Tag Archives: scents

Interview with Camille Goutal of Annick Goutal

A while ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Camille Goutal, daughter of legendary perfumer Annick Goutal, for a feature in Prestige magazine – which you can read here, if you’re so inclined. I found Camille a lovely, warm and gracious interviewee (especially since I imagine she gets asked many of these same questions for around a decade now!), and I loved how passionate she was about the evocative power of scent – she really gets the emotion and feelings behind creating and describing a scent, rather than just being all about whatever’s new or on-trend.

As always with these things, you put yourself through the torture of listening to your voice on repeat for hours to transcribe your interview, only to end up using about a third of your chat for print, so I thought I’d put up the whole thing for any fellow Annick Goutal lovers out there. Of course, I then forgot about this intention for about a year… but here it is now! And next time you’re met with a snooty perfume assistant, remember that, in Camille’s words, “You’re never wrong when you talk about fragrance!”

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Penhaligon’s Fragrance Profiling – a truly scent-sational experience!

penhaligon's hk pop-up store

For me, scent is the most evocative of all our senses. It’s amazing how one smell can instantly make certain memories flood back, remind you of a certain something or someone, or make you feel a certain way with just one waft of a fragrance.

For that reason, perfume fascinates me. How do you bottle an emotion? How do you create that intoxicating mix of ingredients that somehow manages to speak to so many different people? And is there a perfect perfume match out there for everyone?

penhaligon's hong kong pop up store harbour city

Don’t worry, I’m not going to throw it all in and become a perfumer just yet! But for those reasons, I was incredibly excited to be invited for a Fragrance Profiling Experience at Penhaligon’s Hong Kong.

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