TOSKOVAT – A WORLD BUILT THROUGH SCENT AND STORY

TOSKOVAT – A WORLD BUILT THROUGH SCENT AND STORY
By David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi

Toskovat has become a cult brand for niche fragrance lovers — and for good reason.

This is a house that doesn’t just bottle scent. It bottles experience, discomfort, beauty, grief, resistance, and memory. Toskovat fragrances aren’t designed to be worn passively — they’re made to be confronted. To be discussed.

Founded by David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi, an outsider to the perfume industry, Toskovat emerged from a desire to tell stories — ones that didn't fit in a box or belong to any marketing brief. David studied film at Oxford. He dabbled in advertising but found it hollow. He had stories, poems, scripts — all simmering inside him. And he needed a medium that could hold complexity, metaphor, discomfort. Perfumery, he discovered, was that medium.

Like the brands that inspired him — Zoologist, Filippo Sorcinelli’s UNUM, and Imaginary Authors — David saw fragrance not as fashion, but as an art form. A way to translate feeling into form. To allow emotion to be worn rather than just understood.

Toskovat’s creations often begin as poems, short films, or abstract concepts. Only later do they become scent. That’s why they feel layered. Alive. Every perfume in this collection is a reflection of something real: a wound, a memory, a provocation, a hope.

This is perfume that asks more of you.

SCENT AS PROTEST

Anarchist A_
A scathing critique of institutional rot. David uses snow (as a metaphor for cocaine), dirty dollars, plastic bags, priest’s robes, and holy water to paint a picture of corruption, addiction, and hypocrisy — particularly within spiritual and political structures. Released during Christmas, it dares to question the systems we sanctify. An olfactory rebellion.

Inexcusable Evil
David has said this scent nearly didn’t happen. Inspired by the horrors of war — specifically the invasion of Ukraine — it tackles the ethics of representing suffering in fragrance. Yet it does so with power and restraint. Gunpowder, iodine, burning flowers, and concrete dust create a haunting portrait of violence and silence. This is perfume as witness.

In the Belly of the Beast
A surreal and heavy meditation on being consumed by power systems. The scent evokes velvet curtains, institutional interiors, fear, incense, and ruin. It feels like being trapped inside the mechanism — swallowed whole by bureaucracy, theatre, and ideology.

FRACTURED YOUTH

Age of Innocence
Childhood and tragedy collide. It opens with bubblegum and strawberry before swerving violently into rubber, gasoline, and blood. A portrait of a life changed in an instant. Beautiful, brutal, unforgettable.

Last Birthday Cake
A life told through birthday cakes. Innocent sugar, custard and candle wax give way to boozy richness and finally, rope, skin, and incense. David has said this scent is deeply personal — perhaps his most autobiographical — and one of his most beloved creations. A gourmand eulogy.

Born Screaming
As primal as it sounds. This is the sound and scent of entering the world — or refusing to enter it quietly. Notes of hospital air, blood, and cotton give way to something warmer, but never fully comforting. A raw and honest scent about beginnings.

LOSS & LONGING

Empty Wishes Well
Petrichor, old coins, myrrh and sage. A meditation on unfulfilled dreams. The scent of throwing your hopes into something dry and echoing. Quiet, poetic, and deeply moving.

Things We Never Shared
Warm mulled wine, candlelight, words unspoken. This fragrance captures the ache of connection missed — the intimacy that could have been but never was. A scent full of silence.

My Past Selves’ Flowers
A floral study on transformation. This scent is about identity — who you were, who you became. Leather, powder, petals, and old rooms. A nostalgic walk through your own evolution.

CINEMATIC MEMORY

Generation Godard
A sensory homage to the old Soviet-era cinemas of David’s youth. Popcorn, cola, cigarettes, and old paper create a richly specific environment: the smell of history soaked into theatre seats, worn leather jackets, and the faint hum of film reels. It’s a tribute not just to Godard the filmmaker, but to the feeling of watching something that changes you.

Curtain Call
A final bow in scent. This fragrance blends sweetness with solemnity — praline, wood, velvet, and applause. It feels like walking out of a performance knowing something inside you has changed.

Connection Parfumerie is proud to be Toskovat’s official Australian stockist — and the first to bring the brand to Australia.