Mathilde Laurent: Perfume is a Weapon of Seduction {Fragrant Reading} {Scented Quote of the Day}
In an interview in French with Cartier in-house perfumer Mathilde Laurent, the "nose" reveals how the process of customization of a perfume goes. The tab is pretty steep at 60 000 €.
The perfumer talks about her transfer from Guerlain to Cartier, which she already evoked in previous interviews. She explains how a keen sense of smell is not a gift but the result of training and linked with qualities of intelligence and creativity. Someone can have a very sensitive sense of smell, yet lack creativity for example. And one does not just smell with the nose but with the brain. In brief, it is a refutation of the Grenouille myth whereby a superhuman sense of smell explains the success and inevitability of a perfumer's vocation however warped in that case.....
Another myth that is set about is the idea that a perfume corresponds to a personality. For her,
" Celui [le parfum] qui vous va, c'est avant tout celui qui vous émeut. On n'a pas le droit de dire à une femme qu'une fragrance ne lui va pas comme on ne peut pas affirmer qu'elle est masculine ou féminine. "
" The [perfume] that suits you, is before all else the one that moves you. One does not have the right to tell a woman that a fragrance does not become her just like one cannot say that it is masculine or feminine."
Similarly, no single aromas should be rejected (she works with more than 1000) because even if disliked, they can provide an effect in a composition rather than be perceived on their own.
Read more.....
Previous Posts in Fragrant Readings:
Comprehensive Article on Mimosa
Jean Paul Gaultier Interviewed by L'Express on Beauty & Perfume
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Comments
Yes!
The right fragrance is the one that makes one`s smell cells tremble in ecstasy.
That picture of Mathilde is just fabulous.
I wondered about this several times before: does that thing in her hand, that "mouillette holder" have any special name? In French or in English?
Posted by: benvenuta | April 1, 2008
Yes, she comes across as the sultry perfumeresse.
In French it's called most commonly a porte-mouillette. There might be other names for it.
Posted by: Marie-Helene | April 1, 2008
since she created a perfume that MOVED me - guerlains aqua allegoria pamplelune (and i am very hard to please regarding scents) i would believe her:)
Posted by: jana | August 1, 2008