Who: Laurent Delafon, co-founder and CEO of United Perfumes, a high-end scent licensing and distribution company. We met up with Laurent at the recent I.F.F Speed Sniffing event, which he was hosting. And the man knows how to throw a party as he previously worked for Laurent-Perrier Champagne. We were excited to hear that he’s co founding a new perfume house Ostens, which launches this summer.
Today I’m wearing a scent we are developing for Ostens, project code name ‘Singeries’. It is a sophisticated Cedarwood, that smells of warm, blond tobacco, it’s very sensual and it is by Alexis Dadier, a great perfumer from International Flavours and Fragrance.
It is a very sophisticated and powerful fragrance, in a dandy kind of way. This is my mood today!
Fragrance is very important to me. I love to use it to match my mood because it’s fun to let it push you deeper in one direction or another. Maybe you start the day bright and sunny and happy, so you put on a crisp citrus-y scent and it carries you through the day, even if it starts raining or problems pile up at work!
I spray fragrance onto myself In the morning and the evening if going out. I spray after showering, on the skin. In summer, inside jackets.
Embarrassingly, my fragrance wardrobe is quite big. But it’s my job, so it’s OK…Right?!
I definitely love to scent my house. Japanese incense is the best way to get rid of tobacco or cooking smells, and I love scented candles. I like both of these for their ritualistic element. I am not that big a fan of diffusers personally, but they are very efficient (in particular in a summer house or weekend cottage).
I ended up working in the fragrance industry by accident, after meeting Yves Coueslant and Mohamed Lataoui from Diptyque. I was working in the wine industry back then. We got talking about smells and they were fascinating people. True visionaries and creatives.
Consumers are being empowered in their choices by digital media, perfume is less and less the domain of experts, and more and more about enjoyment and the pleasures it gives. And so it should!
