Niche perfume brand Haas Parfums has created unique perfumes. The nose behind the brand was Armin Haas, former owner of two perfumeries in the small German town of Schwetzingen, close to romantic Heidelberg. To say the brand is well known would be an exaggeration. Today one cannot even order the perfumes online any more, as I did some three years ago, through Parfumdreams. They are still available in the two perfumeries in the 20.000 inhabitant town, or so it seems. Like butterflies some brands pop up and are gone again fast – sometimes leaving a gap that none fills. Googling the brand and the parfums I came about a Kazakh website that still sells them. A smell can hit home far from its origin. It is a bit sad to write two times in a row about scents that cannot be easily purchased any more. It shall not become a habit.
“Ma Liberte” is a friendly, but unusual perfume. Sweet, very sweet like tasting sugar in the beginning, but at the same time sparkling. Nutmeg is an easy to distinguish note, I smell rice powder also very prominently. Whenever rice powder is in a scent, there is a kind of special creaminess without that soapy touch that comes often with it otherwise. Nutmeg rarely dominates a scent, and it is not a note one would expect. When one eats too much nutmeg, it becomes poisonous. That special force in the spice can be smelled as well. The perfume keeps its distance, although it is sweet and friendly. Like having a base of steel hidden somewhere.
In “Ma Liberte”, the slightly harsh nutmeg stays harmonious though rice and candy sugar. Then there comes some fruity touch that reminds me of soft apricots. The combination does smell like rice pudding with dried fruits and nutmeg. In the dry-down the comforting smell of cookies dominates.
The Parfumo and Fragrantica platforms, in lieu of a brand website, mention nutmeg, lily-of-the-valley, caramel, musk, ambergris, sandalwood and woods as the scent notes of “Ma Liberte”. Sandalwood and woods in general I cannot distinguish, for sure not lily-of-the-valley. The caramel comes close enough to candy sugar.
The colours of the scent are white and dark orange. A sparkling and lively combination that instantly gives a good mood. It is the perfect light scent for a day outside on a warm, but not hot, spring day. It gives the wearer a slight kick to get out the door and moving. Although it is so sweet, it is not a lazy scent for the beach.
I own Hass No 7 “Ma Liberte” and Haas No 3 “La Fin du Monde”. Altogether Armin Haas has created 8 perfumes between the years 2002 and 2016. He was very proud of his title as “Maitre des Maitres des Parfums”. He received it in the year 2005 and had already started to build his own legacy in parfums, together with Maison Micallef’s Geoffrey Nejman. Armin Haas and his family had been the owners of Schwetzingen’s best known perfumeries for a long time. It seems his children decided on another career path.
France based Maison Micallef is very busy working together with different smaller perfume houses all over Europe, very notable Parfuemerie Brueckner in Munich, and their different private labels. A nice touch to give those creators the chance to profit from the cooperation. The professionalism can be smelled in the creation of the smaller brands. Micallef does not seek the limelight in these cooperations, but does support very different perfumer’s ideas.
Hopefully the perfume recipes of Armin Haas are not lost, but will be re-created by his partners or later generations of the family. He had taken the bold step to leave a legacy and “Ma Liberte”, the scent of free spirits, will not be forgotten. And even if the perfumes are not re-created by another brand, it was worth it. Living out one’s life through creativity and the invention of something new is never in vain. It made him happy and us fans of his perfumes as well.