As Cremona puts it, Henry Jacques has “stayed in the shadows” ever since, perfecting its very own art of bespoke perfumery that no other brand can imitate – let alone catch up with, as consumers show renewed interest in crafting their own individual scents as opposed to grabbing a generic perfume off store shelves.6 celebrity-owned fragrances that are worth the hype, from Fenty to Eilish
“A journalist said to me in Paris, ‘The niche is killing the niche,’ because every day, you have 300 brands with just a bottling difference. This is the discourse I had 10 years ago with Harrods,” she says of the brand’s very first boutique opening back in 2014.
“They said, look around you, there’s space for [bespoke fragrances].”
Rejecting the typical trends and cycles of mass-market retail consumerism has since paid off in spades for the brand. It has expanded carefully, with great consideration behind the feel of each boutique, into Asia over the past decade – starting with Singapore, then Kuala Lumpur, followed by Hong Kong’s Elements store in 2021. The oak wood interiors of the Elements store were fully built in France before being shipped and reassembled in Hong Kong.
There’s a strict amount of science behind all the perfume artistry, in favour of a more tailored approach. The brand’s esteemed laboratory leans on sourcing and using more concentrated niche essences from the natural world instead of chemically manufactured ingredients – it uses organic, undenatured (non-chemically enhanced) alcohols – as the base for most fragrances.
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And while Mother Nature has long inspired scents of many brands, few tap into its spontaneity – and sustainability – in the same way Henry Jacques does. The brand’s latest creations, the three rose-inspired fragrances which make up this year’s Collection de l’Atelier, are special not only because they will be available in limited quantities – only 500 sets are up for sale, derived from a single rose harvest.
That harvest, as it turns out, was a long time coming. “Perfume is an art, the way we do it,” says Cremona, describing the five years of planning which went into the new fragrances, from preparing the harvest grounds to the limited harvested ingredients available for the extraction process.
With little idea of what to expect, Cremona and her team ended up with four tonnes of rose petals to work with, four times the amount they initially expected – a word of wisdom, perhaps, to let nature take its course and surprise you in unexpected ways.
“It’s important to speak about sustainability not because it’s fashionable – it’s because it’s common sense. If we do not pay attention to this, everything will disappear,” she says. “That’s why it makes sense to speak about limitation. We’re limited by nature, and this collection is a real tribute to nature, to [Henry Jacques’] bespoke work.”
As Cremona points out, every rose is different, making each fragrance unique – a celebration of nature, as well as the individuality inherent in the brand. It wouldn’t be Henry Jacques, if it doesn’t leave you with an impression lasting longer than the scent it leaves behind.
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“I like to compare our ingredients to pigments, colours to help you understand,” Cremona says of the way the brand visualises scents. The most beautiful paintings in the Renaissance period, often relied strongly on using the best pigments, she adds. “The pigments were what was hidden and so precious. When we created this [collection], I saw clear colours.”
To illustrate exactly what she means, Cremona illuminates the bottle containing one of the collection’s fragrances, Rose Soleil. Just like the scent’s warm and spicy tones, evocative of roses in the sunshine, the fragrance’s burnt orange colour is luminous under the shining light. In fact, Cremona says, the name of the fragrances is a play on colour itself.
“The French word for pink is rose,” says Cremona of the pink roses that these fragrances were derived from. “I found it frustrating to just use this colour, because I was excited to show the different interpretations we could have around the flower.”
The family aspect of Henry Jacques perfumery is key more than ever, because it’s becoming very rare, Cremona says. “I had to invent this totally new model to protect this patrimony, which is amazing,” she further explains. “We know each member of our team. When it’s a family idea, it touches your soul because you saw your parents [following this course] … I really wanted to honour their decisions.”
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