There are perfumes simply branded with celebrity names, and then there are perfumes celebrities have a firm role in creating. I don’t know if you’d call photographer Christophe Jouany a celebrity exactly, but his fragrances, Jouany Perfumes St Barthélemy and Marrakech, come straight from his own, personal mixes of essential oils.
“I created my own formulas,” he replied when I asked via his public relations company which perfumers he had worked with for St. Barthélemy and Marrakech. Enough people complimented Jouany on his oil blends over the past decade that he decided to produce two of them for the public. He said noses Jean Pierre Subrenat and Udo Ludwig tested the fragrances to “make sure they were well balanced” and see if they needed anything extra. Now, Udo Ludwig is in charge of producing the compounds for the fragrances through the firm Creative Fragrances.
St. Barthélemy has notes of white grapefruit, vanilla, coco Jasmin, cedarwood, patchouli, sandalwood, vetiver, and white musk. Jouany said its compound is comprised of 68% essential oils, with the rest being mostly synthetic musk. To me, St. Barthélemy smells like a cushion of white musk, with dry cocoa, a splash of green, and a hint of wood. A little grapefruit does rumble in the beginning…
