Interview with a perfumer: Isabelle Doyen of parfums Annick Goutal

Over the past few weeks I reviewed perfumes of one of my favourite perfumers, Isabelle Doyen, the resident nose behind the Annick Goutal brand ~whose Un Matin d’Orage is breaking new territories in the ozonic white floral genre~ and the perfumer responsible for four of the uber-niche Les Nez fragrances: Let me play the Lion, The Unicorn Spell, L’Antimatiere and the quite individual Turtle Vetiver (exercise1). Her unique style of pairing neoclassical compositions with a decisive and confident approach of broad strokes on her canvas had always impressed me with its conviction and resulting grace. Conducting an inteview with her filled me with excitement, but also trepidation ~wondering if I could put my feelings and questions into words, especially given the language trascriptions~ and I can’t begin to describe how happy I am to share it with you today on Perfume Shrine! Isabelle is a very giving person, who stroke me as especially attuned to the feelings and ideas of those around her and she can also have a wry sense of humour, which made me appreciate her work all the more for it.
PerfumeShrine: Isabelle, you are the daughter of a meteorolist, who spent time as a child in the South Pacific. How did you childhood and past shape you into the perfumer that you are?

Isabelle Doyen: Of course childhood has a great importance in my work as is the case for everyone I believe. Tahiti has been influencing me very much: My familiar memory of flower smells are those of Tiaré, Ylang Ylang, Frangipani; the smell of wild fires in the evening in the hills around our house, the taste of Mangos coming back from the beach,drunk with sun and the lagoon on Sunday evenings, the monoi perfume of the Tahitian women at the church ....But very soon in my childhood poetry became important: I had to learn by heart the "Dormeur du Val" (The Sleeper in the Valley), a poem by Rimbaud, when i was 8 years old and he was mentioning that young solder lying beside a little river, his feet in "Glaieuls flowers"; I thought "Why did he choose those flowers, they are ugly and they have no perfume!”

PS: It’s a magnificent poem, indeed, although I don’t have an answer about his choice either!
You have been composing fragrances for Annick Goutal for years. There is a very discernable aesthetic to the brand which I respect: gauzy, transparent and graceful. How much of it is Goutal's vision and how much of it is yours?

ID: We had a great advantage with Annick, it was that we knew we were "smelling" the same way, the same thing, we were on the same wavelength and wanted to go to the same place. So I really think that the perfumes we made together come from the same vision of that world we had and it continues with her daughter Camille the same way.

PS: In what aspects is the relationship among you and Camille Goutal different than the one you had with Annick, as related to the work produced? I find it endearing that you have both kept Annick's custom-made Organ*!

ID: I didn't wonder a minute if it would be the same thing as with her mother: we know we are looknig in the same direction! At my age I am exactly in-between Camille and Annick. Maybe Annick had a more “classical” education especially in music {she was a trained classical pianist} .Camille and I are listening to the same kind of music, we can work while listening to it, something we didn't do with Annick! Apart from that we work the same way: Camille learned how to set a formula by watching me attentively.The Organ we work with is very important to us, it is a little bit like the blanket or teddy bear that little children need to keep with them.This makes us feel secure in a way and especially when we see the little bottles that are hand-writtenwith Annick's hand-writting.

PS: Wearing the latest Goutal scents in the Les Orientalistes line (Ambre Fetiche, Myrrhe Ardente, Encens Flamboyant, Musc Nomade) I find that they inject a neoclassical style into what is essentially a “thick” school of perfumery: the oriental tradition.
I personally found them very pleasing to various degrees, but the criticism I have heard about them is that while they are out of sync with the previous Goutal style, they are also too “thin” to be convincing Orientals. (People perhaps forget Sables, Eau du Fier, or even Songes and Grand Amour in the Goutal line). What do you respond to that? I have also heard they’re meant to be layered (one on top of the other). Is this true and would you recommend it or not?

IS: Concerning Les Orientalistes, maybe we haven't been so intellectual about them! The very sperm of the idea was the three holly kings, the orientalist school of paintings that we like very much and the fact that we wanted to work on those ancient and beatiful raw materials; especially when we knew that to get Myrrhe and Frankincense people need to wound the bark of those trees, which are the only things growing in those arid parts. Then the resin drops gathered are called “tears”, so this idea of wounds and tears is very beautifull and melancholic. Besides it is the only chance for people living there to get a little money for living.
Regarding their classification, they are called orientalists but i don't think they fit in the heavy oriental perfumery family; they are more like woody, spicy, ambery…
It is the same with every perfume we create: it may be important to know that we never ask ourselves "Are we in the right Goutal direction, would Annick create this type of perfume?"We create going on our instinct, as we did with Annick anyway.
For Les Orientalistes, we don't recommend layering one another, this is something we usually don't like, but in this case we noticed just that they harmonised quite well between themselves, maybe because they all are of the same kind.PS: On that point, how do you feel about the materials’ restrictions as posed by IFRA guidelines and the EU law-frame? Everyone has heard about oakmoss (some classic chypres are not the same any more), coumarin and birch tar and many know about bergaptene and citrus oils being heavily restricted. I hear eugenol, as well as frankincense, are next to get axed. How can a skilled perfumer bypass such obstacles?

ID: Maybe soon we won't have so many ingredients left to build formulae so maybe we should convert ourselves into neurologists and study the place in the brain that reacts to the stimuli of jasmine smell! Then all we would have to do would be to find how to artificially stimulate this place and then the person would smell jasmine without anything under the nose!
I personally think Monsanto is a much bigger danger for health than frankincense!

PS: How is your work for Les Nez different than the one for Annick Goutal brand? Obviously Les Nez has much more limited distribution, while Goutal is owned by a large American group, yet your style is discernible in both. This brings me to the question of how much is a perfumer ~you specifically~ restrained by a "brief"?

ID: For me Lesnez is a wonderfull place of experimentation. René is absolutely respectful and humble in front of the work of the perfumer and also is always ready for strange adventures such as Vetiver Turtle for exemple, so it is fantastic! In any case with René or Goutal we never work with a "brief", we choose to work on what we want according to our feelings. For us the only "test" we are listening to is when we wear a perfume we are working on and two people in the same day exclaim "Oh, you smell so good! What is it?"

PS: Vetiver Turtle is a perfume project and it has impressed me that you want to constantly change the formula. The first "exercise" I sampled seems quite earthy and very true to the essence of vetiver to me. The name is quite intriguing for a vetiver fragrance, as the word "tortue" brings to mind turtles of course, their green colours, their proximity to the earth, their longevity....all those things which materialise in the fragrance. But in French it reminds me of "faire la tortue", that is the Roman defensive alignement; and also the Greek writer Aeschylus who allegedly got hit on the head by a turtle (trying to escape his destiny/wife, according to writers Pliny and Valerius Maximus). How do you feel about a fragrance writer pondering and writing about associations to a perfume's name? Is there so much thought given behind the onomastics of perfumes or are we overanalysing?

ID: About the name of this specific perfume, there is nothing complicated behind it except that we wanted "turtle" to be in the name (because of the Turtle Salon project) while the idea of “perfume in progress” and “outlaw” is exactly representing turtle too: something that has no definitive frontiers or established limits.

PS: Vetiver Turtle is tied to the Turtle Salon which is an artist's project. I feel that there is some personal history attached to it, reading about the poet's stay at the Switzerland clinic, your visit and this:"shared their work with Margarethe and a few patients, especially Cédric Schatzl who cannot smell" So how does the fragrance connect those aspects, what's the story? Is it a means of therapy through the senses, through art?

ID: It is difficult to explain "turtle "in few lines. Turtle was initiated by Michael Shamberg ,a film maker. He says, as you yourself felt in your own review, that for him it is a kind of therapy through art to recover his health, and for all the people approching, a territory of kindness that links human beings through poetry. In that "territory" there is no stress of dead lines or profit, but only the idea of sharing, of contributing to make peolpe meet and build more poetry with their own talent. Michael called that Turtle in reference to that place in Lebanon where Sea turtles, almost extinct, could come and find peace to live in the middle of a world disturbed by war. So Michael identified this place to poetry which will be the territory that will make him win his hard internal war (he had a huge health problem, his brain had been attacked by a virus and he almost died but finally survived with big physical outwards and inwardsscars). No one seeing him can stay insensitive to his kindness and his generosity, so I wanted to contribute myself to his battle for life and the only thing I know how to make is perfume, so I decided to create a scent that would follow his road of rehabilitation…and hopefully would bring him some money to constructively help.So Turtle is a story that’s just beginning...

PS: You have composed a perfume for Jeanne of Cecile & Jeanne, costume jeweler brand, called Eliel and I know you have created Le Baron Perché (after Italo Calvin’s novel) for your sculptor friend Catherine Willis. Please tell us a little bit about them!

ID: Regarding the Cecile & Jeanne perfume, it came about also as a result of meeting a wonderful person: Jeanne. And I think the perfume reflects what she appeared to me: delicate,colourful, happy, glimmering, tender, very feminine.
About Catherine Willis, I've known her for a long time and when she came for a scent with the idea of Le Baron Perché she knew exactly what she wanted, so I just had to set the formula under her direction.

PS: Literature obviously is an inspiration! I loved the reference to “Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Let me play the Lion. Christophe Laudamier had been playing with the various scent images of Suskind’s novel “Das Parfum” for years before formally collaborating on the Thierry Mugler coffret to accompany the movie “Perfume, story of a murderer”. Do you perfumers have some secret library of a plethora of scent “snapshots”?

ID: Ha! A secret library of scent snapshots…If we’re talking about me, I have many little notebooks in which all kinds of descriptions of all kinds of things are kept and am using them to build my formulae and I hope quite soon to build something unusual.

PS: I have read how you admire Reminiscence Patchouli (and I adore it as well!), Mousse de Saxe, Prunol and Tobacco Iso**. Usually the things we love have some influence in our work. Do you find yourself loyal to the above axiom?

ID: I consider the De Laire bases such as Mousse de Saxe, Prunol as masterpieces so of course they can sometimes inspire me or yet again I can use them directly.

PS: Apart from a "nez", you're also a teacher at ISIPCA. What does your teaching position entail and do you feel that young, aspiring perfumers have new things to offer to the world of perfumery? Surely there is no parthenogenesis in art, but do you ever feel that everything has been already done with so many new perfumes out, so unless there is some technological innovation things are bound to repeat themselves?

ID: I am absolutely convinced that there are always new things to offer, also new ways to offer things,and the base to succeed in accomplishing that is to stay open, full of curiosity and always wanting to learn and exchange with other creators.

PS: You're a mother of two (a boy and a girl) and I had fun hearing Emilie say that iris fragrances smell "like grandmother" to her. Do you believe there are some smells that are inherently/universally tied to specific images/impressions (ie. vanilla standing for comfort or iris for melancholy) or is it only a factor of personal associations and memories?

ID: Well, I don't think there are universal smells right now, but mostly smells are linked to our culture which denotes a certain country, a certain way of life. Maybe because of the growing connections between countries some smells will become universal.I think Coca Cola is a universal taste, so maybe a smell too?

PS: There has been a big “explosion” of perfume writing lately, especially since the latest publications in English. What is your opinion about fragrance writing in the press and on the Net, especially in relation to taking perfumery as an art form and in shaping the niche/mainstream market? Is it flattering to be acknowledged/ frustrating to be critiqued?

ID: I think it is generally interesting to read what is written about the perfumes we make! I realised that it’s a way to know if I succeeded in setting my idea properly.


Sincere and heartfelt thanks to Isabelle Doyen for taking the time to share a bit of her brilliant talent and nose with us, perfume aficionados, on Perfume Shrine.

You can support the Turtle Salon cause here.
Related reading on Perfume Shrine: Interviews with perfumers, Les Nez scents, A.Goutal scents.

*Organ is the perfumer's "bureau" with essences classified according to volatility and family, named thus because it resembles the musical organ with many "levels" of pipes, keys and pedals. You can see Isabelle's one enlarged by clicking the picture and peruse the rare Lalique flacons, the Arpege and Ricci ones and the butterfly Goutal bottles.
**Those are "bases" by the famous aroma-producing company De Laire, ie. ready-made accords that give a specific impression for perfumers to use when they need to inject a specific idea.

Pic of Isabelle Doyen on her Organ, copyright Annick Goutal & Perfumeshrine.

Interview with a Perfumer: Sandrine Videault

Hosting an interview with a perfumer is always a bit like drilling into the mind of an artist, garnering small tidbits that allow us a glimpse into the creation process and the conceptualising of images, memories and fantasies that someone articulate in the field of smell can translate into mesmerising voyages to the unknown. Smelling Manoumalia, the latest fragrance from Les Nez, parfums d'Auteurs, had been such a revelation and one of my happiest discoveries of the cusp of the year; and indeed the latest couple of seasons too! Naturally my interest on the creative force behind it had been piqued and I sought out Sandrine Videault, the perfumer ~a beautiful young woman who is a historical reconstitutions expert and one of the last students of legendary Edmond Roudnitska.
Sandrine was ever so gracious in giving me an interview on this scent and assorted matters having to do with perfumery. Therefore, it is with pride and great joy that I present you the little questions-and-answers we exchanged with Sandrine for Perfume Shrine.

PerfumeShrine: As a historian myself, I am especially interested in your historical installations which reprised themes from ancient civilisations (such as the sacred Kyphi from 2002 for the Cairo museum, the Metopion based on the resinous cones Egyptians supposedly put on their heads and The Song of the Senses based on Solomon's text Song of Songs) as well as olfactory projects for art exhibitions. The Greek writer Plutarch has obligingly handed down a recipe for Kyphi, which the guests at the opening of the Perfumes and Cosmetics of Ancient Egypt exhibition were among the first people since the time of the Pharaohs to smell it. A L’Oreal spokeskman described the reconstitution as revealing "hesperidic head-notes" (mint and lemon grass), a "spicy centre-note" (juniper berries and cinnamon) and a "balsamic base-note" (incense and myrrh).
Sandrine, is the challenge in creating those in the accuracy to the historical context or to the artistic interpretation (Fact vs. Art)?

Sandrine: The Kyphi is a historical reconstruction (reconstitution in French) exhibited at the Cairo museum. The Metopion is a historical unguent reconstruction exhibited at Sephora-Champs-Elysées. (The Egyptian cones are a historical interpretation exhibited at Sephora-Champs-Elysées). Egyptian cones can only be a loose interpretation because many Egyptologists say that Egyptian cones are only drawings; their existence is often called into question. As for the Song of Senses based on the Song of Songs, it is an exhibition full of historical olfactory interpretations of the Solomon’s text. With such a text, we are always in interpretations. The difference between olfactory reconstructions and interpretations has to be distinct. You are right: It is not the same work and the challenge is in both. Historical knowledge is required for both exercices. On the one hand, historical knowledge allows to be more scientific. On the other hand, aiming for an interpretation allows one to be more creative.

PerfumeShrine: Based on the above, what would differentiate your own finished project on a given historical subject from another perfumer's on the same subject, assuming you're both relying on the same sources, the same texts, the same artefacts for reference?

Sandrine: It would be the same as for two chefs. The handling, the treatment would make the difference. Moreover, some handlings are written nowhere and it is only the perfumer's "automatics" that would make the difference.

PerfumeShrine: In Manoumalia for Les Nez I was struck by how completely different the scope of the concept is compared to other commercial and niche offerings on the market: Here there is an ethnographical travelogue between an old culture and a westernized technique of fragrance producing. How did the idea come about and how were the two combined in the extraordinary result we smell?

Sandrine: When Wallisians go to ceremonies they wear necklaces and crowns full of flowers (fagraea, tiare, ylang-ylang….). They wear sandalwood powder in the hair. They wear their ancestral perfume the TuiTui everywhere. Their necklaces, crowns, hair, body are full of TuiTui. It is the marriage of all those perfumes I wanted to translate. It is the memory of all those perfumes together that helped me to author Manoumalia. The only fragrance that I forgot on purpose is the hea seed’s scent. It is quite too rancid for the Western world! Moreover, today and since the 50’s, Wallisians add Pompeïa from L. T. Piver (1907) in their ancestral Tuitui. Therefore, I had to make passing references to this floral bouquet in Manoumalia.

PerfumeShrine: That's an amazing piece of information: a L.T.Piver fragrance in an ancient mix! I didn't expect that! So, the heart of Manoumalia is sketched around Fragrea flower. To my nose in Manoumalia this appears as a powdery, rubbery tuberose almost (a passing resemblance to the equally rubbery feel of classic Fracas) with accents of creamy jasmine-like and tiare tones. How is fragrea different than other flowers we associate with the tropics such as gardenia, plumeria and ylang-ylang?

Sandrine: Fragrea is indeed like gardenia, white plumeria, ylang-ylang, tiare, jasmine, tuberose… Fagraea is a White Flower. They all have olfactory common denominators. As for the difference, Fagraea is spicy. In return, are you sure that the rubbery facet is only due to the tuberose facet and not because of the vetiver?

PerfumeShrine: Good point, which brings me to my next question. I felt that in the development of Manoumalia the brilliance of the composition was in interjecting a very earthy, rooty Javanese vetiver accord to contrast with the lush South Seas flowers heart: It elevates the scent above the usual tropical compositions smelling of too much coconut, too much lactonic suntan-lotion and gives it a very natural, very "raw" feel. Is this something that came about through the proximity with the Wallisians? Do they employ scents in such a way?

Sandrine: Yes. It came about through the proximity with Wallisians and it is also due to the fact that I live in New Caledonia, I presume. It is a very “raw” country. The vetiver is in Manoumalia because Wallisians use it in their ancestral Tuitui. I didn’t decide to use the vetiver by myself. It is in their culture, their habits.

PerfumeShrine: What impressed you most from the Wallisian culture regarding fragrance use?
Sandrine: Their olfactory gluttony!

PerfumeShrine: What did you learn that you will be carrying in your future perfumes?
Sandrine: To invest perfumes with more happiness. Perfume is magic. It is sacred, but it also represents a festive mood.

PerfumeShrine: That's a lovely thought! One which we should all embrace more. On another note, there has been an emerging trend towards "green" cosmetics in the last decade and fragrances are following with a growing niche of brands which abandon petrochemical-derived products and phthalates in favour of "cleaner" formulae. For instance, L'artisan Parfumeur has abandonded those ingredients. Olivia Giacobetti has been collaborating with a new line of not only all-naturals, but organic scents, for Honoré des Prés.
What is your own opinion on those developments: do you find them worthwhile/ restrictive/ misleading ?

Sandrine: Stopping using phthalates and some petrochemical-derived products is a real good thing for our health and creativity can follow. As for using only naturals and organic scents, why not! Creativity can exist, but lacks of technique cannnot.

PerfumeShrine: There have been restrictions imposed by IFRA and the European Union on certain ingredients' levels in fine fragrance, such as oakmoss, bergaptene, limonene, birch tar and possibly opoponax and frankincense as well in the very near future. This has many perfume wearers worrying that their favorites are getting altered beyond recognition (reformulation) and that the upcoming fragrances will be completely synthesized or "bare", with no soul.
If this practice escalates, do you think it is possible to create diversified and nuanced compositions that are on a par with great classics of yesterday ?

Sandrine: Some restrictions are already excessive; especially concerning some natural raw materials. This is also due to the Colipa and the Reach restrictions, you know. The situation will be harder for a perfumer who had known perfumery in a previous era with less restrictions than for a young perfumer who never used or smelt opoponax, for example. The challenge is of course harder to face.

PerfumeShrine: It was with great interest that we learn you have studied under Edmond Roudnitska. His course has been monumental for a simple reason: not one mis-step on the way (Even his commercially unsuccessful Dior Dior has striken me with the beauty of its composition). What is the most important lesson that you have retained from him ?

Sandrine: The most important lesson.....that we know nothing! So many things left to learn, to discover, to live ….

PerfumeShrine: So how can Roudnitska's vision be translated into today's world?

Sandrine: It would have to be another world.

PerfumeShrine: Sad thought, that one. Still, is there a fragrance or a perfumer you greatly admire today?

Sandrine: As regards perfumers, I greatly admire Isabelle Doyen, Olivia Giacobetti, Jean-Claude Ellena and Christine Nagel's oeuvre. As for specific fragrances, I admire today “For Her” from Narcisso Rodriguez and “Terre d’Hermès”.

PerfumeShrine: Very interesting! Sandrine, you’re a Caledonian by birth, residing in New Caledonia instead of some fashionable metropolis such as Paris, Milan or New York city. Do you believe this gives you another perspective concerning your art?

Sandrine: Yes, it does! I am connected with my roots. I feel more beaming or blooming and I am more serene. If something is wrong inside of you then you won’t create with harmony. You can not cheat with perfume authoring. States of mind come to light in perfume authoring. Bad moods are forbidden. Moreover, New Caledonia with its nature and ethnic groups is a mine of inspiration for me.

PerfumeShrine: And a suggestion, more than a question: Perhaps you might be interested in recreating the ancient Chypre recipes of the island of Cyprus and the islands on the Aegean next, as an historical project for the archaeological museum in Greece. What do you think ?

Sandrine: I would love it! I would really, really love it!! Do you think that it is doable, that it can be put into action?

PerfumeShrine: I will certainly try to tag my own end of the strings I can pull, I can tell you!!
Sandrine, thank you ever so much for talking to me and for illuminating your work for our readers.

Related reading on PerfumeShrine: Manoumalia review, Interviews with Perfumers and industry Insiders, the Chypre Series

Chandler Burr interviewed about his upcoming New York Times Talk

We had announced the other day about an upcoming lecture encompassing a "Brief History of Perfume from 1889 to 2008", hosted by the New York Times and fronted by Chandler Burr, journalist, author and fragrance critic for the New York Times. Perfume Shrine had a few questions to ask about this exciting upcoming event and since many of you could be interested to participate (click here for info on how), I thought it might prove interesting. I am in no position to reveal what fragrances will be presented and analysed for your sniffing enjoyment (it would spoil the surprise), but I can shed a little light with aid of Chandler himself who was delightful to talk to as always.

PS: So Chandler, what is so different in these New York Times Talks as opposed to your scent dinners? ~apart from the dining part, of course!

CB: The lecture is a completely different intellectual and aesthetic focus. The dinners use only culinary perfumes and food-based raw materials (vanillin, chocolate and fruit accords, etc.). The lecture will be 15 of the landmark scent works of art, comparing them to art and music.

PS: Which are the criteria with which you came upon a selection of 15 perfumes to present? Is it their iconic status, their shaping the trends potential, artistic value and innovation or something else?

CB: The final decision is based on innovation and/or iconic status. These are, in my view, scents that changed perfume either by their technical differences or their aesthetic novelty.

PS: Who is attending these talks? Who would you like to see attending?

CB: Really anyone interested in scent. Obviously there are a lot of industry people coming since it's their products I'm discussing, and a lot of people who are perfume lovers, but we're planning on speaking to many who simply are interested in the idea of the subject and know nothing about perfume at all.

PS: On that note: Do you think that the opening up of as yet untapped audiences thanks to the power of the Internet presents a challenge to the companies? If so, do they welcome or abhor it? For instance, the increasingly raised interest in perfumery as evidenced in such events as your talk or other events helps towards a better appreciation of the art of perfumery or is it slowly but surely harnessed ~with some difficulty perhaps~ into a new marketing technique for the industry?

CB: I think that fundamentally the industry both loves and hates the internet, and that's entirely normal. They dislike the lack of control-- they were used to controlling the entire image of the perfumes and all the information written about them, and that's gone. But they love-- as they should-- the flows of interest in perfume and the discussion of it. Ultimately it's just going to make it more interesting to more people.

PS: What would be your hope for people who will attend your talk to retain as a memory of this event?

CB: What I think will be most startling to people is my contention, which I hope to demonstrate with visual art and music, that perfume is an art form equal in its medium to painting and music. I stipulate "in its medium" because each sense is different, and each has different abilities to stimulate the brain (which is all art does anyway). The point is that perfume is, in fact, an art, something I think most people are startled to hear.

PS: And finally something I'd been meaning to ask for ever: Could you pinpoint one specific fragrance which you consider a supreme masterpiece yourself? (that's quite difficult, I know...but I wanted to ask anyway)

CB: I just think that's impossible. It's like choosing the greatest painting. Unimaginable.

PS: Thanks Chandler for your time and hope the lecture goes as you wish it to.


Please read a full interview with Chandler Burr on assorted matters around perfumery, writing and fragrance criticism on Perfume Shrine clicking here for part 1 and part 2.

Painting by Salvador Dali Self-portrait Mona Lisa 1954 via euart.com

The elusive Seraphim by Ormonde Jayne: the What, the How and the Why

Today I am trying to disentangle the thread of the elusive Seraphim by Ormonde Jayne and to clear misunderstandings: surely such an elusive fragrance should have something important to say instead of putting question-marks all over the place. Surely some segments of additional info could surface and on occassion of my conversation with perfumer and founder of Ormonde Jayne, Linda Pilkington, I set out to shed light indeed into the mysterious web of luxury and exclusivity that Seraphim has weaved.

Seraphim was developed for the art concept store 20 ltd , a design house with pieces from famous and upcoming designers such as jewler Solange Azagury Patridge (of the modern demi-chypre Cosmic) and fine art photography. Seraphim, the fragrance by Ormonde Jayne was issued in 2007 in only 50 bottles: the lucky club of owners would be allowed to get refills from Ormonde Jayne (for £270), but that would be it! The bottle, with its beautiful abstract design and its antique gold ribbon around the neck, rests in a box lined with black velvet whose outercase is hued matte gold.
The price tag at the awe-inspiring £450 for the original 50 ml bottle (about €628) is probably enough to deter a blind purchase. And yet the uncompromising attention to quality standards that Linda keeps makes one daydream and wonder...

But why the elitist approach in the first place? Linda was gracious enough to reply in detail: "Ormonde Jayne has many customers that have ordered bespoke scents over the last decade, individual clients who want their own perfume, as well as clients such as Anouska Hempel and Chanel who have commissioned exclusive scented candles or perfume for a special event. As a perfume house, "exclusive" ends up being inevitable at some point, although the vast majority of our work is for the Ormonde Jayne boutique. Also, we saw it as a good opportunity to introduce Ormonde Jayne to an international market, and perfume lovers that might not be familiar with Ormonde Jayne".

Since this explains the exclusivity clause better than any hypothesis on our part, my next question inevitably centered on the price tag. "It was a commission for 20Ltd and my sole duty was to create the perfume and design a bottle and box that was different to the rest of the Ormonde Jayne brand. The price for Seraphim was decided by 20 Ltd, but there were three factors that made it much more expensive: The first was the actual formulation, ingredients like Iris are very expensive. The second was the very small run - just 50 bottles. As the look of the bottle had to be different from the Ormonde Jayne range, we needed to pay for the services of two different brand designers - one for the bottle itself, and one for the box. This involved sourcing velvets and new papers and producing the actual bottle. Now these are the sort of costs which if you are producing a few thousand balance out, but if you are only making 50 bottles, it makes the unit price shoot up. 20Ltd took it from there and were entirely responsible for the next stages, including marketing and advertising. They set the price and they received the money. It wasn't my duty to advertise it all and this is why it doesn't appear on the Ormonde Jayne site".

Which brings me to my last tentative question: who bought it? "I am under the impression that a small percentage of the clients were the perfumistas of the world, however I believe that most of the perfume was sold to the client list of 20 Ltd."

At this point dear readers you would be dying to know my impressions of it. Wish I could give you that pleasure, but I am lamentably not in a position to do so. Perhaps someone of you will reveal that they are! For those of you who are simply curious or toying with the idea of investing, you can see and order the fragrance clicking on the 20ltd page

Notes for Seraphim:
Head notes: (Fresh flowery notes) Bergamot, Rosewood, Ylang Ylang
Heart notes:(Powdery) Rose, Violets, Iris
Soul notes: (Sensual) Musk, Amber, Madagascan Vanilla, Coumarin

Pic through 20ltd

Interview with a Perfumer: Linda Pilkington of Ormonde Jayne

Talking to the woman behind the heady array of exquisite scents circulating under the brand name Ormonde Jayne proved to be not only deeply stimulating but also utterly delightful. Linda Pilkington has the well-bred, kind voice that matches her tiny attractive physique and her romantically auburn hair and she has all the charisma of someone who is pursuing her high standards with conviction and confidence in pursuit of elegance and quality. Becoming a mother for the second time recently, she radiates the warmth and –dare I say- the slight panic that such a position unavoidably entails, yet her generosity with her time was enslaving. Her honesty is palpable as she admits to me that all this attention from the Internet community is something new and exciting to her, as she has been so late in computerizing her business (only about 2 years ago) which retains the artisanal character that has helped made it a sensational underground success. “We learned the hard and slow way”, she laughs heartily. Indeed her reception of the Internet perfume community boom has been one big surprise, as she reflects when asked her opinion on how the market has changed in the last few years thanks to online criticism and discussion: “There I was making the first tentative batches of Orris Noir and a lady came into my shop and tried it on herself. She loved it and then went on to Makeup Alley and talked about it, how it was so wonderful and very new. At the time I knew nothing about this. Soon after I was getting calls asking about the new scent and I was going crazy: 'But how did they know? It hasn’t been featured anywhere yet!' It was only later that people began to tell me my fragrances were talked about online and I became aware of how truly changed the market has become”.

So, why Ormonde Jayne? Linda explained to me that “Ormonde Studio has been my first laboratory’s name and when I thought about creating my own boutique 6 years ago I found it rather daunting to have to go into a shop that bore my own name on the ledge every single day. So I picked Ormonde and Jayne which is my surname and thus emerged Ormonde Jayne”. This is such a British attitude, that my Mediterranean ears have a difficult time grasping, especially when looking at Ormonde Jayne’s revamped boutique look, fascinated by the vibrancy and the drama: Black glass chandeliers hang decadently from the ceiling, while the ivory stone floors welcome the weary traveler into a haven of luxury contrasting beautifully with the black shagreen perfume boxes in mandarin-colored packaging, tied with black satin ribbons. And if you’re tempted to look in the hidden drawers, little treasures shall reward your curiosity. The Ormonde Jayne store features wonderful candles and bath products, one of which is the indulgent Parfum d’Or Naturel (a gel-like mix of natural sugars, oils and finely milled gold leaf), as well as traditional extrait de parfum and parfum concentrations. Indeed Linda was first noticed for her intensely fragrant candles, a faithful client of which is Annouska Hempel who uses them for both her home and her hotels. Her first commission on such a candle came from another house, namely Chanel, through a long-time friend who wanted a candle to burn in their boutique interiors. This got her noticed, as she was previously working at Nihon Noyaku, a London-based agrichemical company and soon after the vision of her own business started materializing.

Going now through my notes kept during our conversation I can’t help thinking that her dedication to traditional values translated in a modern way is exactly what is needed in an oversaturated market. I was eager to find out how she positioned herself as almost everyone is doing their own version of niche now. She quickly elucidated that “Although there are lines with products that have a very limited distribution, such as Armani (Privé) and Prada (exclusive blends), they mainly work from a marketer’s angle, especially since they have to ultimately answer to big conglomerates. We, on the other hand, place 95% of our budget in the ingredients; there is only one person, Sarah, doing our marketing. I don’t have my hands handcuffed by accountants who want to produce something to please everybody and thus we can also use more exotic raw materials. And because we’re such a small company we have no problem locating small-yield, erratic supplies of rare and unusual oils, such as the black hemlock which we get from a Canadian supplier. We are therefore able to use 3 to 4 kilo of compound for 150 bottles (25% essences in Eau de Parfum and 30% in extrait), where for the same amount of oils bigger companies {she names a huge one here which I won’t repeat} produce millions of bottles! This makes a great difference in the finished product’s quality. Some people laughed when they heard we used black hemlock for our signature perfume Ormonde Woman ~but that’s the secret of our success: daring to go where no other perfumer has gone before”. A tireless traveler, Linda has fostered relationships with growers all over the globe from Laos, Madagascar and the Philippines to Morocco and France, gaining her remarkable access to the most exquisite oils. Ormonde Woman, whose fans include broadcaster Susan Hitch, features black hemlock: a femme fatale ~ black feathers, felt capes and illicit affairs aplenty. Tai’f is the combination of rose with precious saffron, dates and luxurious orange blossom absolute while Osmanthus features the precious absolute and doesn’t merely claim it as a “note”. Tolu featuring real civet tincture in a market full of the ersatz ~as does Orris Noir as well~ is an amalgam of animalic warmth and come-hither radiance.

This brings us to the perennial discussion of how tastes and perceptions shape our choices: “We don’t always reveal everything, because ladies buying fragrance might not like knowing that [civet] is the animal’s anal glands’ produce that we put in the mix, but the effect is there. Some materials are not used for their own smell per se, but as a way to open the bouquet, to let it gain in depth and texture, like with wine”. To the question of whether the mainstream cult of “clean” or the resulting antipode niche snobbism of embracing “dirty” notes has affected her vision, she does not have an answer: she strikes me as someone who doesn’t even let herself be influenced by trends and she tries not to smell the competition, so as to keep her integrity as much as possible.

Origins and background play a big role in our olfactory profile. Linda’s interest in smells has been active since childhood: she used to gather herbs and oils from around the world, growing flowers from seed and collecting perfumes, some from big houses like Guerlain or Dior: one of her favorite combinations a long-time ago was layering Eau Sauvage with Diorella, two of Roudnitska’s cool masterpieces, making her “feel extremely sophisticated”. Little by little her interest took a more formal path, engaging in one-to-one tuition in perfumery and collaborating with a German perfumer by the name of Geza Schoen (of Escentric Molecules), whom she met years ago through their combined love of Iso-E Super, an aroma chemical patented by IFF which has a complex odor profile of woody, floral and ambergris notes, used as a supreme floralizer. Geza didn’t have a laboratory at the time, Linda had the equipment, so she asked him to come onboard and allowed him use of the facilities and welcomed his acting as a consultant. “He really gave me some great advice, I remember. He vetoed one note I wanted to include in Frangipani and he turned out to be right. Reversely, he OK-ed the use of pink pepper, which proved to be very successful”.

Linda was also preparing delicious chocolates and immersing herself into the world of a full-blown foodie all the while. As I also am a fellow cuisine enthusiast, I couldn’t help asking her what her favorite culinary aroma is to receive an immediate and startling in its candor answer: “It has to be basmati rice! I find it so nice, so warm, so cozy! I was living with Chinese neighbors who prepared it and the steam of it wafting through the windows smelled like coming home. So it brings me comfort...” No wonder her post-modern gourmand for serious perfumephiles is Champaca, entwined with the unusual trail of a plate of hot basmati rice steaming up. And that was before anyone even thought of putting rice notes in a fragrance! It is with some distraught that she divulges that Space NK, the mega-store of beauty owned by the Gap, has just launched a fragrance also named Champaca; which of course is rather unkind, seeing as there was already her own successful fragrance on the market. It is the way of “big fish eat small fish” again and this casts a slight gloom at this part of our conversation. I can see that it’s not possible to copyright such a generic term as “Champaca”, the name of an exotic flower, but still it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Another incident which aggravated her was the claim posted online that her body products had not been tested for risks of allergy, a claim that she is adamant is completely inaccurate and damagingly false although it was retracted later on in light of the facts. But this is where the responsibility of a perfume writer comes in, I guess: doing one’s research, corroborating facts, asking for data verification...

To revert to our previous, happier subject of favorite smells Linda also admits a predilection for truffles, the intensely fragrant mushrooms that have me enraptured too; their shreds on any plate give a heavenly aroma of earthy delights. “I also tremendously enjoy the deep, liquorish smell of the very green, very wet odor of a vast, dense forest, like those I walk in in Bavaria, Germany and Austria”. Another one of her favorite smells she hasn’t ingrained in her line is gardenia, her absolute favorite blossom: “The best gardenia I have ever smelled was in California during a trip. You know how Americans try to do everything bigger and better! Well, this was an amazing, envelopping smell. I know there is a very costly and limited supply of natural absolute and I have found a supplier {which I can’t divulge}, so options are open. And prepare for a new men’s fragrance which Nick Foulkes, a loyal customer and friend, is about to write on”.

But perhaps the most interesting and entertaining anecdote about the Ormonde Jayne fragrances was the following, which I leave you to savor through the witty wording of Linda Pilkington herself: “Some years ago, Tattler magazine asked us for samples of some of our fragrances for a 4-page story they were doing. It turned out they did an evaluation test featuring Dr.Luca Turin, in which he was supposed to pick his top 3 favorites out of 63 presented fragrances while blindfolded! The definition of a blind test, so he wouldn’t be influenced by brands and names. He picked up one of the Joy fragrances (I don’t recall whether it was Eau de Joy or EnJoy) and another mainstream fragrance from Guerlain. And the third one was my Frangipani! The rest-as they say- is history”.


Ormonde Jayne has been chosen by The Walpole (the trade body that represents British luxury goods brands) as one of the six Brands of Tomorrow and the masculine Isfarkand has been awarded Wallpaper’s "Best Scent". Linda Pilkington is opening a second perfumery in Dubai's shopping emporium, Boutique 1. For now Linda's fragrances are exclusively available through the Ormonde Jayne boutique at 28 Old Bond Street in the Royal Arcade, London (map image here), or through the Ormonde Jayne website.

Pics provided by Ormonde Jayne, not to be reproduced without permission.

Questions and Answers with a Fragrance Expert: Marian Bendeth of Sixth Scents

Marian Bendeth is a global fragrance expert and owner of the consulting firm Sixth Scents based in Toronto, Canada. She provides a multitude of services for consumers; retailers, fragrance vendors, perfumers and the media. She has been featured in numerous media over the years and has herself written several superb articles, such as The magnificent proboscis , a profile on Laurent Assoulen and Scentimental France on Basenotes or Find your best scent on Best Health mag.
She also happens to be a fan of Perfume Shrine, has been gloriously generous in her communication with me and she did us the honour of sitting to a questionnaire on assorted perfume matters. Here it is, with a second part following shortly!

~Perfume Shrine: First of all: Is perfume art? And how can it be defined as such? For instance, in typically acclaimed as such arts, ie. painting or music, there is a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of any creation based on what seems a standard set of “rules” devised over the years: the brushwork, the technique of shading and light, the respect of proportion or its -perhaps intentional- distortion, the sequence of leitmotifs or not and the adherence to a form such as the sonata or the fugue etc. What could be comparable in perfumery?

Marian Bendeth: I believe the creation of perfumery and perfumers are born of sheer artisanship. Two hundred years ago and up to the middle of the twentieth century, certain houses created distinctive signature styles that claimed their identity as a Fragrance House. Names such as: Guerlain (who had the Guerlinade signature accord running through their scents), Houbigant, Yardley’s, Coty, Penhaligon’s, E. Coudray, Chanel, Jean Patou and Dior come to mind. There was a distinctive theme or accord that was instantaneously recognizable.
For the majority of modern releases today, these thematic scents have taken a backseat to original and distinctive launches under the umbrella of a particular name.
What makes a blend distinctive though, is the way a scent unfolds upon first sniff to the last embers of the drydown. The quality in accords, the way a fragrance unfolds can be part of the defining factors of what I call the Comet theory, where a scent may be top heavy for the first few minutes and then fades just as quickly. The blend should be seamless on the skin taking the nose in a wonderfully fluid direction with surprises along the way. Think of a gymnast dropping a ball or a drummer who is drumming offbeat to the other players. Cohesiveness and continuity are two words to look for. Longevity is a must for the wearer and must be considered before purchase.
True artistry in perfumery is the marriage of notes that may juxtapose each other but become harmonious in a blend. Born of pure creativity and an astounding knowledge of literally thousands of synthetics and hundreds of Essential oils, they must possess the ability to marry disparate and conjugal notes into a harmonious blend.

~There are two distinct theories of wearing fragrance: one is having a signature scent, the other a fragrance wardrobe or even collection for serious perfumeholics. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages. I remember myself falling madly in love with Opium as a young teenager: I always fantasized that it would be my calling card and the memento of me that I would leave to my loved ones after I had ceased to exist on this plane of life. I still love it to bits, but even then I also enjoyed wearing other things too. What’s your advice on how can people reconcile the two: keeping the best bits of each world?

I am not a believer of only wearing one signature scent at all. It is passé and reveals a stagnant personality who, believing their association with a particular scent as one who is frightened of change. The concept of fragrance wardrobing is not unlike our varied tastes in other pastimes such as colours and fabrics in fashion, reading, food tastes and routine. Each scent we pick for ourselves reveals a different slice of our personalities. For those who wear uniforms to work, there can be a deep frustration in not being able to reveal their colour choices, thus, self expression and this will ultimately reflect on one’s psyche.
The key to enjoying a fragrance purchase is to hold back and not exhaust it. I recommend wearing a scent for two days and going back and re-experiencing your new scent as you would a lover! Anything in overdose mode is not good for you – perfume included. In fact, those who wear a signature scent tend to put on far too much due to olfactory fatigue and the rest of us have to smell copious doses of it as our noses are not desensitized.
I recommend holding onto those scents you love but variety is the spice of life as well.

~Is having a signature scent the only way to make your olfactory mark on someone’s memory? And how would one choose something unique in a market that is saturated with similar offerings?

Creating memories through fragrance can be by chance or predetermined. It is the impact of fragrance on the wearer’s psyche that should be foremost in one’s mind before application. Discernment and etiquette for choosing the appropriate scents in a given environment reflects a particular savvy which gets lost on the masses.
Although the end stories, after purchase are truly fascinating to me, it is also the impact a particular scent or scents may have on an individual which can be the most intriguing. If a scent can enhance one’s self esteem, confidence, sexuality or bring out one’s humour, patience or adrenalin then the job of the Perfumer is done. It is also extremely key to the purchase and wearing of fragrances.. It should not always be about emulating a person or lifestyle but rather bringing out the best in who we are and allowing the scents to speak for us subliminally; now that can be very sexy indeed.

~Working as a fragrance consultant expert presents its challenges. One of them should be that after a while one might become a bit formulaic, typifying people in distinct groups: do they fall indeed into some classic patterns and how do you avoid being repetitive or is every new consultation different?

Although I do work with the media who would love for me to pigeon-hole and blanket statement fragrances, these kind of profiles do make me a tad uncomfortable because everyone is so unique and can wear the same scent in a totally different way. What is fascinating though, are the thread of commonalities between disparate groups of people from all walks of life, different ethnicities, religious, cultures and ages based on their tastes and lifestyles. Each fragrance and classification may typify particular personality traits but when combined with other fragrances from other classifications, reveal more of the personality of the wearer. I like to say, fragrance is your walking biography.
Yes, every single person I consult with is totally unique and different. Some have a lot in common based on tastes, others are polar opposites. Although most tend to stick with two or three classifications but then they might become another classification based on their own personal body chemistry. I have just made it a Science.

~Do you recall a particularly difficult client? What was the challenge? Tell us an anecdote!

The worst kind of client is one who is closed down emotionally and who is scared of scent. In order to fully appreciate and respect testing and wearing fragrance, one has to go places that are emotional and many are literally petrified of going there.
The hardest are those who have preconceived ideas about fragrance or particular notes whereby negative comments come out before I even recommend anything. I recall one woman saying she”hated” every single fragrance on the market because: she had allergies, couldn’t stand any kind of florals, hated the smell of woods, loathed anything sweet, powdery, green (because that meant sneezing) light, dark, woody, citrus, couldn’t wear Essentials, couldn’t wear synthetics, hated foody notes, spices gave her headaches, resulted in stomach cramps, her eyes and limbs hurt, you name it, she suffered it like a true victim and wrote off all scent!
I later found out in the conversation, she lost her husband to a younger woman who wore sophisticated scents that permeated his shirts! It was finally revealed, the association was too much to bear and her self-esteem had plummeted; she had subliminally positioned fragrance as the ultimate villain in pain, betrayal and sexuality.
I convinced her to at least test two on the inner wrists. She ended up loving them on herself after learning which notes her body picked up. The transformation of negativity to absolute exaltation was breathtaking. It took about two hours but it was a wonderfully rewarding investment of time. Her worst “enemy” was now her best friend in self esteem and renewal for someone new! I loved that.

~Personal chemistry is a controversial topic: some experts argue that no such thing exists and that perfumes smell about the same on anyone; others -among whom many consumers- believe that factors such as diet, hormones, medicine and skin Ph influence the performance of perfume on skin. Others still, like Dr.Bloch, go as far as to suggest there is an inherent difference of personal smell according to race! How is it possible to monitor such reactions, if at all, when giving recommendations?

I have dedicated most of my formative years and in the fragrance industry for the past twenty-five years as a Fragrance Expert, ascertaining the differences in body chemistry. This is my specialty and I am a pioneer in this field. Anyone who denies body chemistry isn’t realistic and I must confess,those comments make me laugh a little. That is like saying all blue eyes are the same shade or everyone tastes in food are the same. What is one man’s bread is another man’s poison! One thing is for sure, everyone of us is unique!

I conduct personalized fragrance consultations with over a 1,000 + fine fragrances, prestige and niche, and very rarely does any one scent smell exactly the same on two skins. Having said that, I am also horrified when I hear salespeople claim that darker skins can only wear Orientals, while Redheads can only wear florals etc. This kind of thinking smacks of racism to me and is blatantly false and very dangerous.
For example, Toronto has over 126 minorities from all over the world which is why my job is so fascinating and challenging. Cultural odours do play a big role in fragrance selection, depending on where that person is raised. For instance, if we have someone born in the West Indies, but who immigrated to Denmark, they might gravitate towards familiar spices used in cooking but conversely, might be attracted to green, wildflower or oceanic scents as well. The nose may say one thing and sometimes, the body something completely different. I am the broker between my customer’s nose and skin.

I also think it is important to note, that criticism of particular scents should never be taken at face value. One person’s assessment of a particular fragrance is just one’s opinion. Many times, I may recommend something that I personally may dislike or not wear, but that would never cloud my judgement for my customer. I may read someone slam a particular fragrance and I recall how incredible it was on a number of my clients and it saddens me to think that now, possibly someone will formulate negative attitudes based on a critique. You have to test them for yourself!
It can be so exciting too, when one can smell a fragrance that smells of perfection on the right skin. My only frustration is that the Perfumer/Perfumers are not there to smell them with me because I know this is how they wanted their scent to sit! I recommend for fragrance lovers to really dedicate the time in understanding how long particular scents may last on their skin. That information can be liquid gold to any fragrance salesperson.


~Is it possible to obliterate personal chemistry to attain a level of fragrant loveliness such as the one demonstrated by another wearing a scent we admired?

Personal body chemistry in tandem with a fine fragrance can equal a wonderful smelling wrist or neck, or not. Our natural oils are like DNA and are unique to us. They can be modified slightly by ingesting certain foods, pills, diet etc but they can never be obliterated.

~You write yourself about perfume and have conducted several successful interviews with perfumers: what are the highlights that you recall of those “meetings”? Did someone approach things in a way that was particularly memorable?

Every single person I have encountered in the industry since day one, has enriched my life and knowledge with fragrance and their personal stories! I see each and every one of them as precious jewels that fill up my treasure chest of knowledge and fascinating conversations! They may be designers, jewellers, Niche owners, receptionists, Retailers, Special Events, Beauty Editors, Raw material manufacturers, Evaluators, Marketing people or labourers and everything in between! Of course the Perfumers have to be extremely close to my heart and those individuals who make a global difference such as: Annette Green, President Emeritus of the Fragrance Foundation or Michael Edwards, Author/Expert of Fragrances of the World.
I was very fortunate to win another Best Media Editorial Award with Basenotes.net last month at the Canadian Fragrance Awards with two articles of interviews with Les Christoph’s - Christophe Laudamiel and Hornetz who created the Mugler Coffret for Perfume, the story of a Murderer. These young Perfumers are the cutting edge of where perfumery is heading: abstract, historical, environmental and eclectic scents that shake up the flower petals and bring forth intricate and brilliant bends that mimic another era that we can smell in 3D!
I dedicated the award to the all the non-scent, non-odour nay-sayers out there because without odours, positive and negative, there would not be humanity! And perfume is the very, very best of it!

Each Creative Perfumer has his or her own private formula for creation and creativity. I love the idea of the seed or birth of an idea. I don’t mean the company’s brief, which sometimes is too general or too fastidious. One can never make the claim that they know every single thing about the industry from the Sociological, Anthropological, Sciences, Flaconnage and it’s industries Marketing, Harvesting, Manufacturing, Historical, Physiology, Consumer, Retail and Technical and Perfumery areas because there are so many specialized fields that mold together to become one on the shelves.

~Finally, to inject an ancient Greek philosophical spin on things, is the notion of bad and good smells inherent, as in “avoid the rotten meat, opt for the juicy fruit” or is it nurtured as in “babies don’t get disgusted by touching their own poo” in your opinion? Please discuss.

Parents don’t take the time to teach toddlers how to smell but they do impart positive and negative views that become ingrained in a child’s psyche into adulthood. In general, if a parent doesn’t wear scent, chances are, one of the children won’t either.
I would love to see smell as part of the teaching curriculum in junior kindergarten and public schools. The sad fact being, most of these schools in North American are banning scents which is to deny the best of our senses.

Marian Bendeth
Global Fragrance Expert
Sixth Scents

Please check back for a very Fun Interaction with Marian next in which she describes several scents in vivid portraits of optical, auditory and tactile media.

Pics copyrighted by Marian Bendeth and used on Perfume Shrine with her permission.

Burr responds

The interview with mr.Chandler Burr sparked interesting commentary and gave a chance for all ends of the spectrum to be heard. It was refreshing to see and it gave Perfume Shrine great pleasure to read intelligent replies.

Mr. Burr himself wanted to comment, but since he is not really immersed in technology per his admission (perfectly valid! I was not either) and Blogger is not that welcoming anyway, he opted to email his response.
I thought it fair to publish it here in a seperate post, so that people might read it more carefully. He is replying to commentary published in this post (scroll for the readers'comments below the interview).

Here it is:

"Hi, guys.

OK! So I figured that when Helg did this Q&A ~her questions were perceptive, serious, and interesting ~ she’d get some interesting responses, and I (who am such an instinctive non-blogger, low-tech guy) am really glad to read these responses.

I realize that when what people know of you is only words that come out under your name in newspapers or magazines, you're both a very real person and, at the exact same time, a total cipher or come across at times like a prick. I’m not, I promise, but then that’s completely subjective as well, and if you met me, you could decide for yourself. I’m going to be flying around the country Feb 1-21 doing publicity for the book, so I hope to meet a lot of you guys.

First, there are the constraints I work under. Helg commented of my writing, “Sometimes, one (myself included) might perceive a limited-space laconic article as being less thought-out than it is,” and this could not be more true; I can’t give details because that would be unprofessional and my editors wouldn’t appreciate it—and my editors are doing their jobs, and ALL creation, including very much newspapers, is about constant compromise, constant negotiation, and sometimes last-minute, not-always-rational cuts and changes too—but I work under huge constraints. All journalists do. Please understand that not all of the time but certainly some of the time what I write is written to fit the space, to come in on time, to follow a theme I need to follow for the coherence of that issue, or date, or section, etc., etc. And that’s legitimate; that’s the way it works. But being a critic does not—not—mean I can write anything I want at any length I see fit or appropriate.

Second, the job of being a critic is by definition giving opinions, and being a journalist means expressing views and reporting facts, and there’s sort of no end to the amount of ways opinions can be disliked by those who (often quite legitimately) disagree with them and reporting can be interpreted.
IlseM wrote, “It's hard for me to believe that someone can be so rigidly opposed to natural ingredients in fragrance,” and I was just about to despair since it’s the exact opposite of what I believe when Joan gave exactly the right response: “I don't think that he is against natural scents, but feels that synthetics are just as valid and possibly less allergic.” Perfectly said.
Perfumer Michael Storer also precisely expressed my own point of view. Again, rather than write it in my own words, I’ll simply use his, since I agree with them completely: “[Burr] extolls the virtues of synthetics and the profound limitations we'd have without them. In my opinion, too, I find many ‘naturalists’ tantamount to religious fundamentalist in that they are simply incapable of hearing any other
viewpoint.”
Catherine says, “I find the growing discussion of synthetics in concrete term (rather than those vague, dreamy ad blurbs) refreshing and engaging,” and that makes me very happy. It’s true that my approach just isn’t going to work for people who aren’t interested in synthetics or the molecular components of perfume, and that’s fine; for others, it works great, and I write for people like Catherine.

Ilse: “[I]t seems [Burr’s] experience with naturals is limited to newly formulated scents. Could you ask him if he has ever sampled vintage fragrances.” My experience with the classics is indeed frustratingly limited, although it took a small change for the better recently; my next piece for T: Style magazine of Feb 24 is a piece about l’Osmotheque, the Paris perfume museum, and I spent an entire day
smelling the original formulas of classics. I’d of course have preferred to spend a month rather than a day, but there we are.

I love (and I know Helg loves) Carmencanada’s “dream of real schools of perfumery criticism, with solidly argumented controversies and discourse, as exists in other arts…. Maybe this is the beginning of something.” That is precisely the approach I’ve taken in “The Perfect Scent,” for example an analysis of Ellena’s work that starts on page 98. Because perfume is such an amazingly young art—the youngest of the
major human arts by far due to the fact that technology has only recently made it possible as an art form (though I suppose movie might compete with it for that title; Wikipedia says, “Mechanisms for producing artificially created, two-dimensional images in motion were demonstrated as early as the 1860s,” just before the first perfumery synthetics were being created)—and also because, by chance, it has been treated much more as a commercial product than an art per se, it has not yet had time to develop hugely deep schools, as has architecture —classical, gothic, Bauhaus, Tudor, Romanesque. But the schools are there, and I completely agree with Carmen that it’s incredibly exciting to start thinking about perfume in this way because it really facilitates the conceptualizing of perfume as an art.

That’s a macro approach. In other ways we need to take a micro approach. Michael: “I struggle everyday with trying to write profiles of my perfumes without using, for example, the word aldehydic. But in reality, it can't be done.” In my opinion, this is correct, and in order for perfume to take its place as a full-fledged art, our culture and the public need to learn and absorb perfume’s basic vocabulary
(which is the same for film, dance, and music). Brands hate aldehydic only because people don’t know what it means; if the public was familiar with it, there’d be no problem, and they’re going to have to be, sooner or later. Perfume should be taught in classes just like painting and literature. As Luca points out, what’s lacking is simply the vocabulary."

~Chandler Burr

Pic sent to me by mail unaccredited

Burr-y the Hatchet: part 2

We continue our interview with writer and perfume critic of The New York Times, Chandler Burr. For part 1, click here.

PART 2

PLEASE NOTE: unauthorised copying of excerpts of the book constitutes copyright infringement. Mr.Burr personally gave us express permission to reprint those for this venue only.



PS: Chandler, for your new book “The Perfect Scent” you followed two different paths: the path of the celebrity scent (for Sarah Jessica Parker for Coty) and the path of the perfumer’s vision for a high-end brand (Jean Claude Ellena for Hermès).
Which one was more fun and which was more challenging, journalistically speaking?

CB: They were as completely different experiences as they could be and still be, in both cases, spending a year inside a perfume making process. Ellena’s story I tell from the perfumer’s perspective, Sarah Jessica’s from that of the creative director, so there you have a fundamental difference. The only time I spent with Laurent and Clément, her perfumers, was when they were with her. I’m going to let the book speak on this one; decide for yourself which you think was more interesting. I’ve already heard vastly different opinions.



PS: How viable are celebrity scents in your own opinion. Most are bought by fans who want to emulate their idol and are consquently frowned upon by perfume lovers who refuse sometimes to even try them out! However in my personal opinion there is no blanket description: some are good (like Lovely), some are horrible. Why is this, in your opinion and experience getting to know the process of creating one?

CB: I agree completely. Hilary Duff is a very good perfume. So is Midnight Fantasy. The Kimora Lee Simmons Goddess is beyond-belief bad. I do think celebrity perfumes are still viable and will remain so because they’re simply such a good, effective way for famous people to monetize their pure celebrity. There simply is no better mechanism by which to do this.


PS: Jean Claude Ellena is the darling of the internet-reading perfumephile. I am a fan of his perfumes as well. However, theres is the impression that what with his numerous interviews and constant media exposure and his habit of showing his “tricks” of expertise to awe-stricken journalists that he has become a bit of the latest conjurer: to be admired for what he hides in his sleeves rather than what he genuinely reveals. Did you find that this is true, while following his work for “The Perfect Scent”?

CB: Um…no, absolutely not, but I suppose I hesitate only in that I do realize why people can have that impression of him. My year with him—and this is a categoric statement—showed me how extremely talented he is. He is not super-human. No one is. He has limits. He has an immense ego as well, which in my view is his only serious character flaw (I generally find him a delightful guy). I think Terre d'Hermès is excellent as masculines go but overpraised. I think Jean-Claude’s Achilles heel is persistence on skin. And he has said to me quite openly several times that every perfumer owns strengths, and he plays to them.

But to give you a taste of what I say in "The Perfect Scent" about this question:

"The announcement of Ellena’s appointment was made by Hermès on May 5, 2004, to go into effect June 7. Everyone in Paris had a comment (New York noted it and went back to its business lunches), though since it was Paris all the comments were off the record and many were tinged, overtly or not, with venom. “It’s excellent to take Jean-Claude,” said one young perfumer, who cleared his throat, squinted at the sky, and added primly, “I’m almost jealous.”They were openly admiring (“They couldn’t do better than Jean-Claude,” the perfumer Calice Becker said, “an excellent perfumer passionate about his métier and uncompromising on materials”). They were acid (“How nice that Jean-Claude will get to do even more of his favorite thing: talking to reporters”). They were envious (“Can you imagine the freedom?”). They were thoughtful, analytical(“Jean-Louis was very smart about this, and you watch, they’re going to start increasing market share”)….The industry discussed his putative salary in the way the French always discuss salaries: as if the KGB were listening….
Ellena? He was a star, like Jacques Cavallier (the lovely Chic, the monster hit L’Eau d’Issey, the monster miss but utterly brilliant Le Feu d’Issey). Or Kurkdjian (Armani Mania, Le Male). Or Becker (J’adore, Beyond Paradise). And he had a star’s usual partisans and critics and detractors. All this was intensified with Ellena because he was a darling of the media, with whom he was famous for having a discours de parfum. Reporters could talk to him. He could talk back. To the degree to which this was rare, in part it was the perfumers, who were not groomed for microphones, and in part the paranoid, control-freak designers, whose dogma was maintaining the official fiction that they created their own scents. They liked perfumers to be kept in cages in dark rooms. This was why some perfumers liked the fact that Ellena spoke.
Naturally there was also bitter commentary—vindictive jealousy is, like beurre blanc, a French speciality—usually punctuated, after a careful glance over the shoulder, with the stab of a hot cigarette. “I don’t think he’s the best perfumer in the world,” said a competitor, “but he’s one who has a thinking about perfumery. He presents himself as the heir of Edmond Roudnitska.”…There was derision. “I don’t have a big appreciation for him actually,” the creator of several legendary perfumes sniffed. “His behavior is not greatly appreciated by many people.” His behavior? “Ellena has a good reputation with important people but not with people in the perfume industry. He’s a version of a celebrity chef, a media whore, which everyone tries to become today because the world is now based on the media whereas autrefois the perfumer simply focused on his work and le plan creatif.” “I won’t discuss Ellena,” one dowagerof the French industry and creator of several classic perfumes sniffed. “He’s a showman.” But others took a more philosophical approach. “Grasse is a complicated tribe,” said a middle-aged perfumer. “There’s a real mafia grassoise…. Grasse is a tiny little town, and the kids leave for Paris to seek their fortunes. Jean-Claude is grassois, and so they all know him, and when you understand that, you understand everything.
Jean-Claude knows how to talk about perfume, and the press is desperate for that, and I’m sorry, but if other perfumers are jealous it’s because very few perfumers can talk about perfume. ‘I put jasmine in rose.’Well, OK, so what the fuck does that mean. Nothing! And someone comes and explains it, and suddenly he’s a media whore? Please.”

PS: Ellena also frequently talks about not having to conform to marketing briefs and target groups’ opinion. Does he really have free reign at Hermès? I have read in his self-authored books that he deems the 2-3% share he garners satisfactory. In a market in which perfume generates lots of revenue for big luxury houses as the most accessible of their products to the middle-class is that doable?

CB: I will simply say on this question that from everything I’ve seen, Ellena truly has a huge amount—not by any means complete, but a huge amount—of creative control at Hermès. He creates according to concepts sometimes (Un Jardin sur le Nil, for example), but never briefs in the sense of conceptual blueprints created by other people that he must then build with molecules. That work, for him, is finished.


PS: One criticism that has been directed at Jean Claude Ellena is that he has completely altered the scent profile of the Hermès fragrance stable: his spartan style that exudes a vibe of sparsity, although undeniably chic contradicts the image of Hermès as smelling “rich”. Contrasting previous fragrances of the house, like Rouge or 24 Faubourg -which are easily imagined on a lady wearing furs (parfums fourrure) - with his own creations like Un Jardin sur le Nil or Terre d’Hermès one notices a stark difference. The newer ones, even the Hermessences don’t smell as pampered and luxe. I realise that this is his conviction of how perfumery should be done (not catering to a bourgeois sensibility), but did he shed any other insights into this?


CB: I’m actually going to leave this one for the book as well, not only to make you read the book but, frankly, because he never gave me a specific answer to this, but I think you’ll find that my year with him, taken as a whole, absolutely provides, in the end, an answer. I know the criticisms of course; part of my response is Ambre Narguilé, simply enough, which to my mind (and Jean-Claude’s) is the way rich luxury must evolve in the 21st century, an absolutely stunning piece of perfumery on every level. But I think Kelly Calèche is a masterpiece because it is 100% Ellena’s contemporary, forward-edge, intellectual presentation, 100% Hermès, and 100% luxury. Not Louis Vuitton purse luxury—beautiful, refined, purified luxury.


PS: I have been saying this last bit ever since it launched! LOL
On that note of luxury: I was reading a very intriguing article in Fortune lately, which focused on the new McLuxury scenario. Namely that upscale houses and designers are experiencing a democratization of their product both in terms of aimed audience and in their brand becoming more accessible. We have the examples of Stella Mc Cartney and Karl Lagerfeld designing for H&M for example or the case study of Coach who aimed at a lower price point from the start.

CB: Yes, Dana Thomas just wrote an entire book about this, "Deluxe".


PS: Right! In perfume, there are two distinct paths: that of masstige (perfumes circulating on the mainstream circuit posing as something more upscale than they are) and that of high-browed exclusivity trying to reposition a brand into higher planes in an effort to ante up the cachet which will perversely help boost sales of their lower end products! (Case of Les Exclusifs at Chanel, Hermessences, Armani Privé, Dior Collection etc.) What’s your take on this issue?


CB: I’m not sure if I’m more or less cynical than Dana. It is just so obvious to me that “luxury goods” are 90% image and 10% substance. Jacques Polge’s Chanel No 18 is an astonishing perfume, but you’re paying a huge premium for the word “Chanel”—compare it to Juicy Couture, which is a similar approach by Harry Frémont. Chanel No 18 and Juicy Couture have an identical aesthetic approach: both are machines built of glass and meant to be filled with light. They have different scents, but stylistically they are in the same category.

OK, so we have to pay a premium for luxury—big surprise. So I think you perfectly characterize the commercial purpose of Les Exclusifs and the others you mention. And at the same time, they just are, generally speaking, superior perfumes. Would I pay that premium? Yes, for some of them, not for others. But the fact that they have a commercial purpose as well as an aesthetic purpose—a dirty and a pure both—bothers me not in the slightest. This is the way the game is played. Art and commerce have never been separate. And when they have, the art has often been crap. I suppose the trick is simply in knowing what’s going on in front of you—then taking what you like.


PS: Thank you Chandler for what has been a trully fascinating perspective.


CB: And thank you for allowing me to answer these questions.



Pics of Lovely and Hermes ads from okadi. Pic of Jean Claude Ellena courtesy of the LA Times.

Burr-y the Hatchet: Chandler Burr Interview

Perfume Shrine always aims to bring our readers the highlights of fragrance appreciation with objectivity and a level-headed analytical approach.
So, in the pursuit of those goals, we present you today with an interview with one of the controversial players in fragrance writing: the journalist and writer Chandler Burr.

Mr.Burr perused our site, confessed being impressed with the quality (we humbly blushed) and honoured us with an in-depth interview on certain sensitive points that were rather tough, per his estimate: about his current position as perfume critic in The New York Times, a position for which he has been criticized a lot by internet readering perfumephiles; his acquintance with Luca Turin for "The Emperor of Scent"; his stance on the matters of perfume composition; his newest book "The Perfect Scent" which follows the creation of two fragrances from scratch: one for a celebrity, Sarah Jessica Parker, and the other by esteemed perfumer Jean Claude Ellena for Hermès; and his views on the new luxe tendencies in the industry.
Perfume Shrine appreciates the thought and effort that went into answering those questions; we found him agreeable and we sincerely thank him.

Let's follow him.....

PLEASE NOTE: unauthorised copying of excerpts of the book constitutes copyright infringement. Mr.Burr personally gave us express permission to reprint those for this venue only.

PART 1

PS: Chandler, you had been a journalist for a long time and had written a book on sexuality. How did you decide after writing “The Emperor of Scent” to devote more of your time into writing about perfume? Was it a new interest, a new field for journalistic exploration that culminated in your New York Times appointment or something that turned into a genuine and profound love for fragrance?



CB: I actually had no intention of writing on perfume again. In fact, I didn’t really consider “The Emperor of Scent” a book related to perfume as a subject per se, although I of course now realize that was obtuse on my part. I’d loved writing about perfume in the context of “Emperor,” discovering scent criticism via Luca Turin’s writing, hearing his astonishing stories about perfume and his opinions—learning the basics of what “good” and “bad” meant in this brand new (to me) artistic field.



“The Perfect Scent” and my position as The New York Times perfume critic were entirely a surprise and entirely the result of an idea pitched to me by my editor at The New Yorker magazine. He took me to lunch, and I proposed ten—I remember the number; I’d prepared a list—detailed pieces that interested me, basically economics stories in Asia. That’s my field, at least officially; I studied international relations in Paris, Chinese history in Beijing, and I started as a stringer at the Christian Science Monitor's Southeast Asia bureau in Manila. My Masters is Japanese political economy. But he said to me, well, I read “Emperor,“ and what really interested me are these people, these perfumers, who make perfume. He’d had no idea the profession existed. He proposed that I do a behind-the-scenes account of the creation of a perfume. I absolutely didn’t want to do it. I didn’t tell him that, of course. Well, I think I cringed a little. The reason is that I really, really wanted to start reporting from Asia and I really, really didn’t want to have anything to do with fashion. It’s a world I dislike, one I feel quite uncomfortable in. Or felt. I’m a bit more used to it, but the point is, it’s just not my thing—I knew how to write about the automotive industry in Japan, but I had no idea how to write about perfume and fashion, I’d never done it before, “Emperor” sure as hell wasn’t about that—and because of that discomfort I actually wound up turning in a first draft to The New Yorker that they hated, which I didn’t know until after the piece was published. We edited it down, found the narrative, and I discovered that I loved writing about perfume as perfume. Writing “Emperor” I smelled almost nothing. Writing the New Yorker piece and then “The Perfect Scent” I smelled raw materials and perfumes constantly, every day, spent weeks and weeks in laboratories, visited raw materials plants, fields that grew orange blossoms and roses and jasmine. Amazing.


When the New Yorker piece came out, I was at a party at Hermès on Madison Avenue, and Francesca Leoni introduced me to Stefano Tonchi, the head of T Style, the New York Times style magazine. He said, “Come see me Friday at 10!” I showed up at The Times—I hadn’t confirmed, I just showed up at 10—and he was surprised to see me—“But you didn’t confirm!” (Sorry)—but we sat down, and he said, “We want you to write for us! What would you like to do?” I said, “I’d like to be your perfume critic.” He stared at me for a moment and then said, “I love it! We’ll do it!”



PS: Most people involved in perfume know you from “The Emperor of Scent” and its unraveling of the Luca Turin saga. How was it meeting him and knowing him as a man? There are some hints in the book, but fans are interested in more.

CB: I had never spent time with an actual genius before, and it is a profoundly strange sensation. Here is a mind that is simply running at such a high processor speed, with such a large memory and a vastness of information available to it, and I just reveled in it. What’s interesting to me is the range of reaction to Luca as I presented him in “Emperor.” Some people hated the character as they interpreted him in my book, found him arrogant, egotistical—which in my opinion he is not at all; having opinions is not the same thing as being egotistical. Others loved him. “He’s touchy, he’s fun, he’s grouchy, he’s brilliant, he’s self-destructive”—I’ve heard everything from readers of the book.

It seems obvious to me that we exist, as people, in the number of parallel universes that there are people who know us; if five people know you, you are five different people. Luca is certainly touchy, fun—to me, wildly fun, I’ve never been able to have the conversations with people that I have with him—self-destructive, brilliant, entertaining, enlightening. He is also absolutely imperfect; being a genius doesn’t remove flaws, in fact it amplifies them. He can be solipsistic—the breakdown of intelligence—petulant, violent. I’ve been furious at things he’s said and done and vice versa. He’s stopped speaking to me numerous times. In the periods in which we’re on good terms I never, ever have better political conversations, more interesting talks, or a better time with anyone. He is eminently practical (there is no higher word of praise in my vocabulary, just so you know), concise, and, as Luca loves to say, bullshit-free. He can be more reactive and juvenile, more clear minded and perceptive—astonishingly, effortlessly so—than anyone I’ve ever met. He is extra ordinary {sic}. And there it is.


PS: You have been the perfume critic of the New York Times for quite some time now. There has been some criticism about your columns from people who are interested in perfume, especially on internet fora. This is a good thing, because it means that so many read you and pay attention, by the way! The main complaint however has been that you became a perfume critic by association: because you had met someone who had been a perfume critic himself. Other complaints focus on your prose or your attention to the chemical structure of things which they might deem as unromantic. How would you reply to them, if at all?


CB: OK, so let’s take them one by one. Obviously I became a perfume critic by association: I met Luca, I learned from him that perfume criticism existed, I wrote about him doing it, then I started doing it. And? How do they think people become anything? David Geffen started working in the William Morris mailroom. Amy Pascal started as some producer’s assistant; now she’s Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group. In fact, throughout history a vast number of the men and women who’ve made it to the top of their professions started on the lowliest levels in places they got to by pure chance—life is like that—and rose. Joseph Volpe began as a carpenter's apprentice at New York's Metropolitan Opera and four decades later became its general manager. And on and on and on. This is an idiotic observation to make about me on its face.


But if they are actually arguing, elliptically, that my criticism is qualitatively inferior, that’s a completely different and unrelated argument. And they can make that argument. But they should make that argument directly. The other is an observation, not an argument, and it is prima facia moronic. So is my criticism qualitatively inferior? I hope not. I certainly spend an immense amount of time and effort trying to insure it isn’t.


Complaints about my prose and my attention to the chemical structure of things: These are of course perfectly legitimate points. My response is, first, that nobody bats a thousand, and I sure as hell am no exception. I make mistakes (in retrospect, obviously; one only has retrospect to make that call) all the time in choice of adjectives and so on. If you write for a year, you have a year’s worth of writing to find things that you regret. If you write for 30 years, you’ve got 30 years’ worth. Somebody once asked Frank Bruni how often he read what was on the blogs about him, and he said, emphatically, “Never!” My answer is: “Almost never.” First, I’m not a board guy, either technically (I lose my way on them) or temperamentally. Second, the ratio of serious, intelligent criticism of my own writing, both positive and negative, that I’ve seen is relatively small. When it’s there, I love it. A friend sent me to look at something on Perfume of Life recently, and I found an entire thread in which people had not only posed several smart criticisms of me but asked several pertinent questions, and I wound up making the first board entry I think I’ve ever made. I really enjoyed it. I have no time or interest in comments like “Burr is such an asshole,” “What a jerk,” “Yeah, anyone else who can’t stand him?” There is simply zero content here. When the comments are intelligent and thoughtful, then I’m interested.



For example, there’s the criticism of my writing about the molecules and synthetics and the opinion that that makes perfume “unromantic.” I could not possibly disagree more strongly with this point of view, but it’s an entirely legitimate point of view, so to give an answer: For me—not for others, I realize; I’m speaking from my perspective—good criticism decorticates and reverse engineers the art it is examining on a mechanical level as well as a conceptual/ aesthetic one. I used the example once of Alex Ross, the New Yorker’s classical music critic, who will, rarely but sometimes, give specifics about the keys, modalities, and technical details of the music he is criticizing. I wish he did it more. I love it. I’ve read critics who talk about the technical aspects of perspective in painting and the electronics and physics of the machines that reproduce the Ravel that we listen to. I love that. (Luca is actually an expert in this.) So I start from that perspective.

Now, to bring that specifically to perfume: In "The Perfect Scent", this is part of what I say.

"I was at breakfast in Paris at one of the stupidly expensive Alain Ducasse places with the creative director of a prominent French house. I told her about a piece I was writing about synthetics for The Times, explaining the role that synthetics had in perfume and that most perfumes are made of synthetics today. She looked at me with honest horror. She said, “Mais Chandler, tu casses le rêve!” But, Chandler, you’re destroying the dream! The dream being some information-free version of perfume where the stuff presumably flows purely outof a tiny magic spigot attached to a rosebush or something else and is bottled by fairies with LVMH employment contracts. I like this woman. She’s serious and smart, but she shares this viewpoint with the overwhelming majority of French perfume industry people (and basically the same number of their New York counterparts), and I couldn’t disagree with them more. When I repeated the comment to Frédéric Malle, he rolled his eyes and said, “They’re killing themselves with this rêve, which in my opinion is more of a cauchmare.” A nightmare.
For example: Not only are synthetics fascinating; they’re basically completely misunderstood by everyone. Including some of the pros, by the way…..Perfume is a parade of emperor’s new clothes. In the “dream” version of perfume, marketers tell the public that perfumes have “notes of caramel and blueberry,” which simply means, since there are no natural caramel or blueberry perfumery raw materials (it’s neither technically possible nor financially viable to distill them), that the perfumers have just created these scents (perfumers call them accords, not notes, which is a term for public consumption).
You can create the scent of caramel with 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2(5H)-furanone. If you take that molecule and add a small amount of ethyl butyrate, ethyl valerate, and phenethyl acetate, you get a nice fresh garden berry that would work great in an Escada launch. God forbid the public knew it.
Explaining a jet engine or the wing of a 787 doesn’t destroy the awesome beauty of flight. It doesn’t break the dream. It does the opposite. The more you understand of science, the more you marvel at the magic of reality, and creating the dream is not the same as perpetuating ignorance. It is the opposite: taking people inside, letting them see behind the scenes, showing them how it all works. To the degree to which its public discourse aligns with the truth about the construction of its perfumes, Estée Lauder is always on surer, safer, more solid ground. This is, pretty much, the fundamental political observation of the twentieth century; it is one of the more obvious economic lessons drawn from ideological, antimarket socialist economies where both economic forces and the public relations surrounding them were divorced from the reality of consumer instincts. Lauder’s old public relations policy, in which the perfumer was never to be mentioned and Mrs. Lauder was presented in some vague, inchoate way as sitting in her kitchen pouring raspberry ketone into dihydrojasmonate, is from a different era.

The paradigm is antiquated. I would suggest that it is also commercially ineffective. In fact, probably counterproductive…. Millions are fascinated by the process by which designers like Todd Oldham cut, sew, design, and agonize their fall collections into existence, but the great creative minds at Yves Saint Laurent and Jean Paul Gaultier and Dior, with the collective brilliance of a single mollusk at low tide, have intuited that with perfume? No. Here is an industry suffocating itself on the most immense pile of public relations human civilization has ever produced, a literal mountain of verbiage about “the noble materials, symbol of eternal feminine beauty, addictive notes of Cocoa Puffs, she can’t wait to taste him like a Hershey’s kiss, Cleopatra wore this, it has notes of distilled wild all-natural Martian fungus harvested by French virgins on the third moon of Pluto.” The lies pile up on other lies, they generate a poisoned river of vapid crap the marketers try to pass off as “information,” and the brands have no clue that their public relations approach is about fifty years out of date. Reading anything they put out on their perfumes is like reading a combination of Kafka, only less creative, and Pravda circa 1985. Zero interest. There is almost no recognition that the enforced lack of knowledge, this gaping void of nothingness about what their products actually are, who makes them, and what’s in the things, is creating boredom and disinterest. The perfume industry is choking itself to death on its vacuum."

~The Perfect Scent

PS: On the matter of synthetics, there has been polemics of sorts between people who defend naturals (scents made out of naturally-derived raw materials, that is) and those who prefer synthetics (scents with a preponderance of man-made aroma chemicals). Your own stance so far shows a very distinct tendency towards the latter. Would you mind explaining how and why this came about? Some might say that you are not all that familiar with all-naturals scents anyway.


CB: “Some might say that you are not all that familiar with all-naturals scents anyway.” I may of course be wrong, but I believe I’m more than familiar enough with all-natural scents. I have smelled many of them, in several different collections, over the years. Most lately a new batch, two weeks ago, in a restaurant in Soho. They are natural perfumes, which is to say they have an extremely limited palette, range, and technical performance. They are boring, and my position—which is that synthetics are absolutely just as integral to and legitimate in perfumery as natural materials; not that they are better but simply that they are equal—comes from the simple empirical observation that all raw materials are made up of chemicals. It is utterly illogical to argue that a chemical made in a plant is superior (or inferior for that matter) to the same chemical made in a factory. It’s simply illogical. It is illogical to argue that natural molecules are all good and synthetics all bad when arsenic is natural and it is a poison (as are so many other naturals). It is simply illogical. But religious people are not logical, and the all-natural people are deeply, fervently religious, and I have no more to say to them than I do to any other theocratic fundamentalists. If naturals are simply spiritually better, then my empirical position is worthless and I am wrong by definition. That’s the way religious truth works. In my view, however, religious fanaticism sucks, and it is no more logical to build a perfume today only of natural materials than it is to build a building today only out of mud, wood, and thatch.



PS: Today’s mainstream perfumery has been “cheapened” by popular agreement. Is this due in part to fragrance houses briefing the big companies that produce scents to use the cheapest ingredients, some of which are indeed aroma chemicals that mimic natural essences that have a prohibitive cost or is it merely the ugly head of unrestrained capitalism raising itself?



CB: Yes.



PS: Additionally, today’s mainstream perfumery lacks originality: everyone is copying each other and the latest blockbuster in this tsunami of perfume releases. How did it come to that? Is there a way out? Many perfumers have admittedly become jaded, like Pierre Bourdon for instance.



CB: It came to that in exactly the same way that it came to the exact same thing in Hollywood: I once heard an MBA say to me, rather wearily, “The fundamental principle in business is: reduce risk.” Olivier Cresp did Light Blue for Dolce & Gabbana, and it is just wonderful and delightful, an innovative way of doing clarity as an aesthetic. Then he did Black XS, which was the same theme, and it was slightly less interesting, though still good. Then he did Ange ou Démon, and it was what it was: a copy of a copy. But what is Olivier to do? He’s done this hugely successful thing (that also happens to be very good), they ask him, “Hey, can you make us a Light Blue too?” They mean, usually, in sales figures, but sometimes they just say it: “Copy that!” What is he to do?


YOU CAN READ THE 2nd PART CLICKING HERE




Pic of firing men from the film The wind that shakes the barley courtesy of athinorama. Pic of tryptophan structure from linkinghub.elsevier