A new version of Cartier’s Déclaration hit the shelves last March, seeing a warmer expression of what was spicy and woody. According to Cartier perfumer Mathilde Laurent, staying true to Jean- Claude Ellena’s original creation was part of the plan, and yet Laurent still brings something new to the fragrance, effectively capturing Cartier’s style in a bottle.

As always, Men’s Folio Malaysia was curious about the person behind the fragrance as much as the fragrance itself, which is why we found ourselves chatting with Laurent to learn more about her journey, her vision, and what went behind the creation of the new Déclaration.

Thank you for your time! Let us start with this: what does perfumery mean to you?

For me, this profession is a means of expression. It’s a way for me to express the beauty of things, and the things I cannot verbalise. Through perfumery, I feel as though I’m able to say the things that are beyond me, things I could not otherwise communicate.

To meet someone who wears a perfume that I created is a very powerful moment that overwhelms me. There is nonverbal communication, as if I were speaking a coded language of my own invention, and someone I don’t know has heard it, understood it, and is speaking that same code. It means that the scents which move me also move the other, as if we have common emotions. It is the only moment of complicity that does not happen physically or verbally.

How important is it to have a nurturing environment in this industry, and is it possible to get into it at a later age in life?

The importance of a stimulating environment in a perfumer’s career is very important. Of course, as in any artistic career, one must constantly nourish oneself by being very curious and exploring a great many different inspirations.

It is about feeding on things that are sometimes unexpected, thinking outside the box, and trying different things to arrive at the act of creation, which is invention, and thus creating something unique and never seen before.

It’s an almost athletic act that needs to be maintained. So, can one pursue perfumery as a second or third career? I tend to say that it will be difficult to catch up with the experience, the path travelled by perfumers who started younger. But nothing is ever impossible, and if one accepts being a beginner at 40 or 50, then why not! It also depends on the purpose of pursuing a third career: to enjoy oneself or to participate in things. And the ambition in a third career is perhaps not the same as in a first, and that’s desirable. If one wants to embark on it, it should perhaps be done with more curiosity and open-mindedness than a perhaps devouring ambition.

You once said you seek to capture Cartier’s style in a bottle. How do you approach this through your position in the maison?

Capturing Cartier’s style in a fragrance is about translating its essence into an olfactory experience. Cartier blends creativity and originality with strong elegance, and my goal was to express this through haute parfumerie. A Cartier perfume is a Cartier object, embodying the House’s style, history, and unique vision. It conveys the elegance of Cartier, offering the wearer a fragrance that lives up to the brand’s excellence by translating that excellence into the olfactory perception.

Talk us through how you went about making the new version of Déclaration.

I absolutely wanted to respect Jean-Claude’s accord; its purity so emblematic of the Cartier style. It was too easy to twist the original Eau de Toilette with a trendy floral, vanilla, or fruity note. I didn’t remove or add anything. I just flipped the hourglass and reversed the proportions.

Were there any ingredients or scents that particularly stood out to you in this project? Any ingredients or processes that were hard to work with?

There isn’t an ingredient that particularly stood out to me, but I loved working with the spicy notes of chai to complement Déclaration. It was an almost mathematical exercise to marry tea and spices. I have rarely worked with spices in my perfumes, so it was a real joy to approach these ultra-spicy, hyper-interesting, and somewhat new notes for me.

What are the lessons you’ve learned from your 20 years of working in Cartier?

Well, the great lesson I have learned over these 20 years is that in perfumery, craftsmanship is really the basis of art, and that there is no art in perfumery without masterly craftsmanship of the ingredients.

For me, perfumery is an art that is deeply artisanal, because it requires an absolute mastery of the ingredients, a knowledge of the material, and an experience that are the fundamentals of craftsmanship. So, perfumery is an art that is deeply artisanal, and the craftsmanship of perfume is indeed at the base of the art of perfume.

Do you nourish your creativity elsewhere? For instance, do you return to your photography to feed your creativity for perfumery?

I nourish my creativity as much from vision as from hearing, taste, touch, concepts, stories, and psychology. My curiosity is constant, and I have no preferred inspiration. Photography remains an inspiration, along with others.

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