Frédéric malle’s fragrance tips for yourself and your home

Fragrance is a Malle family tradition: his maternal grandfather, Serge Hefler-Louiche, was the founder of Parfums Christian Dior and creator of their first fragrance, Miss Dior, and his mother oversaw development for the Dior fragrance division. It’s safe to say that scent runs in his veins!

As befits his legendary status, when Malle set out to establish his own fragrance house in 2000, he wanted to do things differently. At the time, fragrance was all about the big, logo-y brands and Hollywood celebrities, but with Editions de Parfums By Frédéric Malle, he put the focus back on the fragrance itself. The concept is utterly unique: given complete creative freedom, great noses compose exclusive fragrances for the brand, and it's their names that are stamped on the bottle. With average development time taking anywhere between six to 18 months, these are juices that are well worth the wait.

Here, the 'perfume editor’ shares five tips on how to scent yourself and your home.

“Perfume can be worn in just so many ways. The best way to diffuse perfume is in the hair, but you should only do it so often with a specially designed Hair Mist” advises Malle. “It’s the best place as it’s the warmest part of the body to encourage evaporation and it’s slightly oily so it encourages long-lastingness.”

During the depths of the pandemic isolation, Frédéric Malle turned to two perfumes. He reaches for Geranium Pour Monsieur to “wake me up in the morning and see the bright side of things – it’s quite dynamic and happy, I’ve been using it everyday and I love it.” For the night, “when I want a bit of elegance, and something more soothing and extremely luxurious,” he’s been spritzing Monsieur. “It’s a very generous patchouli with lots of very beautiful, smart details. It has this sophistication mixed with a fairly exotic theme, and as I haven’t been able to leave this house in so long it lets me travel a bit.”

“There are different zones in my home. In my bedroom, I have been using a lot of Jurassic Flower. In some rooms I use Café Society, which creates a fairly soothing and warm atmosphere,” Malle tells MECCA.

On why it’s important to scent the home: “It provides comfort,” he explains. “You can create an ambiance that defines comfort for you, or a state of mind. As you burn a candle, or use one scent over time, the smell contributes to a unique ambiance. It’s like a room with an olfactory soul that you and others recognise, almost like a signature perfume you wear and return to over and over.”

Malle points out the difference between the two: “With a candle, you light it and then progressively it becomes stronger and stronger as the wax melts,” he explains. “A Perfume Gun works more like a perfume to wear – you get most of the power up front.” He developed the Perfume Gun when asked by a friend (“he owns one of the most luxurious hotels in New York and asked me to find a way to place Jurassic Flower in the lobby and in his clients’ rooms”) to develop a tool “that allows one to perfume a room with instant reward.” It’s become a bestseller ever since. For a long-lasting scent, he suggests spraying it daily around three feet away from carpet or fabric. “The scent will gradually be soaked into your room and it will really become part of the room.” Or, it can be used for special occasions – “it will for sure generate an impression.”

“Perfume is for yourself at the moment, rather than to impress, because you have no one to impress.”