In conversation: Linda Pilkington from Ormonde Jayne
Please introduce yourself in 3 sentences:
I’m Linda from Ormonde Jayne, creator and founder. I have had a company now for 25 years. I am independent and we are also manufacturers and create our perfumes in-house.
Favourite ingredient / aroma?
I’ve consistently used Pink Pepper. I’ve always talked about it. I’ve always had a bottle in my fridge and I find it a very beautiful ingredient that I also put directly on my skin. I love the way it performs. It's also present in a lot of our perfumes - practically all of them except Tolu, Ormonde Man, and Arabesque. It’s otherwise known as Baie Rose.
How and with whom do you create your fragrances?
We collaborate with a couple of perfume houses and we work with a lot of different people. We create our own perfumes in-house when it’s a bespoke fragrance for a department store. If it’s something for La Route de La Soie or the Signature collection, so if it’s a perfume that I want a lot of fruity/florals in, I go to Expressions Parfumées in Grasse because their oils are the best, and if it’s slightly more Four Corner of the Earth, more involved, I use IFF. The Signature Collection started in 2001 with the launch of the boutique, using oils not widely used in the perfume industry. My philosophy used travel, culture and British craftsmanship to recapture memories - the fragrant smell of basmati rice tied in to the Indian flower Champaca, or the freshly picked dates left by my bedside in the town of Ta’if when I created Ta’if; it was my personal experiences to give purpose and relevance to our perfumes using these priceless extraordinary oils from all over the world. The collection La Route de la Soie was a departure from that collection using ingredients found across this extraordinary ancient Silk Road. It uses more fruity notes that are appealing to all generations, but particularly resonate with wearers trying niche perfumes for the first time.
Any favourite perfume or one that has a particular memory you’d like to share?
The one that’s stood the test of time, one that I constantly wear all year round, is Ta’if; orange blossom, dates, saffron and pink pepper. This is a fragrance that I created 20 years ago using my personal favourite notes and marrying them with ingredients from this extraordinary region. My second go-to is Ormonde Woman, which is part of our Signature Scents collection. I alternate between the two - Ta’if I wear a lot more, and Ormonde Woman I wear when I want to feel powerful, and have a purposeful day.
Any perfumer / artist / person you’d like to collaborate with on a fragrance?
I would like to collaborate with an artist I met - he’s got a very creative mind - I’ve never asked him so he’d be very surprised if I said that to him! He’s got very good taste, I like the way he paints, I like the way he dresses, I like his attitude, I like his personality - he’s very kind. I think kindness is a very good starting point. His name is Ollie Amhurst, and he’s the founder of luxury leather clothing brand Lot 78.
If you weren’t in the fragrance industry, which industry would you like to be in?
I would be a chocolatier. I’ve always enjoyed cooking and flavouring my cooking with edible perfume oils.
When I was young, I used to love making things; sewing, cooking, growing plants, making room sprays, candles. I used to make chocolates too, and I really enjoyed the process. I used to have moulds on a tray, I used to melt the chocolate, put it in, wipe it off, mix my mixture, put it into the middle, put my chocolate over the top, spread it with that flat thing, and put it in the fridge. Then I’d take it out of the fridge the next day, put them in the boxes and go around from door to door selling them - I was very good, that’s why I went into business. I used to make mixtures using a tiny bit of alcohol - I don’t think I was particularly sophisticated in those days, I’ve got more style now.
I am a chocolate connoisseur, at the moment my number one chocolates are Melt with their own premises in Holland Park where they make the chocolates. Second is Pierre Marcolini. Third is Charbonnel, because it’s right across our store in the Royal Arcade. I have two or three favourites from each brand.
I’d love to know what you do to make chocolates at that level. I would have to work very hard to come up with a style - I’d probably have to make chocolates called ‘fragrance & chocolate’ or ‘fragrance & flavours’ or something like that - a ‘perfumer’s box’ of chocolates with Osmanthus, Jasmine… That would be keeping with what I know! I could ask at Brown’s. After dinner they serve these paper thin chocolates. If I made chocolate, that would be my starting base: thin chocolate.
If you could change anything in the industry, what would it be?
If we could temper the enthusiasm of the IFRA rules, then I know I could create absolutely extraordinary no holds barred perfumes. But, whilst I understand the rationale behind it, our hands are tied.
Any upcoming project / launch you want to share?
We have two new perfumes from the Routes de La Soie collection, Kashmir and Bukhara, and we have our very first advent calendar, the “8 Days of Christmas”, which goes from Christmas Eve to News Year’s Eve. Eight being my lucky number - my bottles are eight-sided, they hold 88ml, I’m born in the eighth month, I get the 88 bus to work - and eight days of Christmas. Day eight of the calendar is a full, 88ml bottle.
The calendar launches October the 8th, the perfumes launch September the 8th. The calendars will be available in department stores and there will be two types: the atmospheric/fruity/floral and the amberesque version. In the Ormonde Jayne Boutique and online, you will get the three festive candles, and then you can pick and pack what you want!
5% of the takings of Kashmir go to the Himalayan Trust, and 10% of our Christmas candle sales go to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.
Tune of the day: Dua Lipa - Be The One
I love Dua Lipa at the moment, I think she’s fantastic. I watched her Glastonbury show on the TV and my husband and I danced all night in our hotel room - and then I went and googled her and somehow ended up on her WhatsApp group - I don’t know how I managed to do that! I get messages from her and I’m claiming her as my daughter. So I say to my husband: “I’ve just heard from our daughter, darling! She’s going to be performing then and there.”
Fragrance of the day: Kashmir - Ormonde Jayne. I always wear my own perfumes!
You can purchase Ormonde Jayne’s tasting menu here
A few of July’s highlights in short form:
Valentino and Paco Rabanne each launch high-end fragrance lines
Shiseido enters license agreement with Max Mara to develop, produce, market and distribute fragrances under the brand
True Beauty Ventures invest first round into The Maker, a hotel-inspired perfume brand created by second-time founders Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg
The Fragrance Foundation launches Next Gen, a networking group and accelerator to support perfume enthusiasts and UK-based emerging brands
Estée Lauder Companies’ New Incubation Ventures launches The Catalysts with support from TikTok, an incubator aiming to transform the future of beauty
Clara Muller writes about Art & Olfaction’s 5th Experimental Scent Summit
Lush opens ‘The Perfume Library’, a fragrance concept store on London’s Beak Street
Jo Malone and Paddington Bear launch an Orange Marmalade cologne, celebrating the Bear’s favourite snack
New industry appointments
Stéphane Perrault appointed as CFO of Kering Beauté
Laurence Semichon announced as new CEO of Diptyque
Akhil Shrivastava promoted to Executive VP and CFO of Estée Lauder Companies
My fragrance of the day: Star Seren by Wales Perfumery - nose: Louise Smith - metallic forest, damp hay, barley, warm sand, and starry night
“How expensive can fragrance get?”
Lisbon, June 2024
- Flo