appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Tama Lung

In many ways, Camille Goutal and Isabelle Doyen’s workspace could be mistaken for an artist’s studio. A well-worn vintage sofa sits next to a long wooden table strewn with faded photographs, notes and other bits of inspiration.
A small side room houses more photos, sketches and oil paintings, as well as thousands of vials of raw materials stashed in drawers, on shelves and lined up at eye level on what the French pair refer to as “the organ”.

In fact, this cosy corner of a Parisian townhouse is the laboratory for Annick Goutal fragrances – the place where Goutal and Doyen develop and refine their French brand’s signature range of high-quality scents.
“At other companies, everything is made by computer, but here it’s on notebooks,” says Doyen, who also collaborated with Camille’s mother Annick from 1986 until her death in 1999.
“We perfumers are manufacturing our own. We don’t have assistants or big factories. We just have the idea, or story. And then sometimes we add little things.”
Goutal and Doyen are just a few of the master perfumers now bucking the trend in mass-market products endorsed by celebrities and fashion houses, instead restoring fragrance to its original place as a luxury and an art form.
In the process, they are credited with producing an unprecedented range of innovative, highquality scents.

“I think it is the high levels of artistry, passion, skill and risk-taking that make niche brands attractive,” says Harriet Lee, vicepresident of Joyce Beauty, who notes that such brands are outperforming their mainstream counterparts in terms of business growth.
“After all, it is the perfume itself being entirely the focal point, the emotional connection, and not any star endorsement or packaging design.”
The emergence of niche brands such as Annick Goutal, Diptyque, Jo Malone, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle and Le Labo, along with the revival of legendary houses such as Creed and Penhaligon’s, has also brought perfumers and their craft out of the shadows and firmly into the limelight.
“When we opened Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle in 2000, we were the first to name the true authors of each perfume by putting the name of the perfumers on each bottle,” says the fragrance house’s namesake and founder, Frédéric Malle, whose iconic products include Portrait of a Lady by Dominique Ropion and L’Eau d’Hiver by Jean- Claude Ellena. “We made people aware that there was an artist behind each perfume, and we made these artists exist in the public’s mind.”

Malle, whose grandfather founded Parfums Christian Dior, has dedicated his career to bringing perfumery closer to a “true art form”.
He gives each perfumer complete freedom and access to the most precious raw materials, with the only goal being “to make the classics of tomorrow”.
For Francis Kurkdjian – who created scents for Dior, Ferragamo, Giorgio Armani and Acqua di Parma before launching his bespoke fragrance atelier in 2001and his own brand, Maison Francis Kurkdjian, in 2009 – making fragrances is akin to storytelling.
“Painters use colours, musicians use notes.
I, as a perfumer, use scents to express myself,” he says. “Being a perfumer is like being a storyteller. I translate my emotions into scents.”
Kurkdjian has also been credited with shattering conceptions of perfume as a mere commodity, through “olfactive installations” such as fragrant bubbles at the Shanghai World Expo and sound/light/scent shows at the fountains of Versailles in France.

“Perfume is not a beauty product. It is not nail polish, mascara or lipstick,” Kurkdjian says.
“The world of Maison Francis Kurkdjian expresses what I believe in terms of luxury and fragrance. It reflects my words, my aesthetics and my vision.”
As with any art, a creative vision can take various forms. Goutal and Doyen compare the development of a new perfume to the design of a couture garment.
“It’s like creating a dress. You make the dress, and then you accessorise it here and there,” Doyen says, noting that it takes at least one year to develop a scent.
“You have the main idea, and then something else comes. Sometimes it feels like the fragrance is leading you, and you are not the one leading the fragrance,” she adds.
In the end, it is the pursuit of the perfect scent that seems to drive the master perfumer – not the name on the bottle, the potential profits or the famous face in the advertisements. “As to being concerned about these mediocre perfumes that invade the planet, I believe that people are smart and know better,” Malle says.
“The good thing in all of this is that the public is now aware that perfume can be a true luxury and a very artistic product.”
 
PRECIOUS FRAGRANCES
This season sees a number of launches from leading niche brands, taking inspiration from the city to the sea.
Annick Goutal Vent de Folie
Inspired by the scent of a sweet pea and the image of free-spirited young women in New York City, Vent de Folie is an effervescent blend of blood orange, geranium rosa, blackcurrant, white musk and cedar bark. Translated by Goutal as “Wind of Craziness”, it is a marked departure for the brand with its urban sensibility.
Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle Eau de Magnolia
Created by Carlos Benaïm, whose masterpieces include Ralph Lauren’s Polo, Eau de Magnolia is a fresh chypre fragrance. Ingredients include bergamot, vetiver heart and amber extreme to give depth to the transparent magnolia accord.

Jo Malone Wood Sage & Sea Salt
With a top note of ambrette seeds, heart of sea salt and base of sage, Jo Malone’s latest release by master perfumer Christine Nagel is designed to evoke a windswept shoreline. Besides cologne and body products, there is a home candle version.
Maison Francis Kurkdjian Pluriel
Kurkdjian’s latest “opus” comes in feminine and masculine versions, the former featuring a grand floral bouquet and the latter blending leather and woody notes with lavender absolute. Both are designed to transcend trends to become wardrobe classics.
Penhaligon’s Trade Routes Collection
Comprised of three fragrances by three different perfumers, this new collection is inspired by luxurious commodities traded through London around the turn of the 19th century – think exotic black tea, sensuous pearls and silks, and rich rums and spices.
 
 


Luxury bar soap revival: how Chanel, Jo Malone, Diptyque and Aesop elevated everyday cleansers

How Hong Kong artisan perfume house Floriography bottles memories and the city’s vibes

Perfumes from Tom Ford, Aesop, Byredo and Penhaligon’s that inspire wanderlust

5 beauty highlights from Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Laura Mercier and more

Fragrances

Master perfumers defy the trend of mass-market products

The Annick Goutal fragrance laboratory in Paris

Penhaligon’s Trade Routes Collection

Maison Francis Kurkdjian Pluriel

Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle Eau de Magnolia

Francis Kurkdjian launched his brand in 2009.

Annick Goutal Vent de Folie

Frédéric Malle, founder of the fragrance house Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle

Magazines

Style

A handful of perfumers are returning fragrance to its place as a luxurious art form


Good Reads

Master perfumers defy the trend of mass-market products

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}A handful of perfumers are returning fragrance to its place as a luxurious art form

A handful of perfumers are returning fragrance to its place as a luxurious art form