Perfume editor Frédéric Malle and his namesake fragrance house are known for bringing perfumers into the limelight as artists, and the latest to step into focus under the house is celebrity nose Jean-Claude Ellena.
Born into a family of perfumers in Grasse, Jean-Claude Ellena helmed Hermes’s fragrance operations until 2016, but it hasn’t been until now, with Frédéric Malle, that we’re seeing his name in the industry again, with a perfume called Rose & Cuir.
A poetic reinterpretation of the popular and sometimes overused note, Rose & Cuir does not in fact use the flower as one of its ingredients. Through over a half a century of experience, Ellena knows very well that a finished scent should not be composed of more than 15 notes. Opening the top note for Rose & Cuir is the earthy and exotic timut pepper and sweet geranium bourbon with a hint of the invigorating cassis. Entering into the middle notes, the rosiness finally unveils itself, but far from what you might expect from a rose perfume; the formulation is voluptuous, contrasting the lightness of the floral scent and the darkness of Haitian vetiver and leather. The base note then consists of dry floral stains of IsoButyl Quinoline, an ingredient derived from the scent of leather.
