ELIE SAAB Le Parfum Bridal | In Conversation with Aurélien Guichard

The magnificence of ELIE SAAB wedding dresses is a source of wonder for women all over the world. Embroidery, volume, and silks inspire the most precious olfactory raw materials.
ELIE SAAB entrusted the talented master perfumer Aurélien Guichard of Takasago house with the composition of this exceptional creation. As an admirer of the rigorous yet fabulous universe of ELIE SAAB, Aurélien Guichard worked this fragrance around beige, the emblematic colour of Bridal creations.
The colour of light and sensuality, beige evokes the idea of movement. The texture of a lace, the rustle of satin, the skin grain… Beige comes in an infinite range of textures, vibrating and evolving with light. Aurélien Guichard’s bold vision of quivering and precious beige has shaped this new fragrance.

Tanja Beljanski: What excites you about Perfumery?
Aurélien Guichard: I love translating the unique universe of a brand, designer or creative into a fragrance and creating an emotion. Creation with freedom.

What inspires you to create the perfumes you created for Elie Saab?
Elie Saab's olfactory signature is like his fashion. A true tension between rigour and fabulousness, a fragrance for extraordinary women and extraordinary moments, a balance between oriental splendour and western modernity with light and texture.

How does this new fragrance Elie Saab Le Parfum Bridal embody the brand?
For Le Parfum Bridal, I got my inspiration from the wedding dress by Elie Saab, made of layers of magnificent textures, especially satin, lace and organza which play a significant role in the volume-making of the dress.

I played with the nuances from white to beige, using the palette’s light-coloured ingredients. A wedding dress being the symbol of a one-day extraordinary moment, the starting point of the creation was to bring light and sparkles to a very comfortable and full-of-grace volume.

What is your relationship with this perfume?
The moment of creation was very special to me, it was also the moment when I was in the middle of preparing my own wedding in the South of France. I imagined a bouquet of white and light-coloured flowers, just like the one my future wife was dreaming of. I imagined a Signature scent, like a promise of exception, steeped in emotion. Le Parfum Bridal is an opulent floral woody musky bouquet, revealing a petal-filled contrast with Ylang-ylang and Orange blossom notes, between softness and sensuality, like the delicacy of a bridal veil. The dazzling notes are enveloped by Madagascar Vanilla and Ambroxan to bring volume to the creation. Finally, Ambrette adds the ultimate sparkle to the fragrance.

What makes the process of creating perfume special to you?
I divided my life between the South of France where I now run my organic perfume plant farm, and Paris, the city of my heart, where I live. I come from a large family of perfumers and perfume plant growers. Today, I grow Centifolia rose and tuberose near Grasse, so I pay a lot of attention to the quality and sourcing of the ingredients I choose. I like to diffuse light, no doubt in reference to my childhood spent in the Mediterranean. I like the idea of fluidity that runs through my creations. I'd define my style as simple, uncluttered and easy to read, combining exceptional expertise with responsible sourcing.

Which note or notes are your favourite notes to work with?
I love to use woods in my fragrances, whether I'm creating a fragrance for men or women, or working on a non-gender-specific fragrance. Cedarwood, vetiver, patchouli, guaiac wood, and cypriol are all important ingredients for me, but I also use ingredients that come from the wood itself, such as resins, frankincense, olibanum and benzoin. They all express a certain darkness, sensual power and mystery. There is something inherently beautiful, timeless and exquisite about wood.