A Polish cosmetics firm has launched a potato-scented perfume, inspired by its founder’s trips to the local market while growing up in small-town Poland.
Bohoboco is a firm specialising in “niche perfumes that seduce and intrigue”. Its latest product is named “Polish Potatoes” and will be available for purchase from next week at a price of 665 zloty (€155) for a 50ml bottle.
The scent is “a tribute to the down-to-earth and rugged charm of Polish markets, where with every step we discover the magic of uniqueness in simplicity”, says Bohoboco’s founder and creative director, Michał Gilbert Lach, who grew up in the town of Żywiec.
He says the potato perfume is part of his own “olfactory story”, bringing to life his childhood memories of being at “the Polish market, which looked like a stage with a variety of crops, [and] was the heart of the local community”.
“Every Wednesday morning, local farmers and craftsmen gathered, creating a magical space that came to life,” says Lach. “These moments were like journeys deep into the soul, where every scent brought a new discovery.”
Potatoes, in particular, are the “golden treasures of the Polish countryside”, he adds. “Their earthy skin, still damp from the morning dew, radiated a deep, sensual chord.”
His firm notes that, as well as “notes of noble potatoes pulsating at the heart of the composition”, the scent also includes notes of beetroot, wheat, grass, leather and pine.
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Bohoboco was founded by Lach in 2016 and its scents have won a number of awards. In 2020, it was shortlisted in the best newcomer category at the prestigious FiFi Awards – known as the “Oscars of the fragrance industry” – which are given out annually by the UK-based Fragrance Foundation.
The firm’s products are sold in perfume salons around the world, including in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Berlin and Dubai.
Lach says that his aim has always been to “put scents that I remember from my childhood into bottles”. As a child, he “already dreamed of composing perfumes”. Among the previous scents launched by his firm are wild carrot, red wine and sea salt caramel.
Potatoes have long been a staple of Polish cuisine and can be found in traditional dishes such as pierogi ruskie (dumplings stuffed with potato, cheese and onions), placki ziemniaczane (potato pancakes) and various dumplings made from potatoes, such as pyzy, knedle, kopytka and kluski śląskie.
The world’s first “library of heritage smells” has been launched in Poland, using scientific methods to capture and reproduce scents associated with historical objects.
Its first fragrance comes from Leonarda da Vinci's "Lady with an Ermine" https://t.co/vR8sC6iCvU
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Main image credit: Bohoboco
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
