A scentsible French tradition
MANILA, Philippines - Born in Paris, France, Camille Goutal was destined for a life in fragrance. She joined Annick Goutal Parfums as a perfumer in 1999 after her mother’s passing that same year. Not simply following in her mother’s footsteps, Camille has further developed the line by creating fragrances that reflect her own distinct personality.
Can you personally describe Annick Goutal scents? Since scent is fairly associated with memory, do you have specific recollections for your favorite scents?
When we create a fragrance, we get the inspiration from moments of our lives, places that we loved and made us dream, and from beautiful ingredients which smell deliciously good and could be the base of a new perfume idea. For example, the inspiration from Songes comes from a journey in Mauritius Island: we recreated the softness of the beach at nightfall, flooded with the smell of frangipani.
As a visual artist, how were you able to incorporate this in your creative process as a perfumer?
As a perfume nose, we use all our senses to create a perfume. For example, the “touch” can be retranscribed with the use of certain essences. I frequently use “the sight” to imagine a special atmosphere in a fragrance. I dream about an imaginary land and I try to recreate it.
As a photographer, the work on lines and colors (that I can do when making a photo) helps me a lot when I work on packaging design, press files, visuals… I always try to find harmony in the shapes and colours, as I would do for a photo.
What kind of woman wears Annick Goutal?
We create fragrances for all types of women (and men too!) as we don’t have marketing brief and targets. Above all, we tell a story. Thanks to that, many women can find themselves in our fragrances. Our clients are women with an artistic soul (but not automatically artist in their occupation). They need to dream, they love beautiful things and quality, and most important, they don’t want to wear the same perfume as everybody else.
How does a fragrance like Annick Goutal become a part of one’s life? How has the spirit of fragrance been passed on in your family, from your mother to you and then to your daughters?
It is often thanks to word of mouth that women discover our perfumes. Then, they want to offer it as a gift to women in their families: mothers, sisters, daughters, and to the man of their life too… People often come to us to offer her very first perfume to a young lady as we have many tender fragrances, or for a wedding occasion too for example, because we have lot of love stories in our fragrances.
In my family, the legacy is daily and natural. When I was young, my mother’s laboratory was in our home, I spent a lot of time playing with all the scents. Now, my daughters do the same as they often come and spend afternoon in the lab. They really love wearing perfumes, and use all the perfumes they find at home, from the lightest to the most intense one!
How has the brand changed over the years and what has remained?
We always work (Isabelle Doyen and I) the same way as my mother did, using our own inspiration and beautiful ingredients. However, we have modernized the packs respecting the house’s codes, and we do more limited edition (for example, Petite Cherie re- designed as a pinup) very much appreciated by our clients. The distribution has also grown, but we always choose high-quality stores in order to keep our client dreaming.
What could we look forward to again from Annick Goutal this 2011?
In 2011, we will launch two new fragrances: Le Mimosa in spring, our own interpretation of the flower, and “Mon Parfum Cheri” in autumn, a very feminine, elegant and mesmerizing fragrance, inspired by Hollywood glamorous actresses.
We hope that many women from all around the world will find themselves in these new fragrances and that we will keep making them dream and wonder in Annick Goutal universe.
