JULIEN RASQUINET

BEHIND THE SCENTS #4 shines the spotlight on the creator of our iconic Amber Aquilaria perfume – master perfumer Julien Rasquinet.
Discover his olfactory inspirations and creative journey…

Julien Rasquinet realized quite late that he was destined to create perfumes. Since a very early age, Julien found creative arts a way of communicating his feelings and thoughts. He loved to paint, to draw, to design and create costumes for theatre and puppetry. But it was only after graduating from business school that he discovered what would become his passion and profession.

It was thanks to the intuition of the famous perfumer Pierre Bourdon. When Pierre met Julien, he instinctively discerned his sensibility and his potential to become a perfumer. He offered Julien to become his master and during an intensive three year training program, Pierre shared his creation philosophy, his techniques and his passion for perfume. Julien then furthered his training under Christine Nagal and is inspired by contemporary perfumer Anne Filip.

Julien loves to travel and lives between Paris and Dubai. His creativity springs out of encounters with people, cultures and landscapes. His olfactory work is heavily influenced by his childhood in Normandy and time spent living in and travelling to the Middle East where he finds infinite oriental inspiration.

“The aim of a creation is to cause an emotion” Julien

Among our five senses, smell has a direct connection with our memories and emotions. Julien believes that our olfactive memory is the strongest and so to create powerfully emotive fragrances he draws from his personal olfactive memories. His creations can be very figurative or very abstract, but they always have the ambition to touch the heart. His inspiration always comes from an encounter; whether it’s a person, a song, a sentence in a book, or a place. From those encounters Julien extracts sensations -such as textures, colours, raw materials that become the base of the story he has been creating

“I always take notes when I am inspired by something, just like an author taking notes on from his everyday life in order to use them in his next script. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with a new idea I just dreamed about. When this happens, I feel like rushing to the lab and creating it right away!”

Julien now lives in the Middle East where he fell in love with Oriental perfumery. He discovered new codes of creation, perfumes made with intuition and passion. As he sat on the plane bound for his new home, he was instantly mesmerised by the unmistakably beautiful trails of sillage signature to the Middle East: intense, rich, impactful, distinctive. “I knew I was moving into a region with a very rich perfume history, even more ancient than the French one. But if I had to be honest, I did not expect to fall so much in love with the region’s unique perfumery.” This love of oriental perfumery is unmistakable in Amber Aquilaria.

“When I think of my childhood memories, the smells come first associated with the feeling I had, then I see the images and eventually hear a sound or music”

The best Agarwood resin, as cited throughout ancient religious scriptures, is extracted from the Aquilaria tree. Its rich cognac notes form the base of this exquisite fragrance. Amber Aquilaria opens with a bright, sparking bergamot that melts into a heart of roses – rich, velvet petals that mesmerise before falling into an opulent pillow of warm amber, sandalwood, Bourbon, vanilla and Aquilaria Oud.

INSPIRATION

Passion for perfume was woven into the tapestry of everyday life for the Romans. Their fountains were scented rose water and perfume was part of cleansing rituals, celebration, feasts, seduction and worship. The Romans collected the finest and rarest oils from across the Empire, from West to East and that obsession, creativity and quest for the finest is at the heart of Amber Aquilaria.

Electimuss means “to choose the best” in Latin and that ethos is the essence of Amber Aquilaria. The finest oils and resins in this fragrance are rare and precious and have been blended with meticulous attention paid to every note and detail.

This fragrance that exudes luxury and elegance and is connoisseur crowd pleaser.

Fragrance Notes & Ingredients

AROMATIC FRUITY TOP :
Bergamot, mandarin, peach and cinnamon

BOOZY FLORAL HEART :
Rose, Cognac, jasmine, neroli, geranium

SPICY AMBROSIAL BASE :
Ambergris, sandal, vanilla bourbon, Aquiliaria Oud

All of our fragrances are Pure Parfum/Extrait.

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