True Romance
Of the many ways to deepen a connection with a partner or even with yourself, stepping out of your usual environment—even for a single night—is one of the most organic. Along similar lines, a spritz of a fresh, gorgeous, mysterious new scent can jolt you out of your workaday self more immediately than almost anything else.
One of the sexiest, most romantic (and, if you’re anywhere in the Northeast, relatively easy) places to do both is at an exquisite, evocative 11-room hotel in Hudson, New York, called The Maker. The fever dream of Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg—the duo who founded the global beauty brand Fresh more than 30 years ago and sold a stake in it to LVMH in 2000—The Maker encompasses both the hotel and perfumes (and much more, as it turns out) with a louche, luxe ease, along with a sense of design and beauty that’s as particular as it is grand.
If, like many of us here at goop, you ever went more than a little crazy inside a Fresh store, you know the utterly enchanting way Glazman puts together a fragrance, how he manages to make any scent airy and complex and surprising and sexy all at once. Now, using only clean ingredients, he’s created new ones, and they are unlike anything that’s come before in the world of clean fragrance.
“Fragrance evokes such powerful memories, and you make memories at a hotel that you don’t make anywhere else,” says Glazman. And at this hotel, that memory-making effect is heightened. The design—a mix of one-of-a-kind antiques, artisanal work by Hudson Valley craftspeople, and a stunning art collection—is powered by the imaginations of Glazman and Roytberg and uniquely suited to quirky Hudson, at one point known as “the little town with the big red-light district.”
You remember the blue velvet coverlet in the Artist, the iron bed in the Gardener, the black marble tub in the Architect (each room is a completely different experience). The feel of the heated marble floors in the bathrooms, the crackling of fires in the fireplaces, and the low lamps oozing atmosphere. There’s even a special room for guests to try on scents that Glazman’s collected over the years; everything has been thought of.
The way Glazman and Roytberg focus on the subtlest details comes through in the scents themselves, as well as in the gorgeously thick ribbed-glass bottles that echo the highball glasses in the bar (the same goes for the candle containers, which catch the light beautifully) and in the delicate patterns on the boxes, designed, as are almost all the wallpapers in the hotel, by Roytberg. (The wallpapers, batik-inspired wood-block floral prints transposed onto pearl linen, fulfill the dreams of many of us who long wished we could fashion the Fresh packaging into wallpaper.)
Beyond the perfumes and candles (which you can sample freely in the all-day café, where famous writers and musicians are just part of the local crowd nibbling on Bartlett House baked goods and sipping organic macchiatos), The Maker extends to a seemingly endless series of permutations. There’s the wildly popular greenhouse-enclosed restaurant (with a mural by artist Michael Allen that merges Hudson Valley landscape with traditional Dutch style), the atmospheric bar, a juice bar, and a gym that’s equal parts old-school Russian gymnasium (there are vintage pommel horses, rings, and massage tables), circus (aerial silks for acrobatics, a mural of circus performers, and juggling balls), and modern personal-trainer-based 21st-century fitness.
The iPads in each room are loaded with Netflix and the like, plus a “Shop” tab that opens up yet another world of The Maker: You can buy almost everything in the rooms, from the custom-designed beds and lamps and Roytberg’s wallpapers to the sheets, perfumes, and candles. All of this is available on The Maker’s website, too, and at the jewel-box store of the same name in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood. (Most of the sales are to people who haven’t even visited the property, Glazman and Roytberg say.)
But if you can, by all means visit, whether it’s for a hibiscus-infused Libertine cocktail (there are cocktails for every Maker scent, plus many more, including the exceptional Lost in Oaxaca) on a velvet sofa by the towering fireplace in the bar, a fluffy croissant in the café, or…the lost weekend we’re all dreaming about.
YES, WE’RE FULLY OBSESSED WITH THE MAKER
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The makers at The Maker created this incredible upcycled-leather trunk—it makes an absolutely gorgeous jewelry or keepsake box—exclusively for goop. Open it and find an eau de parfum in Naked and the cozy, worldly Café candle (both are full size), along with four upcycled-leather coasters that instantly glamorize the humblest cocktail. It’s got to be the best gift on the planet.
The Maker Fragrance Trunk Duo goop, $370SHOP NOW -
The Maker Paradiso Eau de Parfum goop, $175Made with mangosteen, plumeria, patchouli leaves, blood orange, Italian bergamot, oakmoss, and cedar, this summery, tropical scent is flirty with a sophisticated, warm combination of flowers and fruit.
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The Maker Libertine Eau de Parfum goop, $175An exquisite balance of the refreshing and the warm, this sexy, citrusy, beautifully complex scent mixes hibiscus, pomelo, lemon zest, starfruit, and mandarin leaves with gingerroot and Virginia cedarwood.
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The Maker Fire Eau de Parfum goop, $175The feeling of sipping a cocktail in front of the roaring fire at the Maker bar comes through in this sultry perfume, a mix of amber, juniper, tobacco, and vanilla.
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