The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
№ 1 arrived in 2015 from SWITCH Perfumes, a house built around numbered scents rather than names. Anna Zworykina, the nose behind it, composed a fragrance that resists simple description. The numbered system stripped away the usual framing, letting the composition speak for itself without a place attached or a memory conjured. № 1 is what it is: a dense floral that leans tropical, resinous, and unexpectedly grounded. The wax plant note borrowed from Hoya carnosa threads through everything, bringing a honeyed quality that ties tropical florals to a resinous base. Frangipani, mango blossom, and tuberose carry the warmth while frankincense, labdanum, and beeswax anchor it. Production was apparently discontinued, which makes finding a bottle now part of the hunt.
What makes № 1's composition unusual isn't any single note but the sheer density of materials layered into a single register. Around twenty individual ingredients sit in the heart, spanning tropical florals like frangipani, mango blossom, and tuberose, alongside incense, labdanum, and beeswax. The blend reads as maximalist without tipping into chaos. Zworykina pulled together florals that could easily clash and bound them with resinous materials that provide cohesion. Elemi adds a sharp brightness at the edges while frankincense softens into something almost meditative.
The evolution
The opening carries green resin and wax: elemi bright and sharp, beeswax rounding the edges, hyssop adding a cool herbal thread underneath. The tropical florals arrive as the sharp edges soften, and the fragrance opens like a window onto something blooming. Frangipani and mango blossom carry the middle stretch, warm and slightly indolic but never sharp, cushioned by the sweetness of linden blossom and the green depth of oakmoss. Tuberose lurks beneath, creamy and full. The base settles as the hours pass, frankincense and labdanum surfacing as the florals recede, leaving a close-skin drydown of sandalwood, beeswax, and faint incense. It stays personal throughout, hugging rather than projecting, the kind of scent that registers more to the wearer than to a room.
Cultural impact
№ 1 occupies a peculiar niche: discontinued, relatively obscure, but sitting in the collections of fragrance hunters who specifically seek out harder-to-find bottles. Its roughly twenty-note composition reads as deliberately dense, layering tropical florals against resinous materials in a way that rewards patient wearing. The fragrance has found a small following among collectors who gravitate toward SWITCH's numbered approach, appreciating compositions that don't lean on conventional marketing hooks.
