I haven’t had many opportunities to meet Givaudan‘s Rodrigo Flores-Roux (Neroli Portofino, Anima Dulcis, Oeillet Bengale, amongst several others), but each time our paths have crossed, I’ve bemoaned the fact that he doesn’t fly over from the States very often. Not only is he an entertaining character, but he’s able to engage in discussions about perfume with equal measures of concrete detail and more abstract, conceptual input. He’s also adept at being reflective about his own work, an attribute not frequently found in scent-creators. So when I interviewed him at the London launch of Dark Rebel from John Varvatos (the brand whose entire fragrance range has been created by the Mexican perfumer) I knew he wouldn’t mind becoming quite technical with his descriptions of his newest baby.
Rodrigo Flores-Roux: With Dark Rebel, John really wanted to push the envelope. He wanted to organise a bigger budget. As you know, the trend right now is for perfumes to smell expensive. People are getting to be a little bit more discriminating. The Oud fragrance was the first one where we pushed the envelope. In general, the formulas for these fragrances are not cheap; they are above the average. The most expensive is the Oud. But Artisan Aqua is quite up there too; it has a lot of naturals. With the Oud, John was basically responding to the necessity of having something for the Middle East. It contains natural oud essential oil and it is basically the only American perfume that has it.
Another great interview. I appreciate his directness in answering your questions.
On another topic: you will have to change to blog bio to four-time Jasmine Award winner. Congratulations!
— Lindaloo
Lindaloo, thanks very much. I certainly enjoyed interviewing him.
And thanks for the Jasmine wishes 🙂