Zielinski & Rozen, for those who prefer a notebook to a campaign

Most perfume launches arrive with a celebrity and a campaign. The most interesting perfume opening in Lisbon this year arrived with a notebook.

Zielinski & Rozen, the perfume house from Old Jaffa, has opened in Lisbon at Rua de O Século 13, in Bairro Alto. It sits in a former bakery, inside the concept store Springsioux, which already has two addresses in Paris. It opened officially on 27 July. On the old stone counter of the bakery stand 27 glass bottles, all unisex, with labels written by hand.

A family story, literally

The founder and only perfumer of the house is Erez Rozen. He runs it together with Lea Rozen. The name is the family itself. Zielinski is his mother's surname. Rozen is his father's.

The roots go back to 1905. That year is written on a small notebook of perfume formulas that belonged to Erez's great-grandfather. On a trip to Poland in search of his roots, Erez found his great-grandfather's laboratory and that notebook. It became the starting point for a house whose home is a small shop in Old Jaffa, one of the oldest port cities in the world. Erez still creates from Israel, while the main production is in Amsterdam.

I love this story because it is exactly what most luxury brands try to buy and cannot. You cannot invent a 1905 notebook. Either you have one or you do not.

The perfumes

The style is simple and honest. Instead of names invented to evoke a place or a feeling, the handwritten labels list what is inside. Some are a single essence. Others combine a few notes. Black Pepper. Vetiver, Lemon. Orange & Jasmine. You read the label and you know what you are about to smell.

The most popular, according to the team, is Black Pepper: intense, warm and enveloping. In Lisbon, the fresher fragrances have also found a strong following, which makes sense in a city with our summers.

The house also encourages something most perfumers would never suggest. Behind the counter, the team will help you combine scents across products, a perfume with a body cream from a different family, as long as the notes work together. The same fragrances exist as creams, shower gels, soaps, hair care, candles and diffusers, so one scent can follow you through the day.

Curious facts

• Every fragrance in the collection is unisex. There is no men's or women's shelf.
• The house has created scents in collaboration with two of Europe's great opera houses, Teatro alla Scala in Milan and the Vienna State Opera.
• The Lisbon store keeps the original stone counter of the old bakery.
• The perfumes are made mainly in Amsterdam, from formulas created in Israel and inspired by a notebook from Poland.
• Twenty seven perfumes, one perfumer. That ratio tells you a lot.

Where to find it

Zielinski & Rozen, inside Springsioux, Rua de O Século 13, Bairro Alto, Lisbon. It is a short walk from Príncipe Real and open every day, with a break at lunchtime. The team will sit you down for a short session on the world of perfume before you choose, and I would accept it.

My take

I have a simple rule with perfume, the same one I have with watches. I want to know who made it. Not which group owns it, not which actor wears it in the advert. Who actually made it.

With most of the perfumes I own, I could not answer that question. With Zielinski & Rozen, the answer is one man, with a notebook his great-grandfather left behind. In a market full of launches, that is the most luxurious thing a bottle can offer.

Lisbon has needed an address like this for a long time. Rua de O Século is the right street for it. Go on a quiet morning, let them show you two or three, and leave with one. You will remember where it came from every time you wear it.