Let’s celebrate International Women’s Day with y(o)u, introducing you to some of the imaginative minds behind the unique best niche fragrances of Yú Parfums.
Not commonly known, but the fragrance world was dominated for a very long time by men until bold and confident women disrupted the status quo and fought to express their art through the creation of scents.
Famous names such as Germaine Cellier changed history for all the women around the world.
And so, let us introduce you to three of the most inspirational female noses of our time: Julie Pluchet, Alexandra Kosinski and Claudine de Vogel.
Art, inspiration and passion are the three key elements that characterised these three phenomenal individuals and brought them together in this sensational journey of writing stories through Yú Parfums…
Julie Pluchet
Julie Pluchet grew up surrounded by the charming and picturesque nature of the French countryside, inspiring her every day in creating the most sublime scents.
Through her stimulating artistic abilities, Julie Pluchet has crafted the best niche fragrances since 2003 and is the nose behind the first two chapters of Edition I.
Able to translate her admiration for nature through the creation of inimitable scents, her first approach to this world goes back to when she was only a little girl:
“Since I was a child I had always been interested by smells and perfumes. But this is when as a teenager I saw the movie Fanfan with Sophie Marceau who plays a student in a perfumery school, I discovered there was a world, an industry I never thought of before. And I knew instantly this was for me.”
As admirers of this incredible skill of creating art through the simple act of smelling, we asked Julie if the creation of the best niche fragrances comes from an artistic and sudden intuition or more frequently from a deep studying and understanding of the various scents and their combinations.
“Creating a fragrance comes from an artistic and sudden intuition. And understanding of the various scents and their combinations is the skill that you need to translate your intuition into the fragrance you want to achieve.”
Julie also shared with us her favourite ingredient used in Indian dessert called Kheer that reminds her of her travelling adventures: cardamom.
“I really like its cold spiciness and floral facete. Used with warm and sweet notes makes scents very addictive to me.”
Alexandra Kosinski
Winner of several FiFi Awards, Alexandra Kosinski is the nose behind both Chapter III (Edition I) and chapter IX (Edition III coming very soon).
Alexandra started working as a professional perfumer in 2018 and as well as her colleague Julie, nature played an important part in directing her path towards this fascinating field of scents and niche fragrances.
Growing up surrounded by a garden full of intoxication flowers and beautiful trees, Alexandra started her journey into the fragrance world by learning the natural scents around her.
Intuition plays a significant role in creating a new fragrance according to Alexandra.
“I strongly believe that a great fragrance is created because there was a strong idea behind it from the beginning, an intuition if you like, a combination of two scents”
However, she does recognise as well the importance of the study needed behind the art of creating the best niche fragrances.
She adds, “then there is a lot of work and knowledge to understand how to combine the raw materials together in a formula to achieve the idea.”
We asked Alexandra to describe her favourite ingredient. “I am always interested to work on any scent, the good thing is that we are always learning something, I am enjoying working with orris powdery woody notes now in a modern way”
Claudine de Vogel
Claudine is the artist behind Chapter VII (Edition III) coming very soon.
Claudine de Vogel started her professional journey in the fragrance world in 2002 and was mentored by the well-known noses Christian Provenzano and Mike Parrott, working on different projects for various brands since then.
However, her passion goes back to her childhood, she always knew that the fragrance world was written in her destiny.
“I have always loved scents and due to having an uncle work in the fragrance industry, I was aware of this from a young age. Although at first, I wanted to become a flavourist, a summer job at the company my uncle worked at when I was 17 years old, spending time with a Master Perfumer and being allowed to create fragrances in a laboratory, made me realise that becoming a Perfumer was the only job I wanted to do from then on.”
Claudine believes that memory is an important and relevant element in every fragrance. Memories and scents are connected by an invisible string. Reminiscing her childhood, Claudine keeps in her heart and in her mind the most precious scents of her past.
“I used to love the way my grandfather smelled, he wore Guerlain’s Eau de Cologne Imperiale and for as long as I can remember I loved that smell. He was a very charismatic man and always dressed to the nines in beautiful suits. My grandparents sitting room always had a special smell too. When I close my eyes, I still smell it. A mix between geranium plants, cold Gitanes cigarette smoke and spilled Dubonnet in the liquor cabinet… These smells always remind me of my childhood.”
Like bakers with flour and artists with paintings, noses have their special tools as well. We see them as simple ingredients, while they see all the potential and the uniqueness that somehow is incomprehensive to the common mind. One of the favourite ingredients of Claudine is pepper.
“I have been a little obsessed by all different kinds of pepper ingredients. This is such a warmth and depth that comes from pepper, without making a fragrance immediately too heavy or cloying.”
What does make a fragrance truly unforgettable?
All the three of our wonderful female niche fragrance experts agree that connecting memories to scents is what makes a fragrance truly unforgettable.
Julie explains “When you are using your personal memories and emotions when creating a fragrance, it will always resonate with someone’s else memories and emotions. And this is what makes a fragrance unforgettable to someone.”
Claudine adds “Connecting fragrances to a memory can be both positive and negative of course, but the result is the same.”
Join the conversation and tell us your favourite @yuparfumsofficial.