New cocktails at the fragrance bar

One of the things I love about the Adora Fragrance Bar (aside from it being non-caloric yet full of my favorite “cocktails”) is that you can score the most exclusive, hard-to-find brands in one place, and Adora carries the complete line, not just the bestsellers.

One perfume house I was elated to find was The Different Company, founded by one of the most revered perfumers of our time, Jean-Claude Ellena, and designer Thierry de Bachmakoff.

Ellena, who’s worked with everyone from Bulgari to L’Artisan Parfumeur, wanted to set up a truly independent, high-end fragrance house (for perfumers, by a perfumer) where noses could create with no constraints — budgetary or otherwise — hence the birth of The Different Company (TDC) in 2000.

After creating and launching TDC’s first four fragrances: Osmanthus, Bergamote, Bois d’Iris and Rose Poivrée, Ellena was recruited as Hermes’s in-house perfumer. Businessman Luc Gabriel bought the company in 2004, and Ellena’s daughter Celine Ellena took over as TDC’s nose the following year. She promptly put her own stamp on the house with her breakout scent, Sel de Vetiver, a breathtakingly original sea salt-and-vetiver fragrance.

Here we talk to The Different Company owner and CEO Luc Gabriel on what makes his company so different.

What is the philosophy of The Different Company?

LUC GABRIEL: Create haute parfumerie (high perfumery) fragrances with a unique focus on pleasure and quality.

What sets TDC apart from other perfume houses?

We create unknown scents, unique accords with a true team of creators.

Why did you decide to partner with Adora?

It epitomizes the luxury department store for us.

Have you worked for other fragrance houses before?

My mother had a perfumery when I was younger. I’ve also been working as CEO of different companies and consultant with McKinsey.

How did Jean-Claude Ellena meet designer Thierry de Bachmakoff?

They worked together on Eau de Cartier and Thé Vert de Bulgari, one on the bottle the other on the fragrances.

Did Jean-Claude create the company with the intention of eventually passing it on to his daughter Celine?

It was not in the scheme.

Fresh makers: TDC’s L’Esprit Colognes include (from left) Limon de Cordoza, After Midnight, Sienne d’Orange and Tokyo Bloom, only available at Adora.

How would you compare the creative perfumery styles of father and daughter?

Jean-Claude has a minimalist style and at the same time he can create luminous and complex fragrances. Céline makes stronger choices, taking more risks in her style.

What is the most expensive ingredient they are working with?

Some ingredients are really expensive like the essence of rose, or the absolute of osmanthus or the concrete of iris. The cost could go up to US$25,000 per kilo.

What is Jean-Claude busy with now?

He is working with Hermés exclusively.

For customers who are new to the brand, how would you suggest they approach it? How does TDC help a client find his or her perfect scent?

The approach is very simple: be guided by your feelings.

Is your fragrance De Bachmakov a tribute to the designer who helped found the house?

Absolutely, and it is at the same time a tribute to Russia, his country of origin.

Your other fragrance collections have different perfumers, like Emilie Coppermann for the L’Esprit Colognes and Bertrand Duchaufour for the Collection Excessive. What made TDC choose and invite these perfumers to work with them?

Each of these perfumers has common features:

• Long track record of excellence in perfume creation

• They both have worked with masters in their field.

• Both are renowned by the profession and their peers. Emilie has just won a Lalique Prize at The Talents of Luxury 2012 in France for her work.

• They have different and complementary styles.

• They are creative without limits and perfectly understand our concept.

And most of all, they are really nice people to work with.

Would you say that The Different Company is a haven for perfumers who don’t want any limits put on their art?

It is exactly that. Every time we launch a new fragrance, we aim at pushing the limits and exploring the senses.

Marc Chaya, CEO of Maison Francis Kurkdjian: “Our newest fragrance, Oud, uses a note that comes from the Philippines.”

What about your customers, what value proposition does The Different Company offer them?

Our customers love the exclusiveness of the brand, the utter quality and elegance of all our fragrances, the style of the bottles and the lifestyle approach with the travel sets, the refillable bottles, the leather cases.

What is your personal vision for the company?

To epitomize the haute perfume contemporaine (contemporary high perfumery).

What do 2012 and 2013 have in store for TDC? What can your clients expect?

New fragrances, of course, and home fragrances as well.

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At Adora’s Fragrance Bar, another brand I’m always drawn to is Maison Francis Kurkdjian (MFK), named after the visionary perfumer who founded it, along with CEO Marc Chaya.

I caught up with Chaya again, and he updated me on what’s new and happening at MFK. Their bestseller at Adora is Aqua Universalis, which happens to tie in with the global trend: “Aqua is our champion,” Chaya says. “It’s like our signature scent and people love the freshness and sensuality of it. At Bergdorf Goodman it’s No. 5 in sales in the whole store out of 300 fragrances that they carry. And we do not advertise, so we’re competing against major brands that spend billions in advertising.”

Aqua’s more intense spinoff, Aqua Universalis Forte, has also been extremely well received, but Chaya says different cultures prefer one Kurkdjian scent to another. “Like in the UK they love rose so Lumiere Noire is by far the No. 1 scent. In Paris, APOM for Men, which some women also wear. It’s like a white shirt that both men and women can carry.”

But the real exciting news is that Kurkdjian has created a new scent, and it’s a stunner that actually contains an ingredient from the Philippines. And will probably become the first classic of its kind. Here’s the scoop:

What’s new at Maison Francis Kurkdjian?

MARC CHAYA: There’s a new fragrance, Oud, that we just launched.

Is oud a very precious ingredient?

It is. It’s an essential oil that comes from Laos and Malaysia. It’s a tree that gets hit by a disease, and the disease affects the shape of the wood. It’s like a resin that grows on top of the wood in the shape of a mushroom and it’s very rare because to extract the scent, it’s a very long process and then you can only extract a very small quantity of oil from a very big quantity of wood. So there are two different sources of wood, Malaysia and Laos, and it’s either grown on a farm where the disease is inoculated to it artificially, or it’s a natural infected wild tree, which makes it even more expensive and even more rare. And the one we’re using is, of course, that one. It comes from Laos. It’s the purest, the rarest, and the second most expensive essential oil, the most expensive essential oil in the industry being iris. So this oud (showing me a small piece of it) — this is a small Rolex (laughs).

I’ve smelled some oud fragrances, but so far haven’t found the one for me.

So as you probably know, oud is very popular in the Middle East. In Dubai, Saudi Arabia … the Arabian culture has embraced oud since 200 years ago and they wear it on their clothing in the natural essential oil, and they add to it other essential oils like rose, or incense, or sandalwood. So far, oud has been worked by many brands as an Arabian fragrance. What they’ve done is they take the oud and they dress it up with other scents. But it’s all about oud. And it’s very Arabian. And so far the Western perfumeries have never included oud as part of the Western perfumery palette, whereas if you look at the history of fragrances perfumers over time have always included new essential oils in their palette. It’s the first time Francis included oud as part of his Western sensitivity — to create a fragrance that is not an Arabic interpretation of oud, but that would include oud as you would include patchouli, vetiver, sandalwood or any other essential oil. He wanted to call it Oud; it’s like a small link to the past at some stage of perfumery.

Vetiver was as famous as oud, and it was not popular in western perfumery. And then all of a sudden many brands embraced it and they all started interpreting vetiver in a very rough way, calling it Vetiver this, Vetiver that, until the day Guerlain came out with a vetiver where he used it as part of a very floral and French composition, and he simply called it Vetiver. And it became the signature vetiver. And that’s the aim: Francis wanted to position the emblematic oud on the market.

What are the other notes Francis worked with?

He worked it with a top note of elemi gum from the Philippines. Elemi gum is also called yellow pepper, so it has the scent of pepper. Then the second top note is saffron. That adds the spark and the shine, like a golden filigreeing presence in the fragrance. Then you have the famous oud, which is very powerful, very wild and animalistic, almost, like a beast, like a wildcat sitting in its cage waiting to eat you — it’s really strong. But in perfumery you need those very powerful scents that can sometimes add to the balance of the fragrance.

And then he used cedarwood to soften it, really damp it, and to bring some smooth aspect to it. The cedarwood is light and musky and a bit sweet, and it’s from the Atlas mountain, and finally, he used Indonesian patchouli for the drydown.

It’s a very Eastern-inspired scent because you have the Philippines, you have Laos, you have Indonesia. So there is no flower in it. It’s a pure woody-spicy — it’s an oriental scent. And so the result is pretty unique. It’s very sophisticated, very feminine, very masculine at the same time, very chic, it’s a bit narcotic, it’s a bit dark, and when it dries on the skin it gets very soft and very sensual, but you still have the impression of oud.

What was his inspiration?

It’s like an imaginary trip in a desert storm, a very mild wind blowing the sand on your skin, and it’s dark night, the stars are shining, and the sky is dark blue. So this is how he worked the flacon — it’s all dark blue with a gold stopper, and you go into an imaginary palace or castle in the middle of the desert, and so we worked our label on the sleeve on the front packaging as if it was an Arabian lattice window. So that’s the visual inspiration.

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The Different Company and Maison Francis Kurkdjian fragrances are exclusively available at Adora in Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center, Makati.