GAK.

So the other day Ainslie Walker invites me to the grand Opening of a new Aussie fragrance company called Map Of The Heart. Sadly I’m busy so we cruise on down the day after Opening Night (yesterday) to the new Liverpool St Darlinghurst pop-up shop. I hadn’t really thought about the brand we were seeing much because I like to be surprised and we walk in and…….

Map Of The Heart: Meeting Sarah Blair

yes, you guessed it. The bloody ghastly HEART BOTTLES! Ha Ha Ha Ha.

The bottle is unbelievable comfortable once it’s in your hand. It feels right and is so easy to spritz.

Myself, Ainslie & SA Jodie sniffing the range

The room is so stark white that the light seems diffuse & milky and in the centre is this beat up vintage Jaguar with boxes spilling out.

The red heart in the centre is their best seller worldwide. It’s a fruity fizz fragrance, a fruit-chouli. Very accessible for the modern fragrance shopper.

Sarah Blair is very articulate about her company and the heart designed bottle. She is passionate about creating an interesting and slightly challenging brand and though a lot of what she says is very cerebral and art/visual/international jet-set speak she has really thought about what she wants to say with the Map Of The Heart brand above and beyond becoming a successful business venture. I find her engaging and we were really sad that there was a time budget because Sarah Blair needs closer investigation.

Ainslie always knows the way to talk to business people and perfumers so I found out lots of interesting stuff that I would never even have known to ask. Bravo Ainslie.

Sarah also took my loathing of the bottle completely in her stride. Once she started to explain her motives it all made some sense to me. Still I’d rather eat my foot than have that bottle in my home. I did ask if there is going to be a Travel Set with regular bottles in the future and they are currently talking about making that happen.

What was my favourite of the brand? Gold Heart.

Fragrantica

Gold Heart V.4 by Map Of The Heart

Fragrantica gives these featured accords:
Top: Pepper, cardamom
Heart: Milk, saffron
Base: Woody notes

If you’ve ever tried Costume National’s 21 then you already have an idea of how Gold Heart smells. It’s a bit simpler, less confronting and all together an easier wear than 21. I found it so effortlessly wearable in 35C heat yesterday and found its staying power very good too. The milky saffron last to nearly the end when a nondescript woody dry down hums along merrily and very quietly.

Further reading: Megan In St Maxime and Colognoisseur
Map Of The Heart has $250/90ml

Have you seen, or heard of, this brand? What do you think of the hearts?
Portia xx