Posted by Robin
on
17 October 2005
Grant Osborne was born in London, and now lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and 4 month old son. He launched the Basenotes website in 2000, and it has since grown into the largest online database and interactive community for men who are interested in fragrance. Last year he launched a forum for women, and expanded the database to include women’s fragrances. I asked Grant to tell me how he got started in fragrance…
How and when did you first become interested in fragrance, and what were a few of your early favorites?
My first fragrance was a present on my 18th birthday: a bottle of Yves Saint Laurent Jazz. I liked it, but to me at the time, it was just a fragrance. My interest in fragrance really developed later. I used to work as a Photographic Advisor at a major chain of chemists in the UK called Boots. After a few years, I got bored of cameras and photos, and a vacancy arose in-store for a Men’s Fine Fragrance Advisor. I thought it would be fun to learn about something new and went for the interview and got the job…
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Posted by Robin
on
10 October 2005
Bond no. 9 was founded in 2003 by Laurice Rahme, and features perfumes inspired by various New York City neighborhoods. Ms. Rahme was born in Paris but has lived in New York for over 25 years. She was formerly the president of Creed USA, and has also worked for Annick Goutal and Lancome. Bond’s next fragrance, Bleecker Street, is scheduled for release on November 1st.
Bond no. 9 has been on a mission to capture the essence of New York City’s neighborhoods in fragrance. While this has been done elsewhere on a much smaller scale (Yves Saint Laurent’s Rive Gauche, for instance), it is an unusual basis for an entire line. What inspired you to take this approach, and did people initially think you were crazy?
After September 11, I wanted to do something for New York, my adopted city. (My birthplace is Paris). Inspired by the French perfumery of the 20th century, who developed dozens of scents for different neighborhoods (Jardin de Bagatelle; Champs Elysees; 24, Faubourg; etc). People did not think we were crazy. On the contrary they gave us a list of neighborhoods they would like and we are trying to trademark many of them…
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Posted by Robin
on
6 October 2005
Pierre Dinand is a living legend in the world of perfume packaging and design. His bottle creations are too numerous to list, but here are just a few examples: Givenchy Ysatis, Ivoire de Balmain, Tiffany, Coriandre, Caron Nocturnes, Lancome Magie Noire, and Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche. Those of you who drooled over the recent special edition bottle of Mûre et Musc for L’Artisan — that is his design. So was the lovely green fig bottle for Premier Figuier that was released last year. On his website, you can read a brief biography, learn about the technical aspects of bottle design, find a list of some of the perfume bottles he designed, and see his recent sculpture work…
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Posted by Robin
on
22 September 2005
Jan Moran is the author of two volumes on fragrance, Fabulous Fragrances I and II, and the creator of her own fragrance, appropriately called Fabulous. Along with Michael Edwards, the author of Fragrances of the World, she is poised to launch a new online database, Fabulous Fragrances of the World, (see yesterday) designed to provide comprehensive fragrance information to retailers and journalists.
Please tell us how and when you first became interested in fragrance, and what were a few of your early favorites?
My grandmother and mother sparked my earliest interest in fragrance. We shared many favorites: Shalimar, Chanel No. 5, Vol du Nuit, Miss Dior, Nuit de Noël…
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Posted by Robin
on
14 September 2005
If you’ve ever been tempted to start mixing your own scents, Anya McCoy’s story will be instructive. Anya started collecting essences, then started selling, then started blending, and eventually founded the Natural Perfumery discussion group on Yahoo. Recently, Anya has launched naturalperfumery.com, a clearinghouse for information on this expanding field. She plans to launch her own line of perfumes early next year.
How and when did you first become interested in perfume?
My first scent memories involve the lush perfumes that my mother and her friends wore. They gave me the almost-empty bottles so I could play with the bits left. I was only two or three, yet I could differentiate the varied perfumes by name. I connected them with the real world, like the roses and irises and crisp green succulent leaves of the hedges that grew in our garden. I found that picking and rubbing the flowers or leaves on my skin didn’t produce a fine perfume, so I thought there was something magical about how the scent went from the plant to the bottle — and there is! I knew I would be fascinated with perfumes for the rest of my life, and the natural world of plants and perfumes has always been intertwined in my heart and soul…
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