Cartier Carat ~ perfume review

Posted by Robin on 21 September 2018 24 Comments

The background: The name presumably needs no explanation, insofar as Cartier is best known as a jewelry house. Cartier perfumer Mathilde Laurent says “Cartier brings diamonds to life by showcasing them so stunningly, by introducing light and making it scintillate and shimmer. I wanted to create a fragrance that sparkles, alive with all the fire of a diamond. ”¹

The juice: So Mathilde Laurent aimed for a perfume that would transmit light with the brightness of a diamond, yada yada yada. That became something about the seven colors of a rainbow refracted through a diamond, with the seven colors represented by seven floral notes…

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They don’t smell like the true flower

Posted by Robin on 13 September 2018 2 Comments

What she wants in her perfume instead is the smell of fresh, living flowers – in nature, not ones that have been cut and cooked. She explains: “this is why I work with the molecular, with what we call in perfumery ‘head space technology’. It’s living technology which allows the perfumer to work with the true living smell of nature. I don’t work with oils or absolutes that, at the end – what are they? I don’t see why I should work with said ‘natural ingredients’ because if they don’t smell like the true flower, why should I work with them?"

— Cartier perfumer Mathilde Laurent on preferring synthetic over natural. Read more at Cartier’s perfumer on creating “a ray of fragrance” at Harpers Bazaar.

Something from nature

Posted by Robin on 10 September 2018 Leave a Comment

Many connections. In fact, have you heard of the French writer, Huysmans? He said in a very famous quote that a perfumer and jeweller do exactly the same job. They both take something from nature and cut it. So the jeweller is cutting the stone and the perfumer is cutting the botanics to obtain the oil, and at the end, they size it on a ring or in a bottle. When you feel confident in your perfume it’s exactly as if you were wearing a wonderful diamond necklace.

— Cartier perfumer Mathilde Laurent on the connection between jewelry and perfume. Read more at Cartier Carat at Wonderland.

Fragrance was her destiny

Posted by Robin on 16 August 2018 3 Comments

[Mathilde] Laurent's career path is similar to many other perfumers out there who discovered their gift early in life. She knew fragrance was her destiny after someone noticed that she was always smelling things as a child — people, places, food — and commenting on their scents. Adults told her that this habit could actually become her profession. "It stayed in my head as a pleasant idea," Laurent says. "It was such a surprise for me, because I didn't even know it was a job. I didn't realize the perfume I would smell in the streets was created by someone."

— Read more at Perfume Used To Be A Man's World — But These Women Are Turning The Tide at Refinery29.