In French, artisan means craftsman. Accordingly, artisanal perfumery or artisanal perfumes are perfumes made by an artisan. Close friends may also call him an artist. 

 

"Despite my long career, I don't like to be in the spotlight. My goal is to communicate with people. I usually create a fragrance for someone in particular. I feel like an author who hides behind the words of a person," says Fernanda Russo, an artist perfumer who created the I am fragrance collection for the Bibliotheque.

 

Fernanda Russo is a modern artisan perfumer. She works in a small workshop in the center of Florence. The shop she runs was opened in the city in 1700. It is surrounded by museums, galleries, and ancient buildings. All this is important to Fernanda. She values sincerity, stories, and feelings much more than the commercial success of products. She creates her perfumes in a separate, remote room in her studio. The first room where customers enter is lined with shelves of bottles, rolls, and packages. Across the counter, where customers usually don't enter, is Fernanda's room: semi-dark so that the natural essential oils don't deteriorate in the light, filled with bottles, flasks, test tubes, and scales for measuring ingredients. She mixes all the ingredients by hand, writing down the proportions in a notebook. She works to classical music or in silence.

The principles of craftsmanship and industry in perfumery are fundamentally different. An artisanal artist is driven mainly by the following motives:

1. The desire for self-expression

2. Enjoyment of materials and ingredients

3. Love for the process itself, the magic of transforming one substance into another

4. The desire for the work to resonate with a person, to evoke sincere and strong feelings 

The industrialist, on the other hand, thinks about the efficiency of using business resources - hours and materials - and the profit from his work. He strives for financial growth, industry leadership, and market recognition.

 

The world started talking about artisanal perfumery - or niche perfumery, as it is often called - in the 70s of the last century. The first niche perfume brand is L'Artisan Parfumeur, founded in 1976. Since 1995, models, actresses, and pop stars have been using niche perfumes. They were photographed near the cult niche boutique Aedes de Venustas in Manhattan, and the photos were spread by glossy publications. Thus, the store and the industry itself became interesting to people all over the world. People learned that, in addition to mass-produced fragrances, famous perfumers produce limited collections of fragrances that are more expensive and, thanks to a small circulation, allow a person to ‘look’ special - not like hundreds or thousands of other women or men on the streets.  

Author: Veronica Garcia

 

"We created the I Am collection artistically. It is not commercial, and when Fernanda was creating it, she had no restrictions on the cost of the components. We allowed her to use even the rarest and most precious essential oils so that Fernanda could freely convey the concept of the line and implement her own author's idea," comments Lora Nekrasova, founder of the Bibliotheque brand.

 

Here are four main features of Artisanal perfumery. 

Ingredients

 

The Artisanal approach dictates the use of only the highest quality ingredients. Fernanda, like other Artisans, is interested in experimenting with different varieties of plants and trees, tracking how the same plant from different harvest years reveals itself in a composition. Artisans know that the scent of the same rose variety will change depending on the climatic conditions in which the flower grew and the care it received. It is similar to the production of craft wine or specialty coffee. The region, weather, soil - all of this affects the final product.

 

For example, to find the note she needs, Fernanda attends private auctions, searches for ingredients through her network of colleagues, and sometimes makes special substances herself. She is driven by both curiosity and the extraordinary nature of the scent, but also by the ability to express the original idea as accurately as possible. If she imagines that the scent of the lily of the valley in her perfume should be more delicate than sweet, she looks for a variety with a delicate scent.

 

Composition

Artisans, and Fernanda in particular, accept and often even strive for complex compositions. Their perfumes take longer to open so that a person can observe the development of the scent for hours. Massive fragrances are easy to identify in three seconds by testing them on the store shelf. Niche perfumes reveal themselves fully only 15-30 minutes after application, and then continue to develop like a musical symphony, in which musicians join in when it suits them.

 

Individuality

Niche perfumes emphasize a person's individuality in two ways. The first is that they are produced in smaller editions, and Fernanda does not deviate from the rules either. Each fragrance of the I Am collection is released in a limited number of instances. The second is that such perfumes sound different on the skin of various people due to the significant composition of natural essential oils. Natural ingredients react chemically with the skin and especially reveal themselves. One perfume can sound different even on a mother and daughter. 

Unconventional

For a fragrance to be commercially successful, major perfume houses analyze the trendy notes of the next season and launch products with them. If research has shown that people will buy a peach scent, fashion houses set a condition for the perfumer to create a fragrance with this particular note. Often, even the perfume factories themselves offer fashion houses the main notes of the season and work according to this shortlist.

 

Instead, Fernanda, like other artisans, first looks for a worthy idea, a story that will inspire her to create a fragrance, and only then figures out how to implement her plan. For her, the image and mood of the fragrance is the primary thing, and the ingredients are just a tool. The best compliment and reward for Fernanda is the eternity of the fragrance: its out-of-season and reproduction for many years.

 

The I Am collection by Lora Nekrasova and Fernanda Russo was created according to the Artesian principles - without reference to time. The eight resourceful female states are eternal - those that are inherent in women by nature. The task was to embody them so that a woman of any culture and age would recognize them in any year. These perfumes are emotional anchors that help to bring oneself back to the necessary state. Just as the color red has been symbolizing passion for centuries, the collection has gathered symbolic notes that convey tenderness, sensuality, lightness, success, daring, love, dreaminess, and value.