The Perfumer's Diary

Interesting
Thursday, October 29, 2009, Paris
 I've never been comfortable talking about "fun", but when it comes to "desire", it's much easier. Since I've been mixing perfumes, I've learned a lot and invented some "nose grabbers", such as the opening lines, notes and images that I've been working on for a long time to get the attention of readers, listeners and viewers, so that they want to go deeper into the hall and prolong the fun. In a society that races against time, perfumes are judged in two seconds, as fast as a glance! It hurts me to make such a snap judgement. After all, a perfume can only truly tell its story if it is appreciated and rubbed.
I like to share the pleasure, that's my definition of luxury. I transfer this to the fragrances I create, which are mostly meant to be shared. I don't forget to sneak in a little feminine code even when I'm blending a male perfume for the masses, and vice versa, and I'll blend a female perfume that way. And vice versa, I would blend a female perfume the same way. The rules of fashion are meant to be subverted and played with, I don't believe there is a difference between male and female, unisex or unisex perfumes. Only perfume wearers can classify perfumes. Since the introduction of Saint Laurent's "Opium", Guerlain's "Thousand and One Nights" and Dior's "Real Me", there are many men in India who wear these perfumes.
I'm not in a rut, I'm out of the cage, I'm leaving the choice to the people and let them have their own fun with my creations. Fun, little fun: I love the fun I steal from everyday life that brightens up the day. These small pleasures are banal, a bit clichéd and reassuring. Once they are missing, it's like depriving yourself of the joy that makes the day a little better.
Mixing perfume is supposed to be a joy, but some mornings, the fun is not in the bottle. From a physico-chemical point of view, the temperature of the sample is still the same as the original, and the blend of ingredients and molecules remains the same, only it smells uninteresting. A feeling of despair and loneliness came over me, but I couldn't make a sound. If I were to share my feelings, the work that had taken weeks would be lost. At this point, I would put the bottle down and forget about it for a few days. I know I will regain my old interest or find the idea I was seeking.
From: The Perfumer's Diary - Jean Claude Ellena (Translated) After almost fifty years in the perfume business, Hermès' exclusive perfumer Jean Claude Ellena is not only a craftsman with a great memory, but also an artist. Searching for new faces in scents has allowed him to indulge in experimentation and new discoveries. "I want to amaze people with ordinary scents," says Ellena. He writes about what he sees and thinks in his daily life: walking through gardens and markets, experimenting in his studio, enjoying jazz, ukiyo-e, Chinese painting and calligraphy, waiting for the blue iris to bloom, participating in perfume launches. ...... is a diary for a whole year, recording a journey about the sense of smell, revealing a code that only a perfumer can crack. Elleana's simple words record the touches and thoughts he gained during his daily life and travels, and also shares the way he uses symbols to evoke scents, uses stories to lay out extended perfumes, and creates different scent fantasies. This diary is the culmination of his distinctive olfactory experience and leads us into an imaginative universe of scents and a glimpse into the creative mind of a master. The book contains summaries of more than twenty natural scent recipes for readers to enjoy on their own.
This article is extracted from Douban and can be viewed at Douban Reading Bookstore: https://read.douban.com/ebook/130404707/ 
This work is produced and distributed electronically by CITIC Press under license from Douban Reading within mainland China.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)