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Patricia de Nicolaï

With perfume in her blood, Patricia de Nicolaï is the first woman to be awarded the Best International Perfumer Prize from the French Society of Perfumers. After several years in the business, first at Florasynth, then at Quest, she founded her own brand, Nicolaï, in 1988. For 20 years now, Patricia de Nicolaï has been designing a lush collection of perfumes and home fragrances, available from 700 points of sale worldwide. Recently decorated with the insignia of the French Legion of Honor, Patricia is also Chair of the Board of the “Osmotheque”, the French Perfume Museum/Archives.

Patricia de Nicolaï, can you describe your first encounter with fragrance for us?
Well, you could say that I was born in it... My maternal grandmother’s name was Francine Guerlain. She was the daughter of Pierre Guerlain and the great-grand-daughter of Pierre François Pascal Guerlain, the founder of Guerlain.

In addition to your fragrance designing, you were recently appointed Chair of the Board of the Osmotheque. What made you want to take over?
I didn’t decide to take over the Osmotheque. Jean Kerleo wanted to hand it over. At his request, I agreed to accept the responsibility. It’s a tremendous sign of his esteem for and confidence in me. It’s a huge responsibility. But the challenge is truly exciting.

How may people visit the Osmotheque a year? Who visits it?
We had 2,800 visitors in 2008, and we’ve had more than 52,000 since the Osmothèque – which just celebrated its 20th anniversary – first opened its doors. Our visitors fall into three distinct categories: general public, students and professionals.

Do fragrance brands ever come to look for ideas for their future creations?
Oh yes, that happens quite often, because there are real treasures in this collection. Yet I still think that even more perfumers should come to the Osmotheque. On the other hand, we’ve been getting more and more sales and marketing teams. Searching for a brand’s history that has been lost, they ask the Osmothèque for personalized presentations. That was the case most recently for the Rubinstein brand. We are thrilled when that happens, because that is the Osmotheque’s true vocation: we are the depositary of a heritage that nearly disappeared.

If you could name just five, what would you say are the most emblematic fragrances in the Osmotheque’s collection? Do you have a “pet perfume”?
The unforgettable Iris Gris, by Jacques Fath, Rosine’s Le Fruit Defendu, by Paul Poiret, with its incredibly modern note. And I’d have to add Balmain’s* Vent Vert and Coty’s Le Chypre. I also really love Chanel’s Cuir de Russie*.

What other designers’ fragrances do you wish you had designed?
Olivier Polge’s Cuir Beluga for Guerlain. We’ve never met, but I hope we will one day; I love both his style and his way of working.
Edouard Fléchier’s Lys Mediterranée for Frédéric Malle, which I first really appreciated when my cousin wore it (you always smell fragrances better when someone’s wearing them than when they’re on a scent strip!). Working flowers is the most difficult exercise in perfumery, and this lily is a superb success. It’s a shame my friend Edouard has stopped working, he’s really very talented!

 

What influences you, as a designer?
I am heavily influenced by the Guerlain perfumery of my childhood, as I was practically raised in it. During my training, I explored other horizons, and other wonderful scents, like Edmond Roudnitska’s creations: Eau Sauvage, Diorella, and Henri Robert’s, too, like Cristalle, a refined, clear and stunning scent.

Do you have favorite ingredients?
Yes, they’re very important to me, they’re what influence me the most. I fall for different ingredients depending on how my work is evolving. I absolutely adore rose essence, it never lets you down. My current traveling companion is patchouli essence, and I still have a lot to learn about it.

What are the Nicolaï brand’s most successful fragrances?
For women: Number One, and Sacrebleu. For men: New York, and Cedrat Intense. For the home, Maharadjah is our bestseller, followed by Fou d’Ambre, and La Route du Cèdre.

On a more personal level, which of your creations are you proudest of, or most satisfied with?
The one that’s coming out in September. It’s a new eau de toilette for men: Patchouli Homme. As far as I’m concerned, it came out right: the note is powerful, yet chic and distinguished too. What’s more, it’s quite unusual, so it gets noticed... and remembered.

You’ve been known to design for other brands, like the niche brand Parfums MDCI. Do you intend to keep doing that?
That will depend on the opportunities I’m given and the time I have. Because my own brand is my first priority.

Tell us what you’re up to right now, in olfactory terms.
Aside from that men’s note I just finished, I’m working on some projects for women. I always have several things in development at the same time; they won’t all make it to completion, but they constitute a reserve. On my table right now, there’s an iris musk, an amber, and some fresh eaus that I like to work on in summer, when it’s warm out.

How do you see the future of fragrance? And do you personally have a specific hope for the future?
Perfumery is currently on two different tracks. One is essentially mercantile: while, it’s technically good, to my mind, it isn’t very creative. I understand that big brands invest huge sums in these launches, so they need an immediate return on their investment. But I think a certain danger lurks that way, because perfumery loses a bit of its prestige when it goes down that road. Fortunately, other brands – like the niche brands – crop up to connect the dots, and some of them have become quite well-established, including us. Thanks to their creativity and their more luxurious image, they preserve our trade’s artistic nature. You can’t treat perfume like laundry detergent! Perfumery’s image has been damaged by trying to turn it into a cash cow.
As far as I’m concerned, the future lies in ever more creations, it’s what our clientele wants. Made with top-quality natural ingredients with more strictly controlled origins. But we also need to enhance synthesis’s image. I’m a bit fed up with the whole “100%-natural” thing. If some people want to go back to Marie-Antoinette’s perfumery, fine, it’s up to them. But as far as I’m concerned, I don’t believe in 100%-natural haute perfumery. We absolutely must need to change the way we look at synthetic molecules; journalists need to be brave enough to talk about them, to break the taboo. Way back in 1952, Ernest Beaux** said, “Perfumery’s future lies in chemistry”…

(*) These fragrances are still available for sale, but the Osmotheque preserves the original versions.
(**) Ernest Beaux (1881 - 1961) was a famous perfumer, best-known for having designed Chanel’s N°5.

Information: www.pnicolai.com and www.osmotheque.fr