David-Lev Jipa-Slivinschi painted as a boy, then studied screenwriting and film, graduating as the pandemic halted the film industry. Back home in Bucharest, he started with fifteen essential oils and starter kits, and taught himself from YouTube, books, DIY forums and talks with working perfumers. In 2022 he registered Toskovat', a name built on toska, the Russian word for a longing with nothing to long for.
Each Toskovat' scent is an extrait de mémoire, sold with a short text that opens on the words Today I remembered, and a note list that mixes real materials with things no bottle can hold. He builds many accords from scratch, some still unfinished after two years, from over 300 materials. Toskovat' Inexcusable Evil, his answer to modern war, lists gunpowder, iodine, bandages and burning flowers, and became the house's best seller by a factor of three. In 2025 his Caeleste Principalities won the Art and Olfaction Newcomer award.
Toskovat' Anarchist A♭ runs from credit cards and dirty dollars to holy water and an old confession room. Toskovat' Last Birthday Cake is built on milk, instant cocoa, bitter almond, stollen and vanilla custard. Toskovat' Pornstar (Noyau Doux) opens on ice and finger lime before a pornstar martini note. Toskovat' Domus Numeni, first sold as Take Me To Church, returned for the house's third anniversary in 300 bottles of candlewax, olibanum, myrrh and Vietnamese oud.
