Exclusive Interview with Michel Roudnitska

Michel Roudnitska is the loving son of the great perfumer Edmond Roudnitska, the dear friend of the perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena, an artist, and a man of intellect, vision, ethics and courage. In this enlightening interview, Michel reveals private moments and memories that I do not believe he has shared before. It is with great humility that I write that Michel is not only my "friend in fragrance," but one of the most special people one can ever hope to know.

You grew up the son of perfumers. As a child were you aware that your family was not like your friends'?

Michel Roudnitska: To be a son of perfumers in Grasse was not that special and at that time my father was not as famous as he became at the end of his life. What made me feel different were the ethics and the philosophy of our family: a high expectation for quality, uniqueness and beauty without compromise.

And as a follow up, at what age did you know you wanted to create perfume?

Michel Roudnitska: As a teenager I never truly asked myself if I wanted to be a perfumer, as it seemed so evident… My environment and the family pressures I felt were pushing me towards that specific direction even though I was personally more attracted to sculpture, photography or architecture. I however only truly chose this profession at the age of 40, after having left the family’s home for ten years and as I came back from Tahiti where I had created a publishing house.

I have read your father started training you in the Art of perfume at age 7. How intensive was this training?

Michel Roudnitska: At the age of 7 I was indeed playing around pleasant scents in the family’s laboratory, but my real training only started at the age of 24, once I was done with my business studies.

It lasted five years and was extremely difficult because I was alone and had to work for several months on the same olfactive family and had reconstruction exercises with mixtures of 20 to 30 different ingredients, created specially by my father, I therefore had to find exclusively with my nose the exact proportions at 1% close!

There was no way I was going to use chromatography! It was a very good way to know intimately raw materials and the way they interact. I only learned about the art of composition later on, by myself.
 

At what age did you create your first "perfume" and what does it smell like?

Michel Roudnitska: It’s at the age of 40 that I created my first “real” perfume; it was composed around a dominant note of jasmine. It will be used later on by therapists as a meditation fragrance since it apparently had the ability to open the “third eye.”

What was your first commercial perfume and what inspired its creation?

Michel Roudnitska: The perfume that truly started my commercial career was Noir Epices it was created in 1998 from an olfactory illustration in my first multisensorial ballet   Quintessence for the 1996 Avignon Theater Festival.

I wanted to give an odor to the theme of fire and to the Spices route; after seeing the success it got I decided to make it a very feminine and sensual perfume. It’s a year later that Frederic Malle came to visit my mother and I to obtain the right to release Le parfum de Therese, he asked me to show him my creations. While smelling the very spicy perfume he immediately asked if I could supply him for his new brand which was still a project at the time.

This perfume of which we chose the name together was launched without alteration with the exception of a light increase of the vanilla.
 

Please describe the home and gardens of your family?

Michel Roudnitska: I was one year old when my parents settled down in 1949 in Cabris in their new (workshop) studio. It was a dry and desert ground, lost on the heights of “Grasse” that was transformed in the course of the years into a vast botanical park thanks to its considerable amount of soil, water, the construction of kilometers of walls and the plantation of hundreds of trees and rare plants. I grew up with this garden, the cedars which now measure more than 15 meters are my age. I am very attached to it as it is for me a source of happiness and permanent inspiration even if it also represents a very important amount of work for maintenance. My passion for Japanese gardens led me to introduce this style in several parts of the park. It is a constantly evolving place.

What is your favorite of all your father’s perfumes? Did you ever collaborate on a fragrance with you father?

Michel Roudnitska: It is Le parfum de Therese which marked all my childhood because it is practically the only one my mother wore. I think it represents the quintessence of my father’s writing; the alliance of the sensual wealth of his first perfumes and the audacious simplicity of his last ones. When he created it (around 1960?) it was really a revolutionary perfume, to say that it was necessary to wait 40 years for it to be released on the market!
I was regrettably not able to collaborate with my father on the creation of a perfume because to him it was "a reserved domain." The exchanges which we had only consisted in seeking sometimes my opinion on the tries which he was working on.

I was really only able to dedicate myself seriously to the perfume industry after his passing in 1996.

When did you meet Jean-Claude Ellena? You have shared with me that Mr. Ellena is like family… age-wise you would be like brothers. Metaphorically was there ever any "sibling rivalry?"

Michel Roudnitska: I met Jean-Claude and Susanna, his future wife, for the first time towards the age of 18. We then each followed our paths to meet again in 1975, when he asked me to illustrate with my images the nice-smelling raw materials sold by the Maison Lautier at “Grasse.” It was the beginning of my researches on the correspondences between olfactive forms and visual forms, this experience was very enriching for the both of us. In the '80's, Jean-Claude regularly met my father to discuss about the art of perfume creation and sometimes subject him his searches.

I again had the opportunity to realize olfactive illustrations with him within the framework of the publications of the company Haarmann and Reimer for which he had worked with in the '90's at “Grasse.” This is the time where we became very close friends to the point that I had asked him to be my best man in my marriage in 1994.

There was really no rivalry between us as far as, for almost 20 years, I essentially dedicated myself to the image and to the audiovisual performances while JC developed his skills in the perfume industry. That is why we were very surprised to abruptly find ourselves at the same level when Frederic Malle launched both our perfumes at the same time.

We keep smelling each other’s researches and we both have a lot of respect for our mutual creations.

Which raw materials is your favorite to work with? Why?
 
Michel Roudnitska: If I could only choose one it would naturally be jasmine because it is "The Flower," sensual and pure at the same time, I think it represents "the smelll of paradise." Otherwise I truly like the scents of the woody notes (in particular the cedar) which constitutes the base of all my perfumes.

What is your view on "natural" perfumery?

Michel Roudnitska: It is a vast subject on which many false ideas are being spread in the public. It is really necessary to vary its comments to avoid falling in the Manicheanism: Natural = good, Synthetic = bad.

Everything depends on the point of view which we are taking. I am a burning defender of the natural products, in particular within the framework of aromatherapy and in every case where the vibratory qualities of essential oil are implied.

Nevertheless even in this domain, natural products can present numerous dangers of allergy or irritation. The European regulation is becoming more and more restrictive to the point where they might forbid the usage of certain concentrations, which represents a real threat to the survival of these natural raw materials which are so precious in the palette of the perfumer.

In the field of the "Fine fragrance," the approach is different: these type of perfumes would not exist without the contribution of the synthetic molecules introduced from the first perfumes by Guerlain at the end of the 19th century. It is about an essentially aesthetic initiative comparable to that of the contemporary music where traditional instruments meet the infinitely rich sounds of synthesizers.

To want to limit the palette of the perfumer to only using natural raw materials is as if we were going two centuries backwards. I truly respect the numerous creators who chose to use 100% natural materials for ethical and healthy reasons and who sometimes succeed in realizing wonderful creations. But it does not mean that we have to be suspicious on all the others who continue to use magnificent synthetic materials which can arouse just as much deep emotions. Let’s not forget the perfume industry is one of the most controlled industries for the consumer’s safety. 


Which fragrance was the most difficult to create among your perfumes for Frederic Malle, Parfums Delrae, Ellie D and Hors la Monde. I know they are collaborations, can you explain the process?

Michel Roudnitska: Sometimes my clients, like Frederic Malle, adopt free creations that I made during my life and that without major changes.

But mostly my compositions are the result of co-creation with customers who already have some idea of the concept they want. It is essential that our tastes are in harmony and that we speak the same olfactory language.

Often the final result is quite different from the starting point because it is an evolving and intuitive process, leaving room for the unexpected.

So I like working in that magic, that kind of trust and mutual respect that are possible only with very limited number of person in decising making.

This has actually happened with Delrae Roth and Jessica Dunne. 
The creation of the perfume Ellie was a real challenge for me because it forced me out of my usual process. Jessica wanted a perfume with massive doses of Musk when it is an ingredient that I used previously in very low concentrations. Thanks to an original arrangement (dressing) with floral and woody notes (including Vetyver), I finally arrived at a result that I could feel good with. 

You are much more multi-sensorial than any other perfumer I have interviewed. Yet our readers do not know the extent to which you integrate all your senses to compose ART. Please give an example.

Michel Roudnitska: I was a photographer before becoming a perfumer. Very quickly, from the age of 25 years I had the idea to create "visual compositions" (photo montages) as my father created "scented compositions.” Then these images were animated thanks to digital video and included in live performances (music concerts, ballet, opera . . . .)

In 1996 I finally managed to introduce this new olfactory dimension in my shows. It was for me a way to bring my two passions and implement the work done for 20 years on the connections between the visual, auditory and olfactory senses. My first scented ballet Quintessence (1996) was built on the history of perfume from antiquity to the present day, the second: Sun Stone, created in 1998, was inspired by a poem of Octavio Paz. I then illustrated with fragrances the Opera Nabucco by Verdi in Rotterdam in 2001 and created in 2002, with the virtuoso cellist Nathalie Manser, World Scents (Un Monde en Senteurs), a complete multisensorial show about eight great traditional cultures that marked our planet and which has been presented in many capitals (Paris, Moscow, Vladivostok, Perth . . . .)

I usually plan (conceive) these shows on a global basis, trying to control all the sensory aspects in order to create coherence and intense emotional impact. The fragrance plays a very important role in this approach because, like music, it allows the viewer to leave his rational brain for a much more sensitive and spiritual perception. 
It is also for the fragrance composer an opportunity for a freer expression, as in the other arts.  
 
Please explain about the company Art et Parfum? Its origin and where it is today? Also about your mother?

Michel Roudnitska: The studio Art et Parfum was created by my parents in 1946 in a garage at Bécon les Bruyères in the Paris suburbs. In 1949 they settled in Cabris, near Grasse, thanks to the incomes from the success of the perfume Femme (Rochas) composed by my father. Since then Art et Parfum has never ceased to provide the best brands (Dior, Hermes, Rochas, Arden . . . .)

My mother took care of all administrative and manufacturing work while my father managed the raw materials selection and customer relations. After the death of my father in 1996, I took over the management of this company to continue this tradition of quality and originality in defending the concept of "parfum d'auteur" and participating in the emergence of "niche" brands based on this concept as the Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle in France and Delrae Perfumes in the US.

Today we are entering a new phase with an entirely original concept in the world of fragrance: a pool of independent perfumers. It actually combines the advantages of an individual and free creative process with a common marketing and manufacturing structure. We are currently seven perfumers (including some famous ones), each with their individual skills but united by an ethical commitment to bring back the foundations of the great artisan perfumes of the past while using technological advances. 
 

 
What are your thoughts about the future of perfumery? What are the three most difficult issues? In which ways is the 21st century’s issues than from previous generations? Is there a crisis?

Michel Roudnitska: The contemporary fragrance market is suffering from three excesses:

1. There are too many similar perfumes, creating a lot of confusion for the public. Even niche fragrances are now adding to the confusion with their many new brands. 

    
2. Too many products (detergents, household products, etc.) are now scented - not by necessity, but simply to make them more attractive. The consequence of this is a trivialization of perfume, smelled anytime and anywhere, which leads to a saturation of the senses, and a lot of chemicals being spewed out into Nature.
    
3. The safety regulations necessary for such massive use of these olfactory ingredients are becoming more and more complex. The consequence is that many genuinely natural products will no longer be available and composers’ creativity will be seriously compromised.

In the state of economic and ecologic world crisis in which we now live, the fragrance industry is facing a genuine challenge for the future. There will be a complete paradigm shift in societal values. Sustainable development and fair trade are being progressively introduced into our industry, but things will have to go further. 


More and more people are becoming aware that we are living on a planet with limited resources (we have probably already reached the oil peak!) and that it will be impossible to maintain the same rate of production growth over the next 30 years. As the cost of energy and raw materials (natural and synthetic) used in perfumery inexorably increases, we must establish our priority: more quality and less quantity.

Our lifestyles and the notion of luxury will have to change drastically: more social relationships and fewer goods, needs that are more spiritual and less materialistic. Fragrance creation will have to return to its essence: an artistic expression of beauty and authenticity, meant to nourish the soul.

 

Now this is very close to my heart… Would you ever consider starting your own perfume company, the way Kurkdjian just did… the House of Roudnitska fragrances?

Michel Roudnitska: This is actually an idea that many people have already suggested and which deserves serious consideration. We started up a team for this purpose but the arrival of the economic crisis led us to delay this project. 


Are you working on a new parfum? Can you share any details?

Michel Roudnitska: I have a number of fragrances under development or near completion for several years  that I reserve for exactly this idea of a future Roudnitska brand. 


Note de l'auteur: Michel, je te remercie d'être une source d'inspiration pour moi, pour ton gentillesse et l'amitié

Michelyn Camen is New York City based fragrance writer and specialist. Michelyn is a Senior Contributor for Fragrantica.  In addition, she is the Fragrance editor for www.fashiontribes.com, a top ten beauty blog, and the Fragrance Columnist/Diversions for http://www.uptownsocial.net. 

Michelyn is the former Senior Contributing Writer for Sniffapalooza Magazine, New in Niche Columnist for Basenotes and Editorial Director/Fragrance Editor for Beauty News NYC & LA 

Ms. Camen is the owner of Fifthsense N.Y.C.  which provides personalized fragrance consultations based on body chemistry, fashion and lifestyle and consults for luxury, media and fragrance companies.