The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Markessa arrived in 2026 as one of three inaugural releases from Egröthas, a house founded by Sergiu Dumitru, who describes himself not as a perfumer or entrepreneur but as an olfactive explorer. That word matters. Egröthas isn't positioning itself as a heritage brand or a luxury house with generations of craft behind it. It's a compass pointed at discovery. Markessa is one of the first coordinates on that map, named for something or someone the brand hasn't fully disclosed, which fits the house's philosophy of inviting wearers to explore rather than explaining everything upfront. Miguel Matos, the perfumer behind the composition, was given the brief: find something warm, find something gourmand, make it move. What he delivered was a fragrance that opens like a statement and settles like a secret.
What makes Markessa's structure interesting is the verticality of the opening and the horizontal sprawl of the base. Hazelnut and cinnamon arrive together, loud, warm, almost theatrical, but they don't compete for territory. Hazelnut takes the foreground while cinnamon spices the air around it. The heart then does something unexpected: it doesn't soften so much as deepen. Coffee and milk create a lactonic richness that feels like a well-made latte, cardamom adding a quiet complexity that rewards attention.
The evolution
The opening hits in the first thirty seconds, hazelnut roasted and immediate, cinnamon threading warmth through the sweetness. Within minutes, the coffee arrives, not as a note but as a feeling: the smell of a café you've walked into on a cold morning. The milk smooths the edges, cardamom adding a subtle complexity that most people don't notice until it's pointed out. This heart phase lasts the longest, three to four hours of creamy, spiced warmth that sits close to the skin. Then the base takes over gradually, vanilla and tonka bean arrive first, sweet and soft, before oud and musk settle in to anchor everything. The drydown on most skin types goes eight to ten hours, with sugar and musk lingering longest. The morning after, there's a faint warmth on fabric, like the ghost of an evening that ended well.
Cultural impact
Markessa enters a landscape of warm, gourmand orientals that includes Tobacco Vanille, Angel, and Red Tobacco, fragrances that have defined the category for different audiences. What sets it apart is the hazelnut-first approach: most gourmand orientals lead with vanilla, tobacco, or coffee. Markessa leads with nuttiness and keeps it loud through the opening before softening into the more expected warmth. Early reception is mixed in the way that interesting fragrances always are, some wearers find the hazelnut overwhelming, others find it exactly what they wanted. The fragrance rewards those who give it time to evolve rather than judging it at first spray.
