The Story
Why it exists.
The beginning
Toskovat' emerged from Romania in 2022, founded by self-taught perfumer David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi. The brand name draws from the Russian тоска, a longing without a specific object. Each creation is called an extrait de memoire, a memory-driven fragrance. Jipa-Slivinschi builds from memory, not convention, refusing the typical brief in favor of emotional truth. My Past Selves' Flowers arrived in 2023 as a meditation on grief's timeline, not the funeral, but the moment after, when flowers arrive for the first time and feel like an accusation. The name itself is the clue: not one past self, but many, layered and contradictory.
The note structure reflects a philosophy of layered memory. Green Tea and Mangosteen represent the first sharp clarity of loss, while Ginseng adds medicinal weight. The heart flowers, Peony and Azalea, are not fresh-cut but already beginning to wilt, their beauty complicated by Opium's heaviness. The drydown turns to incense and resin, the materials of mourning, with Dragon's Blood and Oud providing depth that feels archaeological, as if uncovering something buried. Each note pairing is deliberate: the green opening refuses sentimentality, the floral heart refuses prettiness, and the resinous base refuses closure.
The evolution
The opening begins with Green Tea and Mangosteen, their brightness tempered by Ginseng's bitter earthiness. Bromelia adds a tropical crispness while Nicotiana alata threads a nocturnal floral quality through the composition. As the top notes fade, Peony and Azalea emerge, their petals weighted by Opium's drowsy sweetness. Orchid provides waxy depth while Earthy Notes ground the florals. The drydown shifts dramatically: Incense and Dragon's Blood introduce smoky warmth, Alianthus resin and Hydrocarboresine add sticky intensity, and Lakawood with Oud anchor everything in deep, smoky wood that lingers for hours.
Cultural impact
My Past Selves' Flowers arrived at a moment when niche perfumery was consolidating its shift away from Western luxury houses and toward smaller, story-driven ateliers with distinct points of view. Romanian house Toskovat' launched in 2022 without the marketing infrastructure typical of niche brands, relying instead on word-of-mouth within fragrance communities and social media documentation of sample culture. The fragrance, designed as an extrait de mémoire, a memory-driven format, occupies a specific cultural niche that gained traction in the late 2010s and early 2020s, when consumers began treating fragrance as a form of autobiographical expression rather than a purely hedonistic purchase.
