The Independent talks to Olivier Creed

Thanks for the link.

Yes, yes. Love this item. The honorable Mr. Creed is full of wit and verve. Obviously a knowledgeable chap, with highly refined tastes. British press does stuff like this very well. Love the writer's character and style, too. Thanks for bringing this link back up to the top.

Sensei Master Perfumer Olivier Creed Extraordinaire

Exactly - best part of the item, IMO.

Luca who? Lol, I see he mentioned you as well zztopp. He enjoys listening to your soothing voice while driving.

A nice read. Thanks and hope you come back regularly!

"We've always had a lot of singers, actors and artists," Creed says. "And perhaps people who are slightly… different. If you wear a Dior product that sells millions of bottles, you're not different – you're the same."

Douche

Good article.

Hilariously hypocritical since he boasts about Creed have annual sales of over a million later in the article (and I say that as someone completely neutral in regards to Creed as a company/house).

Creed made Old Spice?

I smell hypocrisy.

And he's calling others elitist HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Seconded . You've been conspicuous by your absence - glad to see you treading the boards again.

I take the interview with a (tiny) grain of ambergris. Seriously, it surprised me to hear that he carries around a handkerchief with patchouli on it, because so few Creed scents have any detectable amount of patchouli in them. However, the most important point I think that should be made here involves the concept of "luxury goods." Creed mentioned the cost of some materials, but one does not need to use those materials in order to create a scent that smells great. If we assume that what he says is true about spending ten times more on materials than many other (and well-known) companies, and leaving aside how much more packaging and other things cost (relative to the cost of the actual liquid inside the bottles), what are we to make of the situation? Some people seem to want to think they are special, so they can seek out his scents that contain these expensive ingredients (again, assuming his claims are accurate). Others (who can barely afford one or two Creed bottles. perhaps), can decide for themselves is this is accurate and if so, it matters to them.

What I've found, in fact, is that some of these ingredients, if used in large amounts, are actually a distraction, tending to unbalance the composition. Thus, IMO, one needs to discuss the skill of the perfumer, regardless of the ingredient quality. Yesterday I wore the new formulation of Azuree, and just couldn't believe how good it is. I have yet sample a Creed scent that I believe to be as good (I've tried at least a dozen of them), the point being that ingredient quality is only one of several important criteria for assessing a scent. And since he claims not to know who Luca Turin is, this interview seems to confirm something I have thought for a while now, which is that many of these people are rather isolated, and are not really thinking about aficionados when they concoct their potions, though it does seem that they would really like to be able to say that a famous person wears their scents.

Interesting read.

Of course he knows who Luca Turin is Bigsly.

"When I read Luca Turin's book," I say to Creed, "I got the feeling that he dislikes you personally. Have you offended him in some way?"

"Luca who?" Creed asks.

The author gave no indication that it was meant to be sarcastic. Regardless, Creed's emphasis on the quality of certain ingredients rather than other factors suggests that he views his creations as "luxury" (along with his comment about Agua Brava), which is fine, but is not consistent with the aficionado mentality.

Am I the only one who noticed that Luca Turin posted a comment on that article?

first thing that came to mind, given prior descriptions of his habits, was "Olivier is working on scent which contains Geranium, Vetiver, and patchouli", something like a rounder, earthier, more citrusy (it's creed, of course) version of Ropion's Geranium Pour Monsieur.

Wasn't taking a jab at you Bigsly and yes the interview is full of hypocrisy.

- - - Updated - - -

Luca Turins reply

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing when I read that little tidbit...

No offense taken; everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

Good to see you around here again, zztopp! Wonderful article with pointed digs hitting home runs, lol. Also nice to see Turin posting in the comments section.

I like Creed fragrance style in general but a good fragrance speaks for itself. I can't believe Oliver Creed still feels the need to rehash the 'fragrance favored by royalty/celebrities' schtick every chance he gets. It's such a turn off. Perhaps that other comment was spot on: bloody snake oil mechant. Lmao.

Good article, above average company, decent Nose...too bad the freaking Creed Cheerleaders kill it all for me. I'll quietly wear my GIT, and if anyone asks, I'll tell them it's Cool Water...

Ha! Very funny response by Turin. Much of this is regurgitated from an earlier piece 7 or 8 years ago from the same writer. This is not a straightforward and accurate account of an interview.

I've heard here and there that Bowie apparently wears SMW & apparently Beckham wears Erolfa, but this is the first time i've heard it from the horses mouth so to speak. Thing is, why would he explicitly say those things in an interview published in a national newspaper if they weren't true? It would be very easy for Bowie to refute this or even threaten to take legal action against Creed for using his name like this is he didn't wear SMW. Makes me for the first time think that they're actually probably true.

This proves he's a clown:

"At the beginning," Creed says, "the two smell pretty well identical. But leave the essence on your skin for 10 minutes. The real one will still smell of rose. The second will smell of God knows what."

Are you kidding? Any perfumer knows that rose absolute doesn't really smell like rose, but, as one friend put it, "rose leather," or rose liqueur. In other words: natural rose doesn't smell like rose. The only way to approximate a real rose smell is through synthetics.

This interview was thoroughly entertaining the whole way through.

This is why Turin knows he's not a perfumer...he doesn't talk like one.

Until Creed solve the longevity and batch quality assurance issues, I'm happy to leave them be.

As for the article - an entertaining puff piece.

Haters gonna hate. All I know is that I get more pleasure from my Creed scents than from any other bottles I have ever owned. I have worn Creed 3 out of 4 days this week, and it has been a good experience each time.

Did Flexitral go under ?? I was super exited about the concept of new, supra-natural molecules with very similar frequencies and odors to all the limited classics. I assumed flexitral would spawn many new brilliant materials. And did you mean he was turned down at Givenchy or Givaudan ? I always thought he was more on the chemist side than perfumer side of things.

BTW, wonderful to see you back again dude.

Read it carefully...the author name-dropped all those names, he wasn't quoting Creed

- - - Updated - - -


Glad your life and well-being is enhanced by the wonderful world of Creed. I enjoy mine also, I just don't swoon and tear off my clothes at the mention of Creed...In fact I wore GIT yesterday, but didn't get light-headed b/c someone famous might also be wearing it.

Basically I believe Creed make some good fragrances I just don't believe Olivier composes them himself. I'm sure he passes on ideas to the real talent...but a perfumer he is not. He also should think before he speaks...you can't accuse others of elitism then make ridiculous PR claims of your frags being connected to royalty, that you are "different"wearing a Creed frag and making fragrances for Laura Bush and Michelle Obama LOL!

"naming no names, these days there are some really dreadful fragrances marketed at ridiculous prices, by elitist manufacturers."
And he said that without a trace of irony?

That whole article is so horrible that borders on satire.

Can't believe the interviewer didn't ask him where he harvested his royal pineapples

This is why Creed doesn't talk much except for reporters like this that are going to verbally fellate him.

I've just realised the OP is from USA. I was thinking the article was from the UK's Independent, which is a long way from being elitist.
I don't know anything about the journal in question, a google search for "USA Independent" doesn't help much, and I'm not that interested.

It's from the U.K. online version of The Independent, not that I read it these days.

Looks like they sent the wrong interviewer then :-)

Ditto. Miss you F!

@ martinijo - Or the wrong paper - changed a bit, maybe

O.P. did well to find it.

Puff piece indeed. Where's the beef?

I thought I read somewhere (probably here on the forums) that the House of Creed did not advertise or did not advertise much. Well... that's exactly what this 'talk to' is. As mentioned above, my guess would be that these kind of HoC pieces have been done before. Same formula: say something about the HoC focus on naturals; say something about the who's who that wear HoC; and say something about the exclusivity of HoC. The schtick doesn't change much does it? Meet the new HoC, same as the old HoC. Hey, free publicity right? Can you blame 'em?

I think the author totally blew the chance at an interesting interview. Hell, who am I kidding, it very well was all by design anyway. Nevertheless, I shall go on a bit... I'd have thought a good journalist would've asked about: 1) IFRA parameters / EU regulations influence on the house; 2) local and global sales performance and prospects given the economic doldrums; 3) the trouble with sourcing scarce resources (e.g. mysore sandalwood) and what that's meant specifically to the product line; and 4) the trouble with market segmentation, by country, and how they are meeting the challenges brought about through parrallel import/grey market issues... to name but a few topics.

Not a hater. I dig my OV just fine.

The mention of ZZTopp within the article itself is quite the kawinkidink, no?

Depth is lacking in our newspapers these days

I just wasted 10 minutes of my life reading that article.
The comments say it all. Two people bothered to reply to the article, one said "If Mr Creed is a perfumer I'm a pharmacologist".
The other said "Bloody snake oil salesman."
Indeed.

Hehe - Guardian do some good stuff still. Sometimes, not much on scent that I've noticed, although the Edible Deodorant article was interesting recently - link in 'Off Topic' if u want to waste more time

Flexitral has been out of business for a few years now. To answer the second part of your question, Luca didn't apply to Givenchy, but the company sent him a rejection letter anyway. Pretty funny.

So, I'm most curious about your self-imposed sabbatical. Do tell. I see you've killed off 5 and mention having a few more to go before apparently reaching an acceptable punshment level for some sort of deadly sin. (?) hehe

- - - Updated - - -


I NEVER lol. I just lol'd.

"I have never pursued wealth for its own sake. Creed fragrances are cheap, frankly." (The average retail price for a bottle is £145.) "If I aimed for the same profit margins as some of the famous fragrance houses, who pay a tenth of what we do for raw materials, we would have to charge 10 times the price they do. But we aren't 10 times as expensive as them, or anything like it."

Mr. Creed advances the idea that his fragrances are, "frankly," cheap. He's undercharging us, possibly out of the goodness of his heart.

Would somebody more professional than us, simple perfume lovers, offer an articulate/detailed commentary on that bold assertion?

No thanks :-)