January 2025
Fragrance lately
In conversation: Renaud Coutaudier from Naomi Goodsir
Please introduce yourself in 3 sentences:
I’m the Creative Director of Naomi Goodsir Parfums, since the launch of our brand in 2012.
I’ve worked in the field of niche/alternative perfumery for more than 25 years, in Paris but also overseas, creating perfumes mainly for fashion designers.
I was lucky enough to have seen the full evolution of niche/alternative perfumery, at a time when there were very few doing it.
Tell us more about Naomi Goodsir
Naomi Goodsir is an Australian designer who trained as a milliner creating and making hats for fashion designers, stylists and institutions. We met in Sydney. We live and work together in France, where our creative studio and home are based.
Favourite ingredient / aroma?
Definitely Cistus Labdanum, which is, for us, the most “animalistic” mediterranean bush tree. We discovered it, along with perfumer Julien Rasquinet, about 12 years ago, when we were all still quite unknown in the world of perfumery. Actually, you can feel Cistus Labdanum in Bois d’Ascèse.
How and with whom do you create your fragrances?
First, we started with perfumer Julien Rasquinet, then Bertrand Duchaufour and Isabelle Doyen, who I met 25 years ago. We are all great friends.
We always start from an emblematic ingredient such as incense (Bois d’Ascèse by Julien Rasquinet), leather (Cuir Velours by Julien Rasquinet and Corpus Equus by Bertrand Duchaufour), an iris (Iris Cendré by Julien Rasquinet), a tuberosa (Nuit de Bakélite by Isabelle Doyen). All our perfumes were composed from a blank page. We know which ingredients we want. Each perfumer comes with several proposals and then we start together reshaping the formulation. As an example, for Nuit de Bakélite, we wanted to bring our own vision of a tuberosa (one of the most iconic and difficult ingredients to work with; already on the market are iconic perfumes such as Fracas by Piguet, Carnal Flower by Frédéric Malle, Tubéreuse Criminelle by Serge Lutens, Opium by Dior, etc.). Isabelle Doyen came to us with two different tracks; a day tuberose and a night one, both reworked at the same time. After more or less 800 tries and about four years, Naomi finally brought the final touch to it. The premise of a narcotic lady… Green, obsessive and addictive. Tuberose sap, peeled tuberose, tuberose in a cage made of green leather, a focus on the small peduncle that connects the flower to the stem, the sound of latex when several stalks of tuberose tangle, the wild majesty of the Persian tuberose.
Any favourite perfume or one that has a particular memory you’d like to share?
Probably Bois d’Ascèse, which is a tribute to Naomi’s father and to her wooden chapel in New South Wales, surrounded in summertime by bush fires. I will always remember Julien Rasquinet joining me for a drink in a Parisian hotel in order to introduce the final formulation of Bois d’Ascèse, while Naomi was stitching hats for Kanye West for his first catwalk in Paris that same day. It was our first perfume. A “radical smoke” with quite an unknown ingredient at the time… The Styrax.
Any perfumer / artist / person you’d like to collaborate with on a fragrance?
So many… In a way, we did it indirectly with Corpus Equus by Bertrand Duchaufour, a creation which was influenced by Pierre Soulages’ “Outrenoir” and Anish Kapoor’s “Vantablack”. This perfume is a tribute to the noble and wild nature of an Arabian stallion, fiery, intrepid and hot-blooded with an elegant gait. Naomi’s favourite steed.
If you weren’t in the fragrance industry, which industry would you like to be in?
I was lucky enough to have lived several lives in one. Prior to working in the fragrance industry, I was a safari guide in Tanzania, East Africa, for several years.
If you could change anything in the industry, what would it be?
I will say less regulation (IFRA) and also, as a piece of advice, to stop following the latest trend, which by definition is ephemeral.
Any upcoming project / launch you want to share?
In process…
Tune of the day: Currently, Baroque music
Fragrance of the day: L’Eau des Immortels by Voyages Imaginaires Parfums
You can purchase Naomi Goodsir’s samples here
Picture credits: Ian MacKenzie/Jean-Michel Sordello/Claudio Bonoldi
A few of January’s highlights in short form:
Air France launches AF001, its first home fragrance created by Francis Kurkdjian and named after the Concorde’s 1970s route from NYC to Paris. The fragrance is gradually being introduced at the entrances of Air France lounges at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport
Carla Seipp on water-based perfumes - from the different variations that exist, to their potential benefits and drawbacks
The titan arum plant at Sydney’s Royal Botanical Gardens, also known as the Corpse Flower for its putrid smell, drew thousands of viewers online and in-person to witness its rare 24h bloom, taking place only once every few years
The Corpse Flower in Sydney. Source: BBC Singapore Airlines launches a business class amenity kit with Le Labo Fragrances
Upcoming fragrance events:
Online, 27th February 2025: British Society of Perfumers with “Human in the Loop: The Future of AI for Fragrance with Alex Wiltschko”
Paris, 20-23rd March 2025: Nez’s second Paris Perfume Week
London, 8th May 2025: The Fragrance Foundation UK Awards 2025
Grasse, 2-5th July 2025: Grasse Perfume Week
My fragrance of the day: Farina 1709 Eau de Cologne by Johann Maria Farina - mandarine, lemon peel, fresh metallic rain, mountain air, bergamot, pamplemousse, light herby depth
“The fragrance boom is nowhere near over”
Engadin, Switzerland, Winter 2024
- Flo
