In Europe, we have lost the idea of such notes in perfumery, and it is so sad because it is something so precious and delicate and sensual. I was very surprised and happy that there is still a region of the world where people like such notes. For me, it was something that gave me a lot of hope and optimism. It is a sign that maybe we will not all smell of sweets and fruits for the rest of our lives. That we are not condemned to fruits and vanilla forever.
— Perfumer Mathilde Laurent on why she loves oud. Read more at Cartier perfumer Mathilde Laurent calls oud ‘a real gift’ to perfumery at The National.
I wouldn’t mind be condemend to vanilla forever – of course it has to be good vanilla creations. But my hell is a place where acquatic sport scents are sprayed forever :S
Ha, yes!
Hasn’t oud been in something like every third new release for the last few years? I realize she may get briefs for nothing but gourmands, but I don’t see perfume suffering from a dearth of oud. 😉
THIS.
Her point about gourmands is valid, but oud is hardly in the “rare” status she talks about in the interview.
I think that the only rare thing lately is a surprising mainstream fragrance (even a niche one to be honest). Besides that, we have plenty of everything.
Well, only if she is talking about real oud and not about the synthetic versions. In this regard, oud is still rare indeed. But i don’t think it’s the case based on what she has created in this collection. Here Oud & Sandalwood is hardly a typical oud to be honest. Another possible meaning is that Mathilde is considering it “rare” versus the abundance of fluiry and gourmand creations.
I was watching a perfume vlog recently where the reviewer stated that thirty years from now the cloying sweet perfumes that are so ubiquitous will register as “old lady smell” to the younger generation of the future just as the chypres currently do to the younger generation of today….I thought that was a very interesting comment.
That is interesting! It makes me wonder what the women who wore Youth Dew and Shalimar (which I often hear getting that label) considered to be old fashioned. I don’t know enough about the history of fragrance to know the kinds of scents that were favored before those (gorgeous) classics.
I think it’s quite hard to make those predictions to be honest, i would also agree when we look at this logically but we have to also analyze that chypres doesn’t have a natural link with our childhood memories, different from gourmands, which are related to our memories. Also, you have to see that when chypres were created you had less parallel trends and less fragrances being launched, so they were more easily to be marked as fragrances from specific eras. Altough gourmands are dominant, they are not the solely trend, we live in an era with multiple olfactory trends or mini trends happening at the same time and i think this will also be a key factor in how next generations will perceive certain scents as old or not.
I agree with that vlogger–those absolutely will be the “old lady” scents of the future! I’d never thought about it before but they’re definitely right. The cloyingly sweet and the pink/pepper perfumes that are everywhere and all smell exactly the same.
I like her work. I would like to smell that Oud and Sandalwood, if I ever encounter it. It’s her dispensing product placement, is all the talk is, I think.