NOS REPUBLIC EMPIRE T

OFFICIAL BRAND STATEMENT

There’s an otherworldly quality to night-time Moscow, an eerie landscape of light and shadows, of sweeping towers and imposing facades — a black and white empire not built to human scale. Its dramatic character is reflected in Empire T, a fragrance straight from a noir film, conjured up from night air and cigarette ash.

A tobacco floral to find your way in the dark, lit up by Stéphanie Bakouche.

tuberose
champagne accord

cigarette smoke
cold ash
night air

vintage fur

6-8 hours on skin
About a day on clothes
Projection is moderate

MY THOUGHTS

Nos Republic Empire T is not a polite beast. Perfumer Stephanie Bakouche has crafted something genuinely out-of-the-box here. Is it challenging? Yes, and here is why.

The journey begins deceptively. That first spray nearly fools you with sparkling champagne accord that suggests something cheery and celebratory. Throwing me back to my childhood, specifically the new year celebration’s table with a bottle of Sovetskoe Champagne splashed over the table. Smoke from not properly stubbed-out cigarette lingers through the air. My mom was a smoker and when we had big celebrations, she occasionally allowed herself to smoke in the house as after whole day cookout, she was too tired to descend 4 floors down through our apartment building we lived in.

After a while, a black tea note slips in, followed almost immediately by tuberose itself. It is there for few seconds, enough for me to get excited about tea we all at the end of every family gathering. And then boom, Nos Republic Empire T does another backflip. First signs of the green opulent tuberose kick in. All the previous transformations unfold within mere minutes from the initial application. It’s dizzying, confusing almost. That rapid change of what someone could call good memories flashing before my eyes.

Then the mood shifts completely. Tuberose greenness is overtaken by tar and smoke. They not only seize control, they bash you, crushing the festive atmosphere with the resinous aftermath. Birch, vetiver, tobacco grow darker, becoming more serious as time progresses. This is not, by any measure, love at first sniff release for me.

The composition mingles ashes and smoke in ways that feel deliberately daring and confrontational. Picture cigarettes burning down to nothing, including the filter edges that send jarring reminder through the air. An alarming “hey, do something or else we all burn”.

Birch tar, tuberose, and vetiver form the skeleton, but the atmosphere those elements create together feels larger than any single note could suggest. Hour or so later it settles into open window in the winter atmosphere. Guests have left and it’s time to air out the house, letting the brutal reality of cold grey winter into warm home.

It took a lot of time and patience for me to see its real beauty – tuberose that carried a lot of weight and drama mixed with heavy personal memories on its fragile petals. I believe that many people who were kids in post Soviet society will know exactly what I’m talking about. By any means, it is not a blind-buy safe fragrance. Nos Republic Empire T needs to be sampled. For exploring more easy-going options from the brand, please read my other reviews on the collection.