The “New” Luxury: Home Fragrance
Part Two- Nest Fragrances, Le Cherche Midi,
and Joya
Luxury was once defined by how much stuff you have, now with uncertain economic times and longer hours at the job, quality of life is the new currency.
Home fragrance is an exciting and rapidly increasing segment of the fine fragrance market and helps make even the tiniest studio apartment seem as regal as an estate. In exclusive interviews with established and new home scent companies and owners, Sniffapalooza Magazine talks to
industry innovators about their products in a three part series devoted entirely to home fragrance … candles and home ambience scents.
Included here are: Laura Slatkin, NEST Fragrances, Le Cherche Midi; Nathan Motylinski and Alex Mehfar, and Frederick Bouchardy of JOYA
Nest Fragrances
Laura Slatkin ---President, Candela Group LLC
President and CEO, NEST Fragrances
MC: Laura, what is your background?
LS: I studied finance at NYU and worked for Lehman Brothers for 13 years
until I met and married Harry in 1992. Harry and I founded Slatkin & Co.,
a complete departure from Wall Street, I know, but we built Slatkin into
the number one home fragrance brand in the luxury market until we sold
Slatkin to Limited Brands in 2005. The Limited bought everything
except for our private label division, so I started Candela Group,
a new company whose focus was exclusively private label until this
year when I launched my own brand, NEST Fragrances.
MC: Why were you interested in creating a new line of candles?
LS: Unlike stocks, they don't go down in value; it is a happy business--
creating new fragrances gives me scope for imagination.
MC: What makes NEST different from other candle lines?
LS: My fragrances are superior--they are all "oh my God" fragrances--
all twelve of them. When people smell them they say "oh my God!”
They infuse a room with fragrance and they have character and
strong personalities. They are exceptional fragrances made with
the finest ingredients and developed with master perfumers.
MC: Tell us about your votive set; are there specific fragrances
you recommend for different areas of the home?
LS: Yes! I love to burn Periwinkle Hyacinth in the entry way of my
home (when I light it in my house, you can smell it down the street!) ,
I burn Orange Blossom, Pink Jasmine, Moss and Mint or Freesia Kiwi
in my entertaining spaces in the spring and summer time and Wild Oats
and Bourbon and Mahogany in the winter months--I burn Moroccan Amber
in the dining room and I burn my favorite scent Bees Wax and Whipped Cream in my library or wherever I am when I want to curl up and watch a movie or read a book. For our bedroom I burn Wasabi Pear and for the guest room I burn Grapefruit---everybody loves a refreshing grapefruit scent! Bamboo is one scent that you can burn just about anywhere anytime for anybody.
Coming soon: www.nestfragrances.com
Writer’s Raves: The ‘Must- Have’ Votive set
Laura Slatkin
JOYA
Frederick Bouchardy- Founder and Creative Director
“Our roots are certainly in home fragrance—specifically scented candles. To this day (on the eve of our fifth anniversary), we continue to pour each candle by hand in Brooklyn, New York. In 2004, we detected a need for a luxury home fragrance product that fuses stylish design and natural ingredients. Too many brands seemed to be relying on non-renewable resources, and so many even performed unsatisfactorily: too much smoke, cloying, fragrance, and such. Joya has proven to be both a creative challenge and outlet for me. Fortunately, our launch was met with a very enthusiastic and immediate consumer and editorial response.
I have devoured reading material, including classic essential oil encyclopedias and ancient texts like The Art of Perfumery by G.W. Septimus Piesse. And I have learned from master perfumers, designers, and authors. We currently produce scented candles (naturally), fragrance diffusers, incense, sachets and dry potpourri. We've created collaborations with several major fashion, lifestyle, and grooming brands, and I believe we are now setting the standard for advanced design in this market. For 2009, we are set to branch out into many new categories—but on our own terms. Rather than rolling out conventional line extensions, we will introduce gorgeous, multi-purpose bath and body items, which have been in development for two years. We will also offer classic perfumed soaps and parfum. We are not rushing. Instead, we intend to continue our mission to produce goods locally and of the highest quality—ones that will make an impact.
I am inspired by the mysterious and unique Comme des Garçons range of fragrances. I also admire Serge Lutens and Santa Maria Novella. Other inspirations include Peter Saville, Seymour Chwast, W.H. Auden, traditional Japanese packaging, the French Alps (where nearly my entire family lives), Egypt, the lowland rainforests, and, of course, New York City.”
Joya aims to surprise and delight, often pairing unexpected scents. Our Blue Lotus & Wild Grass fragrance, for instance is a marriage of the serene and the unrestrained. The result is unusual yet balanced and glorious. A significant thing to note regarding home fragrance is that, in some ways, it does not incorporate the same kinds of bottom notes as fine fragrance. Particularly with candles, resinous bottom notes in their true form simply cannot burn, as they essentially engulf the flame; therefore, we are forced to take a different approach to create harmonious scents that actually work.”
Writer’s Rave: Jasmine Absolute and Sugar Reed Diffuser
NEXT ISSUE:
The Third and Final Installment of “THE NEW LUXURY: HOME FRAGRANCE” Series continues in our Next Issue ------ featuring Antica Farmacista, Archipelago Botanicals and “The Best of” Round Up!
By Michelyn Camen
Le Cherche Midi
Nathan Motylinski and Alex Mehfar:
Co-Managing Directors and Lifelong Friends
MC: What is the background of Le Cherche Midi?
NM & AM: In 2006, we were seeking an opportunity to combine our respective
backgrounds in finance and business ventures with our passion for fragrance.
The “found moment” occurred when we serendipitously met the founders of
Le Cherche Midi while shopping at Takashimaya, a high-end specialty store in
New York City. Realizing that we had stumbled upon a gem, and that we
would be able to offer the brand a new vision plus the right support and
backing, we promptly quit our jobs, purchased the company and implemented
a growth strategy for the next phase of Le Cherche Midi.
MC: How did you feel when Le Cherche Midi was named a 2008 FiFi
finalist for Interior Scent?
NM & AM: Given the prestige of the FIFIs, being named as a Finalist just a
few short months after we relaunched the brand has been a huge honor for us.
It was especially exciting since we were selected from a pool of companies that
included home fragrances from such venerable brands as Marc Jacobs,
L'Artisan Parfumeur, Armani Prive, Bond No. 9, Barbara Barry, and many others.
The award also validated our unique approach to fragrances - our philosophy of fine
fragrance inspired by colors resonated well with the Fragrance Foundation judges.
Being a finalist for this prestigious award has given us considerable exposure and
recognition within and outside the industry.
MC: Do you feel there is difference between being a home fragrance
company and a personal fragrance company?
NM & AM: We don’t see why there needs to be a distinction between home
and personal fragrance – after all, what can be more personal than your home?
Le Cherche Midi offers sophisticated, refined, and abstract fine fragrances that
can be used in the home or on the skin. Over 20 years ago, our signature fragrance,
Le Cherche Midi No. 01, was created with this idea in mind. Our philosophy is to
bring the complexity and quality of fine fragrance to the surrounding environment
and thus bridge the worlds of personal and home fragrance. To achieve this goal,
we spend a considerable amount of time working with world class, fine fragrance
perfumers such as Cecile Krakower to create unique bouquets that are composed
like fine fragrance---top, heart and bottom notes--- and are of the same quality
and craftsmanship as classic perfumes.
Typically, fragrance development (for both personal and home) is guided by a marketing brief and restrictive budget that oftentimes stifle the creative freedom for a perfumer to really express themselves as an artist. In fact, home fragrances are often developed in an entirely different division than fine fragrance – different perfumers, processes, and materials – all focused on function over form. Our approach to fragrance development is quite different. We provide fine fragrance perfumers with a color palette and ask them to interpret these colors in fine fragrance – the only guideline being that they must be good enough to use in the air (not too cloying) or on the skin (not too simple). The resulting rainbow of colors and smells are amazing, and we had a difficult time narrowing down the submissions to create our initial collection of six fragrances. Our perfumers are olfactive artists – each bouquet a unique masterpiece that is created by inspiration and left to interpretation through each individual’s experience with that work. For this reason, we do not name our fragrances - we identify them only with color and number and allow each consumer to have their own connection with the fragrance.
Many of our customers thus use our fragrances in the home and on the skin and all of our fragrances are available in home fragrance products as well as an Eau de Toilette.
MC: What differentiates LCM products from the rest?
NM & AM: Kelly Caleche by Hermes, Cool Water by Davidoff, Chanel No. 5 – all of these great fragrances are identified by an image, an idea, a concept that the consumer can aspire, associate, and hold on to. Yet in the home fragrance market, most companies enforce a utilitarian philosophy on fragrance that leaves little room for interpretation or creativity. Le Cherche Midi has worked very hard to ensure each of our consumers has a unique, memorable experience with our scents. Chosen from over 50 submissions from several of the best perfumers in the world, our collection of six fragrances are a welcome change from the often confusing, mediocre world of home fragrance. Aside from the fragrances themselves, we continuously innovate in every aspect of our business. Whether our hand-made wooden box packaging, unique collaborations, or new products, we are
constantly seeking to improve and perfect.
MC: What do you see as the future of home fragrance in the general market, and what lies ahead for LCM?
NM & AM: In general, we have seen a shift in the personal fragrance market from quality to quantity. With the onset of celebrity endorsements and private-labeled perfumes, the market has been flooded with new fragrances, often with shorter and shorter product lifecycles. Personal fragrance, which was once a unique personal signature, has now become a commoditized marketing tool used to do little more than drive additional revenue for many companies. The result is a high volume of fragrances that are more focused on profit and loss than the art of the craft. The home fragrance market has followed a similar path, with many companies offering a wide range of simple fragrances – many of which overlap and have little differentiation other than packaging. While a few home fragrance companies are beginning to look at more complex fragrances and exotic ingredients they are still
relying on a single ingredient to drive the marketing and promotion of their collections.
Le Cherche Midi, on the other hand, will continue to look to its roots of creating complex, fine
fragrances that rely on dozens of notes to create its unique bouquets.
Alex Mehfar and Nathan Motylinski
photo by Ulrich Lang
In addition to our differentiated approach to home fragrance creation, you can expect us to
pursue innovative collaborations with other artists and retailers. We recently partnered with an up and coming women’s wear fashion label, Costello Tagliapietrato to create a fragrance that is actually based on and part of a runway collection. It debuted at the designers’ Spring 2008 show during New York Fashion Week to wonderful reviews. We’ve also recently partnered with premier luxury retailer, Bergdorf Goodman, in creating an exclusive fragrance inspired by their elegant New York store.
Finally, the future of Le Cherche Midi will continue to be filled with innovative ways of bringing fine fragrances into the home. Most recently, we have launched our patent-pending Fragrance Cube –a reedless, spill-proof product that diffuses our perfumes into the air without flame or electricity. Given the strong response we have received from customers already, we are sure that this product has a very successful future ahead of it!
Also available at:
Bergdorf Goodman 754 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
Takashimaya, 693 5th Avenue, New York, NY
Writer’s Rave: CT01 Candle
(inspired by Costello Tagliapietro’s Fall 2008 runway show)
Frederick Bouchardy
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Sniffapalooza Magazine is independently owned and operated by Raphaella Barkley.
