Custom-made: A luxury that has no price tag
Owning one’s own scent intrigues more and more scent lovers. Tailoring is an art that only a privileged few can afford. Master perfumers need to understand the tastes and desires of their clients in order to offer them the perfect formulation, prestigious services that come at a cost.
The avant-garde Guerlain house began adopting this prestigious service from its creation in 1828, putting its unique know-how to work for the benefit of its wealthy clients.
Some formulas have become real works of art over time, such as Shalimar and Jardin de Bagatelles, while others have been used by important historical figures, such as the French writer Honoré de Balzac, who used their service in the 1930s, or the Empress of France Eugénie de Montijo in 1853, who had an exclusive eau de cologne with a bottle adorned with gold bees created by Pierre-François-Pascal, the founder of the House of Guerlain.
Thierry Wasser has been the creative director of fragrances at Guerlain since 2008 and offers this tailor-made luxury service in person. The elaboration of a perfume lasts approximately three months, after which the customer gives his or her decision. Nearly two liters of perfume are offered to the client, contained in a magnificent Baccarat bottle adorned with precious stones, bearing the name chosen by its owner, a prestigious service that will cost 43,000 euros.
Cartier offers a higher price of 60,000 euros for these tailor-made services.
The French house has recently entered the customization market, where it first entered in 1981. Specializing in jewelry, Cartier decided to use its historical know-how to design its bottles, which will present the brand’s first perfumes. Mathilde Laurent, one of the greatest noses of Paris and in charge of the custom creation of the Cartier house since 2005, has her own office/laboratory in Paris where she experiments and proposes hundreds of perfumes created by her.
However, the custom-made services are becoming more and more popular and new boutiques are opening up to personalize fragrances at a lower cost.
The Studio des Parfums was founded in 2006 and set up in the Marais district of Paris as a creator of custom-made perfumes accessible to all. The boutique offers a unique experience of high perfumery at a relatively reasonable price compared to the market.
From the very first steps in the boutique, a perfume organ welcomes customers by offering a multitude of choices based on excellent ingredients from the city of Grasse, the world capital of perfume. The boutique has professional equipment such as bottles of perfumed bases equipped with pipettes, beakers, test tubes and even wipes. The customer can choose from a variety of containers such as crystal, Murano glass, colored or metallized bottles, for a price of 300 euros, a relatively low cost compared to the competition.
The meeting with the customer lasts almost three hours in order to understand the message and the story that the customer wants to convey in his perfume. The master perfumers are there to guide the customer in identifying his needs while giving him a real moment of discovery of this universe.
Featured photo : © Guerlain
