Romano Ricci of Juliette Has A Gun on New Release Mad Madame and New Paris Shop 'Nose'
Romano Ricci, perfumer and owner of the brand Juliette Has a Gun has launched a new fragrance this month. Mad Madame is described as a green chypre which is aimed at a slightly more mature woman. Lila Das Gupta talked to him in London about the perfume and his exciting new shop in Paris called Nose.
Tell us a little about Mad Madames composition
Its a classical chypre, a green chypre with musk, patchouli and rose. I also used blackcurrant bud absolute which is not fruity, but helps to bring that green element to it. I put in rose oxide, an ingredient that is part of the natural rose its very metallic, not a grandma rose. Its very volatile and brings lots of volume to the perfume.
No Juliette has a Gun perfume seems be complete without the signature use of Ambroxan (Not A Perfume' in the JHAG line contains only Ambroxan). How did you use it here?
This time the ambroxan happened to be an accident. The girl, the lab technician, put in 10 times more that it was supposed to be, she didnt read the formula properly. At the beginning it was supposed to be a very rich and dark fragrance, but because of the accident it went another way, something very modern!
What kind of woman did you have in mind when you were creating the perfume?
I think there is beauty in any age. The woman here is definitely more mature, I think she has fulfilled most of her obligations: marriage, children. Shes got to the point where she has more freedom and now she likes to be seen. There is a contrast, a tension between the madame who is following the rules and the one who wants to break the rules. But I never think in terms in terms of age for the collection, I think about what is missing from an olfactive point of view.
Thinking about this perfume, I had in mind that the more you get older, the wiser you get. I knew this divorced woman, the older she got the crazier she got, not crazy maybe, but free, thats what I liked about her. There were some things I found very interesting about life: looking at sex, you get wilder. There were so many things I discovered about her which were the complete the opposite of what I first thought. It was someone I had a relationship with a long time ago. I like the mix between the madness and the madame.
Is this a departure from your normal demographic?
It has never been about the romantic woman or the girl, I have always seen her (the women created for) as being 30 or 35 more than 35.
For Mad Madame I thought about Oscar Wildes words: There is only one thing worse than being talked about, that is not being talked about. The madame here is making a spectacle, she likes to draw the attention, thats where I came up with this visual campaign. You dont see her (the mad madame) in the advertisement, you see the reaction to her. People are asking Who the hell is she?
I dont want it to be too serious, I want fragrance to be a game, so you can ask: What part of me am I going to express tonight? Its never been about the romance, its about the cheeky game.
Youve just opened NOSE : a concept store in Paris, in collaboration with others. Tell us the idea behind the shop.
The store is Paris 170sq m and its exclusively dedicated to niche perfumery. Its a concept store but the web site is also very important. The project is a collaboration between myself, perfumer Mark Buxton, Nicolas Cloutier he is the chef dorchestre! Also Silvio Levi . He is the 4th musketeer! He also has retail shops in Milan, is a famous distributor in Italy and is co-organiser of the Italian Esxsence perfume fair in Milan.
Mark Buxton has his laboratory at the shop, so you have one whole wall with all his things there. The brands are chosen because they are artisanal or owner led. We also have a very different approach. The idea is to make your perfume choices diagnostic.
Attachment 15997
How do you diagnose perfume preferences?
We have devised a diagnostic on-line test, that by telling us your age, style of perfume you like, your fragrance history, we are able to tell you what are the ingredients that are common to your fragrance choices . We can also come up with an olfactive family that you like, as well as make suggestions for you.
We looked and analysed around 2,500 fragrances ourselves. We used 2 evaluators and it was 2 years of full time work, identifying ingredients and olfactive styles. (Mark Buxton also helped with some of this work). Then we came up with some sub-categories, which allowed us to be very precise.
What we can say is: this is coherent with what you use already, this is not coherent. Then we put up the 5 best things that we think you will like and you can order the samples on-line (Samples cost 3 Euro). You can do the test in the shop, on an i-Pad or mobile.
How did you deal with discontinued perfumes?
We were very thorough. We put in discontinued fragrances and tried to get every single fragrance. For 99% of them we managed to smell them and categorise them. This is a unique database the algorithm has 192 variables, which change every time. We have a statistics expert who has worked for us. Im very happy with it - Im not saying its 100% accurate, but at the very least its a useful tool to discover fragrances that you will like. At its best it is 100% accurate!
Weve done 500 diagnostic tests so far, some of the people who took it have been surprised and said I wore this one you recommend, but I forgot to put it on the list!
Mad Madame from Juliette Has A Gun is available as 100ML Eau de Parfum. Available now from Colette in Paris, and at Selfridges, London.
Nose is at 20 rue Bachaumont, 75002, Paris, France (Telephone +33 1 40 26 46 03)
Tell us a little about Mad Madames composition
Its a classical chypre, a green chypre with musk, patchouli and rose. I also used blackcurrant bud absolute which is not fruity, but helps to bring that green element to it. I put in rose oxide, an ingredient that is part of the natural rose its very metallic, not a grandma rose. Its very volatile and brings lots of volume to the perfume.
No Juliette has a Gun perfume seems be complete without the signature use of Ambroxan (Not A Perfume' in the JHAG line contains only Ambroxan). How did you use it here?
This time the ambroxan happened to be an accident. The girl, the lab technician, put in 10 times more that it was supposed to be, she didnt read the formula properly. At the beginning it was supposed to be a very rich and dark fragrance, but because of the accident it went another way, something very modern!
What kind of woman did you have in mind when you were creating the perfume?
I think there is beauty in any age. The woman here is definitely more mature, I think she has fulfilled most of her obligations: marriage, children. Shes got to the point where she has more freedom and now she likes to be seen. There is a contrast, a tension between the madame who is following the rules and the one who wants to break the rules. But I never think in terms in terms of age for the collection, I think about what is missing from an olfactive point of view.
Thinking about this perfume, I had in mind that the more you get older, the wiser you get. I knew this divorced woman, the older she got the crazier she got, not crazy maybe, but free, thats what I liked about her. There were some things I found very interesting about life: looking at sex, you get wilder. There were so many things I discovered about her which were the complete the opposite of what I first thought. It was someone I had a relationship with a long time ago. I like the mix between the madness and the madame.
Is this a departure from your normal demographic?
It has never been about the romantic woman or the girl, I have always seen her (the women created for) as being 30 or 35 more than 35.
For Mad Madame I thought about Oscar Wildes words: There is only one thing worse than being talked about, that is not being talked about. The madame here is making a spectacle, she likes to draw the attention, thats where I came up with this visual campaign. You dont see her (the mad madame) in the advertisement, you see the reaction to her. People are asking Who the hell is she?
I dont want it to be too serious, I want fragrance to be a game, so you can ask: What part of me am I going to express tonight? Its never been about the romance, its about the cheeky game.
Youve just opened NOSE : a concept store in Paris, in collaboration with others. Tell us the idea behind the shop.
The store is Paris 170sq m and its exclusively dedicated to niche perfumery. Its a concept store but the web site is also very important. The project is a collaboration between myself, perfumer Mark Buxton, Nicolas Cloutier he is the chef dorchestre! Also Silvio Levi . He is the 4th musketeer! He also has retail shops in Milan, is a famous distributor in Italy and is co-organiser of the Italian Esxsence perfume fair in Milan.
Mark Buxton has his laboratory at the shop, so you have one whole wall with all his things there. The brands are chosen because they are artisanal or owner led. We also have a very different approach. The idea is to make your perfume choices diagnostic.
Attachment 15997
How do you diagnose perfume preferences?
We have devised a diagnostic on-line test, that by telling us your age, style of perfume you like, your fragrance history, we are able to tell you what are the ingredients that are common to your fragrance choices . We can also come up with an olfactive family that you like, as well as make suggestions for you.
We looked and analysed around 2,500 fragrances ourselves. We used 2 evaluators and it was 2 years of full time work, identifying ingredients and olfactive styles. (Mark Buxton also helped with some of this work). Then we came up with some sub-categories, which allowed us to be very precise.
What we can say is: this is coherent with what you use already, this is not coherent. Then we put up the 5 best things that we think you will like and you can order the samples on-line (Samples cost 3 Euro). You can do the test in the shop, on an i-Pad or mobile.
How did you deal with discontinued perfumes?
We were very thorough. We put in discontinued fragrances and tried to get every single fragrance. For 99% of them we managed to smell them and categorise them. This is a unique database the algorithm has 192 variables, which change every time. We have a statistics expert who has worked for us. Im very happy with it - Im not saying its 100% accurate, but at the very least its a useful tool to discover fragrances that you will like. At its best it is 100% accurate!
Weve done 500 diagnostic tests so far, some of the people who took it have been surprised and said I wore this one you recommend, but I forgot to put it on the list!
Mad Madame from Juliette Has A Gun is available as 100ML Eau de Parfum. Available now from Colette in Paris, and at Selfridges, London.
Nose is at 20 rue Bachaumont, 75002, Paris, France (Telephone +33 1 40 26 46 03)
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