EVEN WHEN HE DREAMS, HE STILL SMELLS AND CREATES FRAGRANCES

08 August 2022 | NEWS

EVEN WHEN HE DREAMS, HE STILL SMELLS AND CREATES FRAGRANCES

Daniel André, creator of the signature perfume Elite

Able to dream and smell in his sleep, Daniel André is one of the country's rare perfumers. And one of the greatest in the world.

Daniel André is a creative perfumer who works for several luxury brands and changes horizon with each order. We meet with him in his laboratory in Geneva

Daniel André

What is your first olfactory memory ?

The one that immediately comes to mind is a childhood memory: the smell of cut grass when I was playing on the lawn as a child. I can also remember the smell of my grandmother, yet I really didn't know her very well. Of all our senses, the olfactory memory is the most precise and conveys the most emotions. It immediately places us in a very specific sensory and emotional context. We all have our Proustian madeleine cake... Having the chance to open bottles in a perfumer's laboratory is like a session of psychoanalysis and brings back moments of life that have touched us to the depths of our being. It is reactivating memories that belong to us alone, that have marked us in a positive or negative way.

Does the smell of a brand, its olfactory signature, also address our sensitive being ?

Yes, it can convey a message and even values in a completely different way to traditional marketing. By appealing to our sense of smell, emotion is guaranteed. For Elite, the smell had to evoke realities such as the well-being that results from a good night's sleep and also comfort. But I immediately noticed that what was also important for Elite was the way of receiving people, the kindness... respect for the customer. It was also necessary to convey the work of the artisans behind these beautiful products; I was inspired by all of this.

How do you translate such ideas or values into smells ?

In olfactory language, floral notes, for example, evoke well-being and nature. Woody notes can convey the notion of traditional manufacturing. Then it's like a music score: the formula has to sound good... and everyone has to feel good about it. And then, of course, you have to add a bit of character so that it is recognisable... The most important thing is that the smell should not be aggressive or overpowering for the recipient; it should be subtle, refined and very soft ...

Can smells help us fall asleep ?

Lavender is known for its relaxing properties. For my daughters, mandarin worked very well. We can also imagine olfactory alarm clocks by designing a scent for the end of the night, when sleep is lighter, which would allow us to wake up gently.

And you say you dream of smells; tell us more about that...

Just as some musicians dream of music, I dream of smells. It can be scents I have smelled before or that I imagine. I have trained so much in olfactory mental imagery - trying to think of a smell to actually smell it - that today it comes to me completely naturally. Everyone can practice thinking about a smell: imaging research has shown that this ability is the result of training.

Do you have a perfume in mind that you want to create?

All the time! Every day, I do my scales, I train myself to recognise and rediscover bottles. Even if I've already breathed in the same product 1000 or 2000 times, I still hope to be surprised! We are used to smelling something and thinking that it is just a smell. But in fact, it is a composition of several tens or hundreds of molecules. We imagine a smell as being in one dimension. But in fact it is a volume that has its own unique shape. When you turn it, you can see its rough edges: they allow you to make the connection between the various raw materials. This is even how they are put together... how they are blended. 

 

Les clefs de Morphée

Les clefs de Morphée, the olfactory signature developed by perfumer Daniel André for Elite, is a citrusy (through the extraction of citrus zest), floral, woody and iridescent fragrance. It contains verbena, bergamot, pepper, jasmine, iris and cotton (cotton balsam to give an impression of softness). In addition, there are musks, coumarin (an extract of medicinal plants), water lily leaves and a leaf that grows at night, which Daniel André calls "moon flower".

 

 

Did you have a predisposition to be a 'nose'?

I had a predisposition to smell, there's no doubt about it; but it's mostly a question of training. I was lucky enough to visit Givaudan in Geneva one day. One of the perfumers at the time gave an extraordinary presentation which made all of us, students as we were, want to enter this profession. At that time, Givaudan was the only "nose" school in the world. I was lucky enough to be accepted as one of three students in a class that rarely had any openings. What I liked was the crossover between the scientific and artistic worlds. I had an excellent and fascinating scientific education, but there was something missing, I couldn't see myself being a chemical engineer all my life. I didn't like it. I was always what I called a fake scientist. I had my head in the stars and I was asked to have it on paper, in formulas. This job has allowed me to be in both places at the same time...

 

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