Prudence Paris: Perfumes with a Prudent Character

by: Serguey Borisov

I met Prudence Kilgour at the Esxence exhibition of 2015 only to find out that her eponymous brand was celebrating an anniversary, has been accelerating enormously in Milan, and has a perfume devoted to a long-time business partner from Russia. I discovered that Prudence's masculine perfumes wear real family blazons, so they have real history behind them.... Let`s have a closer look.

Prudence Kilgour: This year is my brand's 10th anniversary. I started my journey in perfumes, which was very much a journey of passion, 10 years ago. The first perfume was made in 2005, the Prudence eau de parfum, which was a white flower fragrance, in connection with an idea to make a perfume for a pure silk lingerie collection named Prudenzia. The whole concept for the fragrance was to create a very pure, fragile and intimate fragrance, as it was aimed at brides. I have made it with a young perfumer from Grasse, who is the third generation of a perfumer family – and the main notes are Neroli, Jasmine and Lily of the Valley. So, the fragrance became just one of the charms in my Beaumont du Perigord boutique. But not all of women wanted to wear a white flowers perfume, so, little by little my perfume collection has grown up to 15 fragrances.

I had to make something for gentlemen, as well, because some ladies visited my boutique with their husbands. So the first masculine fragrance was named Steuart, after my husband's second name. And now I have five and all these five masculine fragrances are very personal to me, as people in my life have been very important to me. We have Steuart first, then Augusto, Alexandre, Petr and now, the new one,Alexis. And each fragrance has its own family crest, by permission of the owners, and its own character.

Masculine fragrances by  Prudence Paris

There`s also a little girl collection named Mademoiselle, which consists of three perfumes: Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle 2 and Mademoiselle 3…

Sergey Borisov: The first time I saw your collection, all the perfumes were numbered…

Prudence Kilgour: For the men we have names, and for the ladies we have numbers.

Sergey Borisov: Why?

Prudence Kilgour: It`s very difficult to register any name in France, so I registered my Christian name, Prudence, and just added numbers to it: Prudence №1, Prudence №2 and so on.

Sergey Borisov: And how many feminine Prudences are now in your line?

Collection Mademoiselle

Prudence Kilgour: Now I have fifteen fragrances in the Prudence line. And we just completed the new collection, Collection Imperiale, which consists of 6 fragrances that are stronger than our customers were used to.

Sergey Borisov: Isn`t it too many of them? Girls usually do not like too much mathematics…

Prudence Kilgour: I have no problems with that. [laughing] Girls can recall Prudence №3 or Prudence №4.

Sergey Borisov: As to the 10th anniversary of your brand, could you tell us how it all developed? Looking back at those 10 years, what mistakes did you make that you would not make now? And how do you see your own growth over those 10 years?

Prudence Kilgour: I think ten years ago, when I dreamed of the start, I couldn't even imagine that 10 years later, I would be talking to you at Esxence-2015. I just started to fulfill my dream. And when Silvio Levy approached me with a proposal to participate in the Esxence exhibition, then everything changed. My first time here in Milan's International Perfume Exhibition was in 2011, with only 5 feminine and 3 masculine perfumes, and that was a turning point for my brand. Two lovely gentlemen from Russia visited my stand, and we made a great business deal together; they are my Russian distributors till this day.

Prudence Kilgour at Esxence'15

Sergey Borisov: Glad to know that Esxence and Russia are part of your brand's story. Can you describe for us – who are your clients?

Prudence Kilgour: I believe they are romantic. And my best customers are Russians. And if we don’t mention nationalities, then my best customers are people who love to wear perfumes, people with a passion about perfumes. They enjoy discussing perfumes and concepts, and telling you why they choose one perfume over another. And I should say that my perfumes for men are very welcomed, too.

The idea of the perfume Alexis and its concept I discussed with Alexis himself, who welcomed guests at the stand spraying blotters with the most fresh green Prudence masculine perfume, Alexis (- Sergey)

Alexis de Vienne: I met Prudence about two years ago when I was writing for a Chinese magazine. We just talked a lot and somehow I told her about myself, my father and his life. He`s done a lot of things in his life, so it`s his life that was the initial inspiration for the perfume. He was a real adventurer, he was an officer, he sailed a lot, and he was a rancher, so when Prudence asked me for input for the perfume, my whole family discussed all the meaningful things in his life. Red wine, woods, pepper, gunpowder… But it`s not a custom or personal perfume – it`s a perfume in her collection aimed at adventurers, as Prudence loved my story about him. She was infected by my story.

Sergey Borisov: So tell me more about your father, I'm intrigued.

Alexis de Vienne: My father was French and he left for military service in Quebec, Canada. He was a pilot. After that he was a hotel manager in Harbin, he went to Las Vegas, he crossed an ocean from Los Angeles to Tahiti with a crew, he bred horses in Australia, and then he married an Australian woman. So he had an interesting life! I was born in Australia, but I lived in France, in Burgundy, to get an education, and now I live in London, I'm an officer at the company Fine Art Bourse. Right now, I`m here in Milan – but tomorrow I`m going to Chamonix to make a snow tour across the Alps.

Sergey Borisov: So you lend the story and your name to Prudence to create the Alexis perfume? Do you like it and would you have a lifetime supply?

Alexis de Vienne: Yes, absolutely! The perfume reminds me of my father and I do wear it. Actually my bottle ran out, so I`m lucky to be here and recharge my supplies.

Sergey Borisov: So, tell me about the perfume.

Alexis de Vienne: OK, all the ingredients are written here, on the back… let`s read it!

Sergey Borisov: So you are cheating?..

Alexis de Vienne: Well, I`m not a perfumer. The inspiration has come from my mother, my sisters and me – but we are not in the perfume business. We just said that my father bred horses, so there should be something green, earthy, and woody… He sailed across the ocean – so there should be some salted water… We’ve never recommended the notes. What I really like about the perfume – it`s a cross-generation fragrance, it`s for the young gents as myself and for the well-experienced gentlemen in their 60`s as well…

Sergey Borisov: And the emblem?

Alexis de Vienne: The emblem – it`s our family crest, a variation on our family's ancestor's crest, as Jean de Vienne was the very first French Navy admiral, the famous general of the 14th century.

Sergey Borisov: Thank you, Alexis.

          

Jeane de Vienne coat of arms

As for the Alexis cologne itself, it starts very green and brings fresh citrus, but with earthy mineral tones that evoke the starting notes of Terre d`Hermes. It's the notes of grapefruit and Methyl Pamplemousse that make the start resembling Jean-Claude Ellena's great creation. Both notes go great with vetiver and cedarwood, so the base notes can be seen clearly from the very start. The fresh heart is spiced up with black and pink pepper, while geranium and patchouli make the perfume a good contemporary masculine partner to Coco Mademoiselle Chanel or Coco Noir Chanel. While the notes of Alexis look very similar to Terre d`Hermes, the balance of them in Alexis has been moved towards pepper and green-pink rhubarb notes in the start, and to cedarwood-vetiver in the base. Terre d`Hermes smells more flowery (geranium) on my skin, Alexis is more masculine, wet paper-like, woody and grey. Terre d`Hermes is a new classic, while Alexis is an unknown gem. I really would like to set up a blind test with both fragrances to find out what the average man really likes. I have a feeling that Prudence's masculine cologne has more in common with real life men.

Alexis Prudence Paris

Top notes: Bergamot, Orange, and Grapefruit;
Heart notes: Geranium, Pepper, Rose, Patchouli, Pink Pepper;
Base notes: Benzoin, Cedarwood, Vetiver, Musk, Oakmoss.