Prior to my Instagram Live with Rémi Pulvérail on 20th May, I invited people to send in any questions they might like me to ask during our conversation. Rémi brings a rare blend of insight and experience to the world of perfumery. Before founding L’Atelier Français des Matières, he travelled the world sourcing fragrance ingredients, building close relationships with small-scale growers whose crops are shaped by unique terroirs, yielding harvests with distinctive olfactory signatures.
These ‘grand crus’ florals, herbs and aromatics are now used in fragrances for some of perfumery’s most distinctive independent luxury houses, including ERIS Parfums, Les Abstraits, and Les Indémodables, the latter co-run by Rémi and his partner Valérie, who founded the brand.
I thought it’d be nice to re-publish the interview here without having to endure the discomfort of me trying to get Instagram Live to work for eight minutes. (Is any Live complete without technical difficulties?) Special thanks to Mike from @my_scent_of_the_day for submitting such thoughtful questions. They led to some truly interesting conversation.
Special thanks again to Rémi for taking the time to share his insights, and to everyone who tuned in, joined the conversation and sent in questions.
Why, with so many wonderful ingredients to choose from, did they eventually go with the (in my opinion) quite unusual choice of a hazelnut perfume?
Because the idea was to explore the patchouli in overdose and our Hazelnut ultrasound extract, in the opinion of Master perfumer Antoine Lie, was the perfect ingredient to balance the harsh facets of patchouli.
Have you smelt hyacinth absolute before, does it have irreplaceable value and are there any reliable producers still? The other part of the question is also important, if it seems irreplaceable to him, since formulas that used it have had it reformulated out and sometimes it's not out of cost cutting, it is simply because it really didn't add anything?
Hyacinth absolute exists but the extract is not very performant and therefore, given its very high cost (yield being very poor), this does not make a very interesting ingredient to use for fragrance creation.
The oil of angelica root is predominantly used and I know of no existing producers of the absolute but have you assessed the absolute and does it have value compared to the oil?
No, the absolute has never been assessed so far as the most interesting olfactive facets are in the essential oil (top notes)…but this could be a route to explore!
Do you see any upcoming trends for the next few years regarding perfumery raw materials and ingredients?
Yes, the future undoubtedly lies in the valorization of plant waste generated by all kinds of industries and processes — a path we are actively exploring ourselves!
Given that natural ingredients are variable, how do you balance this variation with the consistency necessary for perfumery?
Perfumery does not need this kind of consistency as far as we talk about high end perfumes and not mass perfumes. Our philosophy is to respect the slight variability of natural extracts due to crop conditions: we are not looking for formula standardization which is something that we leave to the major fragrances houses and perfume brands that want to standardize everything! We control the quality of ingredients carefully of course, but do not aim at artificially controlling nature, just as for the great wines for instance where each ‘Millésime’ might be slightly different from the previous one. Having said that, as perfume formulas are made of tens of ingredients the final variability of the scent remains very difficult to perceive.
I'm just a perfume loving consumer, so how do you think my relationship with raw materials differs from yours?
Our role is to educate our clients with what we consider as the jewels of perfumery which are definitely the natural extracts: the rarest and most expensive ingredients of any perfume formula, in particular the ones that we develop as they use plants from rare and vintage crops!
Is there a raw material that you personally find meaningful or emotionally resonant?
Many actually, but to pick a few I would say vetiver, fir balsam, tonka beans, fine lavender, hay and immortelle…and of course rose!
Have you noticed any changes in the ingredient sourcing landscape over the past decade?
I see more and more fragrance and perfume houses that have totally lost the expertise of sourcing natural ingredients as they are only looking for low cost ingredients and are actually purchasing instead of sourcing. Their teams do not travel anymore to really understand what’s going on at the agricultural level, which remains the most complex and weakest side of any supply chain. As a result they all use the same natural ingredients and the innovation in this field is more than poor.
Why did you start your own ingredient company? Was there a market gap that you wanted to fill?
We are not an ingredient company but a perfume company. Having said that, we wanted to have a grip on each single step from the plant until the bottled perfume as this is what we consider as being ‘Haute Parfumerie’; so we have patiently built over the last 10 years a unique ecosystem that meets these specific objectives. Our R&D department in charge of natural ingredients allows us to have exclusive and innovative natural extracts, which is a huge and a unique asset in today’s niche perfumery market space!
What are some of the biggest challenges you face when sourcing ingredients today? ex: climate, regulatory etc.
Large companies have given up on gaining a deep understanding of natural ingredient supply chains, as these products come with significant inherent complexity driven by climate, political, and economic factors. We, on the other hand, are passionate about everything complex and technical, and we have the expertise and experience to navigate this complexity.
Is pricing difficult when quality and scarcity affect perceived value?
We have an open discussion with each of our partners in the origin countries, and we try to find a way to equally share the added value; we never put pressure on prices as our first criteria are quality and uniqueness.
As the owner of a small ingredient company, what are you able to do that larger companies can not?
Our company is first a perfume company that has an R&D department specialized on natural extracts. We have access to vintage crops which are not available for large companies as output is very limited and most of the time prices are too high for them.
A lot of companies tout transparency and sustainability in their marketing material - Do you find this helpful? Misleading? Something else entirely?
Most of the time misleading as the information provided is very vague in most cases, with no transparency based and hard facts.
You've got a fairly large product catalog at this point, so how/why do you decide to bring in a new product? Demand? Novelty? Something else?
Our catalogue of natural ingredients is exclusive to us and we do not market these. New and innovative extracts are a major source of inspiration for Antoine Lie, creation director of Les Indémodables.
Do you think there are raw materials that are currently underappreciated by most perfumers?
I think perfumers in general are very little concerned with natural ingredients as most of the time their budget to create fragrance formulas is much too low to use it for real! As for us this is not the case as Antoine Lie has no budget limits to create within.
How much change do you find in Musc des Sables and Ambre Supreme when you change the batch of ambergris?
We have bought a large piece of Ambre Gris as we found one of exceptional quality and we have sufficient stock for the few years to come…we will see for the next one!
