Pitti Fragranze 2015: interview with François Henin about Jeroboam collection

by: Serguey Borisov

François Henin, the successful leader of the rare perfumes embassy known asJovoy Paris, officially presented his Jeroboam range of scents at the Pitti Fragranze 2015 exhibition. The collection of five fragrances looks to be the answer to all those looking for maximum longevity in a fragrance and will be added to the Fragrantica database in the coming weeks.

François Henin:

About 2 years ago, perfumer Vanina Muracciole and I worked on a Jovoy perfume together (L’Art de la Guerre), and now we've begun a new project titled Jeroboam. It was born originally from the question “Am I anosmic to musks?” I'll explain: When one works in a perfume store with hundreds of perfumes being sprayed all the time - and Jovoy is not just a line but a shop with hundreds of different fragrances - and generally all the perfumes have a musky base, I smell musk all day but find that it just never really registers for me. Am I habituating to it? Or maybe I am just anosmic?

So I asked Vanina to make me a musky base accord to see how my nose might respond. Three weeks later she came back with a bottle named "Original". I applied it a few times and became addicted to it right away. So this became the starting point for the entire collection.

I changed the name to "Origino" as I decided to use Esperanto for all Jeroboam perfume names. Esperanto is a purposely constructed language designed to transcend culture and politics and promote peace. I believe that the Jeroboam collection is a more universal concept than Jovoy perfumes and one which I think will become a future classic, more often employing natural raw materials.

And this great cocktail of musks for me was just a long lasting base, mind you, not yet a fully-realized perfume.

Sergey Borisov:
But did you like it?

François Henin:
Yes, I liked it from the first sniff. And I received a lot of compliments with everybody asking me what it was. The problem was I still didn’t know in which of my fragrance lines it would fit best. So from this base I started a game with Vanina contemplating an advertising slogan in order to develop a fragrance identity. Kind of ike “Nespresso. What else?”

I thought “OK, it's definitely not a Jovoy perfume, but probably we could start a new perfume project from the musk base." So I told Vanina that it`s a great perfume, and it needs a bottle and label to be sold; and I remember as I told her that great perfumes don’t need big bottles. That`s when I realized it`s a good joke to name a brand Jeroboam (one of the bigger volume wine bottles), as Jeroboam is a 3 liter bottle size and our Jeroboam perfumes are only 30 ml bottles. So we believe that our perfumes are great enough to never been launched in 3 liter size bottles. And actually maybe there`s no need for big bottles now, in general. Then we found the cute, small bottles; I loved them.

We were almost ready for the launch, but one perfume is not enough for the market nowadays. We could repeat the limited edition story as we did with our Lys Epona by Jovoy, and it was a great art project for vintage perfumes lovers. But Jeroboam was a different thing, very contemporary. So I told Vanina “Look at this as a base, a DNA for something bigger than just one shot of perfume. Let`s use the base to create a whole range of new perfumes as a collection!”

And then we started to invent other perfumes with names that one could recognize as trademarks of the fragrance industry. For example, we called the second perfume Insulo – and in Esperanto the word means “The Island”. In our perfumery world, this scent is a representation of Madagascar. 

Sergey Borisov:
Well, as an island, it could be Greenland also. 

François Henin:
Indeed, but when one refers to "vanilla" and "island" in perfumery, it`s definitely Madagascar, right? And so The Island is a kind of secret name for the perfume weapon of mass seduction. Vanina created a very gourmand, seductive and mouth-watering vanilla perfume out of this base. For me vanilla is always about seduction, and we are all in danger when somebody wears a nice vanilla. If you add some musks, raw geranium, patchouli, you will get into amber territory. Amberfor me is more sensual, it has some rawness where vanilla can be a bit drier.

Then Hauto appeared – the name means “Skin” in Esperanto. This perfume is another level of the seduction game, making reference to the tuberose. In the 1930's, women of a certain profession could show off pretty much everything they had to offer, but they also had their own secret: where to apply pure tuberose oil – in the valleys and the mountains, just a drop on the arms and shoulders!

At this point, François shows points of perfume application on his body. While he found enough points to point to, like elbows and shoulders, somehow there`s a deficit of mountains on his body map : )

The question people always ask me is “How and where I should wear a perfume?” I always answer, “Apply it to the places you want to be explored,” as wise women of the past have taught us. A little bit of tuberose Hauto goes here and there, wherever one wants to be explored.

So, the next one is Oriento, which is a big classic oriental of the perfume industry –rose and oud in a bottle. Of course, we twisted it with our musk base and it gives the perfume a new signature and new volume, very long-lasting as you will see.

And the last perfume we named Miksado…

Sergey Borisov:
It`s about mixing?

François Henin:
Exactly. It`s the tribute to the art of mixing perfumes together, an approach the Middle Eastern perfumers mastered. In France, mixing perfumes would be a sacrilege; don`t even try to mix 2 perfumes together! For peoples of the Middle East it could be a sacrilege to wear any single aroma by itself; they have to mix various essences, it's the way to use perfumes. Miksado is based upon the very same original musk base; it is a happy mukhallat, a happy mixing of perfumes. It is a floral, fruity, oriental perfume and I find it very feminine; but I wonder if even you could wear this sweet, musky perfume, Sergey.

Our Jeroboam collection has only five perfumes for today, in 30 ml bottles; each has a 25% concentration of oils in alcohol.

Sergey Borisov:
What about thre design of the bottles? The packaging and font seems to have some Art Deco vibe.

François Henin:
The bottles are not specific. The cap was made especially for the project, yes, the pump is just a pump, and the bottle is made by an Italian manufacturer; we painted it from inside. There was a small war - what color should we use for it, blue or black - and we chose black. But the juice itself has no colorants.

As for the design, we never looked to make it Art Deco. It`s a new concept, I called it “Perfume Extracts for Urban Nomads”, because you can put a 30 ml bottle in your bag or in your pockets, and there`s no worries to take it to flight. It`s really convenient compared to the very heavy, crystal 100 ml Jovoy bottles which are too big for a lady's bag.

Sergey Borisov:
So you are oriented onto Middle East market?

François Henin:
We are not market-oriented here. As far as I know they are used to 100 ml bottles and even bigger, to use perfumes lavishly. So maybe 30 ml bottles will be too small for them.

I just know that Vanina has a talent and we made a collection that I believe will be a success. And I like the idea to play the game from A to Z, and to honor the Jeroboam 30 ml bottles with our slogan “Great perfumes don’t need big bottles”.

After the presentation in Florence's Pitti Fragranze, the Jeroboam collection was first shown at the Jovoy Paris boutique on September 27th, 2015 - now everyone can try the perfumes on their own!

Origino
Notes: Bergamot, Pink pepper, Juniper, Nutmeg, Sandalwood, Musk Accord.

Insulo
Notes: Vanilla, Jasmine, Caramel, Musk Accord.

Hauto
Notes: Bergamot, Pineapple, Tuberose, Rose, Spices, Musk accord.

Oriento
Notes: Lemon, Saffron, Styrax, Rose, Ylang-ylang, Apple, Sandalwood, Patchouli, Musk Accord

Miksado
Notes: Bergamot, Labdanum, Saffron, Cedarwood, Geranium, Guaiac wood, Patchouli, Vanilla, Musk Accord.

Images from Jeroboam's Facebook page.