Interview with Perfumer Ramon Monegal of Ramon Monegal Perfumes

Ramón Monegal Masó is the perfumer and driving force behind prominent niche perfumes firm Ramón Monegal from Barcelona, Spain. Certainly among the best discoveries of 2012 and a collection with something for everyone, the line attracts attention for two main reasons: Ramón Monegal at once continues an honored craftsmanship tradition, that of Spanish brand Myrurgia (of the erstwhile Maja) ~where he tenured as Creative Director and later Vice President~ and preempts trends and ideas of the future in his own independent line. Personally I was very impressed by several of the creations, so naturally I sought to question the author himself. Here is an interview he kindly granted me, highlighting some of his inspirations and the thinking behind the new line.

Elena Vosnaki:  It is rather astounding these days to find a niche line that offers such quality, quantity and diversity within their portfolio. Fourteen scents seem almost too many for any line, yet you have produced several within it that are bound to become cult favorites (I'm just mentioning in passing Mon Patchouly, Mon Cuir, Impossible Iris, Cuirelle, Umbra...). How did the vision for the RM line begin and how did it expand into what it contains now? 

Ramón Monegal: My current collection is the consequence of a career that never had freedom of expression. Nowadays my perfumes are the result of my own experiences and my bigger desires that never saw the light and has been my “raison d’être”. Those experiences and desires plus my current freedom have made my first collection possible. How will my collection evolve? This is very difficult to answer because once I have seen the success of my perfumes I can affirm that I will go on through a path of the excellence and trying to get closer to art, which is my main goal.

EV: How does it feel getting out of the traditional, family-owned Myrurgia (now under Puig) into a separate sector that would be more personalized? 

RM: I feel a great responsibility to all those who gave part of their life to teach me, I feel proud to be the fourth generation of a family dedicated to perfumery, I am encouraged and excited to be able to show my work, and a great satisfaction to be able to train my children to give continuity to the family tradition.

EV: Do you feel that the Spanish perfume tradition has more to offer to the international scene than what is currently recognized as "prestige"? I'm asking because many perfume fans are aware of the French-school, the US-school, maybe the British or Italian "school" of perfume tradition, but not the Spanish; they relegate it solely to the Eau de Cologne type of scents and the classic Maja (of course!). What do you have to say to that? 

RM: That’s true! We should make them change their minds. Some years ago nobody thought of Spain when talking about haute cuisine. However nowadays Spain is ranked first in the field of haute cuisine! It was possible by imagination, risk-taking and the talent of a chef, Ferran Adria, who with his Restaurant “El Bulli” obtained worldwide recognition with his creations. I think today Spanish perfumery is second-rate and in order to leave mediocrity behind, we should go back to it true origin, approach the art with passion, imagination, talent, freedom, courage and good education. We need to look and find the true origins again.

EV: Is entering the niche field the only way of growing a reputable brand without the back-up of big conglomerates these days? Does it offer other competitive advantages? 

RM: I think the big groups restrict freedom with too many filters, and therefore the resources diminish in favor of Marketing. I sincerely believe that a small company like ours is more agile and able to adapt better and faster to new technologies. In a company like ours we hear the opinions of our direct customers and respect them, we are able to spend more on the development of the perfume, the perfumer is the true author and thus the values are authentic, the atmosphere is exciting and everyone feels they are participants, therefore perfumes are better. If we add the experience I think the benefits are huge compared to the disadvantages, especially the economic ones we suffer for not belonging to a large group.

EV: The RM line is full of interesting and novel takes on raw materials that are reference points for niche perfumes and for perfume aficionados. Was it a conscious choice (offer a new "spin" on old beloveds) or was it a process of going with the vision of a composition for each perfume which resulted in that effect? 

RM: The language of perfume is the language of ingredients and also of the perfumer. In my case I was lucky that my experience was not only in laboratories. Throughout my career I have had the responsibility to locate and evaluate materials purchased worldwide, which has forced me to be up to date, and given me additional knowledge of its nuances and values. When working on a budget you lose the freedom to use certain materials and certain proportions, but when you make a personal perfume, when part of your soul is within the perfume, you regain the right to use whatever you want and become duty to get rid of trade obligations and approach to art. Today we have fantastic pure natural materials as well as synthetic molecules with an extraordinary quality. In my opinion the author of the 21st century should be able to use them all, regardless of price, or provenance. All that matters is the quality and the fine nuances.

EV:  I noticed that you carry three "musk" types in the line: White Cotton, Agar Musk and Cherry Musk, each very different from the other. What was the rationale behind those? 

RM: Actually in my Barcelona’s shop I have up to 5, but for my international collection I have selected only 3. The perfume personality defines and at the same time attracts the environment. Musk molecules attract me and I'm addicted to them. They have the virtue of resembling human pheromones but are still noticeable, exciting, pure, delicate, gentle, and are an excellent base to combine with all kinds of chords and olfactory images, and was something I always wanted to play in my previous stage but they never let me do.

via stylelovely.com

EV: The packaging of the series is exquisite and very classy. Who do we have to thank for? How did the inkwell idea came about? 

RM: My initial training was architecture, which I left to train as a perfumer, and my training has always defined the basic structures of my perfumes and base plates. More recently another of my concerns, the literary, led me to write the novel "Perfumer" [ed.note: in Spanish], that I wrote in my period of reflection and I discovered the value of an inkwell: the container of a material, the ink, that in the hands of the writer can turn into any kind of story. When I thought of drawing my perfume container, in a volume that it could define and indentify to myself,  the idea of the inkwell came to mind: it could be a good container for any olfactory history and it could have an strong architectural volume, and that is how I drew my iconic flacon. Then I had to adjust the proportions to incorporate a valve to make it rechargeable, and I chose high-quality materials as the semiautomatic glass, zamack to the hinge (a metal alloy of zinc, aluminum, magnesium and copper) and bakelite for the lid and for the packaging.

EV: What are some of your favorite things: Favorite city, favorite food, favorite perfume note, favorite fabric, favorite color...? 

RM: My favorite city is Barcelona because it is on a human scale, bright, artistic, Mediterranean, intellectual and inspiring. I love the new gastronomy Ferran Adria deconstructed ingredients based on first order, also the Japanese-style raw fish, with young & fruity white wine. I like the flowers tuberose and jasmine, galbanum incense and resins, iris root and vetiver, cedar and sandalwood, the molecules of musk and amber. My favorite spices are pink pepper and nutmeg. My favorite fabrics are linen, silk and leather. And my colors, black and yellow together.

EV: Where can one find your perfumes in Europe and in the US? Do you have plans of expanding to other markets as well? 

RM: In the U.S. we are available at Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus and in a selection of the best independent stores such as Luckyscent. In Europe we are already in Spain, Germany, Italy and coming soon in Romania, Berlin, Vienna and Brussels. We have begun the expansion less than a year ago and our plans are going step by step, selecting only the best places all over the world.  

EV: Is there a special fragrance that has marked you while growing up or one which you admire a lot from another perfumer? Why? 

RM: The smells of childhood marked me a lot, especially those from the sea; also the pitch (tar and leather) used by a master in the art of caulk caulking boats, in a small fishing village located on the Costa Brava where I spent my summer vacation, the tanning from the leather bags of my mom and the leather smell from the Aston Martin’s seats of my father. I love the smell of incense in liturgical celebrations ... Later, and in my training period as a perfumer, I found that the smell of humid earth comes from its roots and fell in love with ginger and vetiver root, especially the unclassifiable iris from Fiorence, which I chose to create my first customized fragrance for the was going to be my wife, María, for the day of our wedding, 36 years ago.There are classics that I have studied thoroughly and I am still admiring nowadays perhaps more than ever, as for example the true Jacques Guerlain's Shalimar, the incomparable iris of Chanel No.19 by Henri Robert, the Cuir de Russie by Ernest Beaux, the extracts of East woods by Lucien Maisonier in Myrurgia, besides other and obviously not forgetting perfumers as Artur J. Pey, Pierre Bourdon or Marcel Carles .

You can discover the perfumes on the official site.

Reviews of Impossible Iris and Mon Patchouly on these links.

Everyone Hail to the Pumpkin Song: Scents of Halloween

I am the "who" when you call, "Who's there?"
I am the wind blowing through your hair
I am the shadow on the moon at night

The end of October brings with it its own special mood and that is largely dependent on the cooling of the weather and the shortening of the day. The diminished light can be a little spooky when it's not drab. And of course spooky always brings to mind Halloween, fittingly bookended between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. And which perfumes accompany this Halloween mood?

via thesymmetricswan.com

The following suggestions are inspired by either the traditional scents associated with the fall celebration (Jack o'lantern pumkin, apples and gingerbread cookies, licorice sticks, spices etc.) or with the autumnal landscape around.

Like This by Etat Libre d'Orange (created in collaboration with Tilda Swinton) is a natural as it includes actual notes of pumpkin (!), gingerbread spices, everlasting flower (immortelle), warm woods and the autumnal scent of damp earth.

Jesus del Poso Halloween is for those of you who want to be literal, even though the scent is a woody with powdery facets, focused on violets. Interestingly, the 1997 perfume features a bell-shaped jar eerily similar to those employed by Lutens for his Paris-exclusive scents. Spooky! :-)

Demeter's Pumpkin Pie fragrance smells of pumpkins (well, duh), sugar, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. The perfect shortcut to actually baking that pumpkin pie!

Serge Lutens Five O'Clock Au Gingembre is not as literally related to All Hallow's Eve, much as it fuses the British with the French, but the ambience it creates is perfect for this time of the year.

Lancome Magie Noire is as bewitched as you'd wish for this day of the year. A purple fruity top note over the darkest gothic imaginable falls into murky depths of oakmoss and patchouli.

BPAL Dia de Los Muertos is even named after the original Mexican celebration; the Day of the Dead. (For an inspiration on what to make in the kitchen, look at this kolyva recipe)

Ayala Moriel Autumn is a sensuous perfume of all naturals ingredients, with fruity notes that recall the harvest season. But it's the dark shade of the liquid that is so evocative of something more earthy, more primal...

Korres Jasmine, Pepper, Gaiacwood brings on all the joys of warmth and heft that suit the season. The scent is unique and mysterious enough to entice.

CB I Hate Perfume November ushers the month with the melancholy it befits it—with notes of pumpkin pie, fallen leaves and ringlets of smoke rising on the cool sky.

Which perfume are YOU bringing out from under the bed...?

Gucci Premiere: fragrance review

Gucci Première represents the culmination of perfumery catering to those, on the one hand, sick of too candy-like creations, but, on the other hand, not yet ready to step into more challenging stuff. At all times pleasant, bon chic bon genre, and discreet like the perfect secretary, it adds itself to the category of woody musky fragrances with citrus overtones. The latter might tempt men sharing the bottle as well despite the feminine focus of the images accompanying it. Without being dated, Première isn't ground-breaking new, but I bet that might prompt it being picked for gift giving; it's hard to beat something that offends no one! This of course can be a serious drawback too: One can end up pleasing no one enough.

The official description stresses the glamorous element, but Gucci Première seems to me the kind of fragrance that gets one through every day, a sort of "I don't think about it too much" perfume layer that becomes part of you rather than pronouncing its presence via a complicated, intellectualized plot. To cut a long story short, it's the sort of thing that doesn't make any demands on you, take it or leave it, it's rather expected and -dare I say it- a bit boring. The dominating notes are bergamot and clean musks, clean like the ambassadress who represents it in the 40s-glamorous advertising photos, Blake Lively.
Woods and warm ambery musks coat-tail the crystalline floral chord (with a hint of white petal lily) under the first impression of fresh citrus and settle down on the skin with a softness that is surprising for such a composition. After all, the genre begat by Narciso Rodriguez For Her isn't known for its low sillage! Gucci Première however, for better or for worse, depending on your particular viewpoint, remains at all times subtle, even fleeting (it has the lasting power of an eau de toilette rather than what it is presented as, which is eau de parfum). No harshness in the leather note at all either, to the point where it shouldn't raise a brow by the cuir-o-phobics, i.e. those with a problematic relationship with the pungent leather fragrances. More's the pity for us leather fiends!

Beautiful bottle in gold with the familiar charms by Gucci.

According to the official blurb on Escentual, where the new Gucci fragrance is available: "Inspired by the Gucci Première Couture collection that debuted at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, Creative Director Frida Giannini conceived a new fragrance legend in the iconic and sophisticated form of Gucci Première. Première is the scent of a woman who is accustomed to coming first, whether in her career or in her love life. She makes the same exceptional demands of her perfume, wanting only the very best for every occasion. Just as a leading lady graces the red carpet with her couture Gucci gown, so every woman deserves her Gucci Première moment".

Notes for Gucci Première eau de parfum:
Top Notes: Bergamot, Orange Blossom
Heart Notes: White Flowers, Musk
Base Notes: Leather, Wood

The winner of the draw...

...for the Tawaf bottle is Carole MacLeod.
Congratulations and please email me with your shipping data using the Contact, so I can send them along to the perfumer who will get your prize in the mail soon.

Thanks everyone for the enthusiastic participation and till the next one!

Chanel No.5: Precious Ingredients Lore

At the heart of Chanel No.5 marketing lies the lore of prized perfumery materials. Fragrant jasmine from Grasse, real ambergris as precious as gold, the choisest foundations on which to build a masterpiece... It can be argued that the significance -and indeed definition- of a masterpiece doesn't rely on the materials it is made of necessarily, but on the way it is made and the intellectual/emotional message it conveys. Yet, as with anything, a closer examination of any legend brings on its own interesting revelations.

Let's start with the ambergris part. Let's start with a diversion. Have you ever wondered: Why have top U.S. perfume houses either stopped using ambergris as an ingredient or stopped talking about it?

 “It’s illegal to possess ambergris in any form, for any reason,” says Michael Payne at the National Marine Fisheries Service, a U.S. federal agency in Silver Spring, Md., regarding the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Even picking up a stray lump from the beach is prohibited, according to Payne. However, there isn’t a lot of precedent for prosecution. “I know we’ve issued warning letters,” he says. “It was probably a very long time ago. It hasn’t been since 1990.” European companies don't have such a risk-taking hindrance in the way, so the lore  continues  unfazed.

Tilar Mazzeo, the author of The Secret of Chanel No. 5: The Intimate History of the World’s Most Famous Perfume, says that “historically Chanel No. 5 certainly did use ambergris.” The original formula leaked in the 1930s, she says, and “the copies I have seen include ambergris or ambrein—the essential scent element of ambergris—as an ingredient.” Not so, says Philip Kraft, a German chemist who creates scents for Givaudan (GIVN:VX), a Swiss manufacturer of fragrances. “There never was any ambergris in Chanel No. 5,” he says. “Not in the formula from 1921, nor in the one of today.” A representative from Chanel declined to comment. [source]

Ambrein smells like ambergris, true, but actually comes from purified labdanum!

Jasmine is also a semi-accurate affair at best in what concerns the communication of Chanel No.5. You will often hear brandished the term "French jasmine" as a denoting of superior quality. Grasse after all has been made famous thanks to its natural products, jasmine out of which is most notorious. The cultivation of the jasminum grandiflorum variety came from the Arab trade route. The Grasse jasmine is sweeter than most and more refined than the bulk of commercial jasmine essence that comes from Egypt (more than 3/4 of the total production comes from this area), Morocco and India (where jasminum sambac is the traditional product). Due to extreme costs to obtain this precious extract only a few companies have been able to use Grasse jasmine in their perfumes. This traditionally included Chanel (who use Grasse jasmine in their extrait de parfum of No.5 and the rest of their jasmine-listing extrait de parfum fragrances) and who have bought their own fields of jasmine and tuberose in the region of Grasse, France since a long while. French jasmine is at the heart of all marketing stories of Chanel. Yet the perfumery restrictions imposed (and condoned by many major companies, Chanel included, in the RIFM organisation) in 2009 specify such a low ratio of jasmine grandiflorum allowed (0.7% under the 43rd amendment of IFRA) that it must mean we're being had on...