JACQUES

Featured NOTES include:- Lemon, Bergamot, Rose Damascena, Jasmine Grandiflorum, Orris Root, Benzoin, Vietnamese Oudh and Vanilla.

When a popular youtube perfume reviewer challenged me to attempt making an all-natural version of Shalimar, I said “No way”. Why try and make (again) what is already perfect? Already here and someone else’s idea? Besides, surely every perfumer has had a go at blending this and No5, right? He urged me to give it my best shot, purely for the creative challenge. So I began to think deeply and read widely about the life and times of the esteemed Monsieur Jacques Guerlain.

At some point in the research phase I noticed that the lights in my studio became dimmer, and the walls and floors had darkened. I stared into the gloom of a wood-panelled room, perched upon an old, overstuffed leather chair…. the world was quiet, the air was clean and time ticked so slowly by that it felt heavy as a treacle of moments passing through and around me. There was a fireplace where one had never been and gaslights glowed in beautiful wall sconces. A portrait of uncle Aimé was ever so slightly askew and the sound of very large dogs barking off in the distance travelled into the room as dusk descended in the garden

I reached my hand out to lift three mouillettes to my face. My eyes stared into nowhere, I was lost in the musing of an idea whose time had come, …right around the circle again.

Ode to a Love Affair