The making of Marzi

The whole Thursday brand is all about smelling happy – I’m inspired by moments that bring me joy, excitement, or wonder.  I then translate those experiences into perfume.

As the name might suggest, Marzi was inspired by marzipan. I love it. A really high-quality marzipan is beautiful and not at all like the stuff you get covering cakes; that’s what gives it a bad name.

To me, there is something quite special about marzipan, I associate it with Christmas and holidays in Austria, Sweden and Spain. And of course, cake. I wanted to capture the delight of a delectable piece of marzipan in a fragrance. But – I don’t know if you’ve ever given marzipan a good sniff – it doesn’t actually smell of that much.

So, to create an olfactory portrait of marzipan I needed to draw on my associations and on the flavour, rather than the smell. There were a couple of ways I could have gone. I considered taking it down a Christmassy route: pairing the bitter almond with the aroma of chocolate and spices, like cinnamon.

Or I could keep it lighter and brighter. I had images of almonds growing, pink cherry blossom and almond or marzipan cake, like cherry bakewell or Battenberg. I even thought about going down a Swedish princess cake path, creating a version that had a raspberry jam note in it. I decided against that in the end, keeping it cakey but without the jam.

I think of Marzi as a “start of the year” fragrance. I like to wear it on cold days (even better if they’re sunny days too) to look forward to spring. A happy coincidence is that the word “marzi” is very close to the word for March in a number of languages, so it feels fitting that it’s a springtime fragrance.

The initial hit of bitter almond brings me a burst of joy and I find the vanilla in it soft and comforting. The carnation note brings a subtle spiciness to it. I like wearing it on scarves and sweaters – it’s lovely to smell it on these cosy items.

This is my view of the fragrance though – I believe anyone can wear anything at any time. I know some people find Marzi to be a really festive fragrance and they wear it at Christmas, so each to their own.