Interpret the world with the nose - Interview with Neil Morris

The sense of smell and its ability to connect us with emotions, specific places or persons has always been important to Neil Morris. Neil has worked as a fragrance designer for more then 30 years, and he couldn´t really imagine working with anything else. If he couldn´t work with perfumes any longer, maybe he would work with cooking instead, since he has always had an interest in nutrition and creating new things by using different kinds of raw materials. 

Well, I am sure Neil would become a great cook, but I am glad that he isn´t, because then I would never have had the opportunity to experience his perfumes.

Neil offers eight different fragrances in his Signature line. These are fragrances that please a wide audience, both men and women. Neil also offers a selection of more than 40 fragrances in his other line, known as The Vault collection, only available trough Neil Morris Fragrances homepage. The Vault fragrances are more experimental and unique and The Vault is the place to look if you want something truly unusual and personal.

But if I want to get acquainted with Neil Morris' perfumes, which of them should I try? Neil suggest Clear, Rainflower and Afire from the signature line and Burnt Amber, Gandhara and Midnight Sea from The Vault line. This selection will give a good cross-section of the different styles offered.



The Vault perfumes have become very popular and many are utterly unique and experimental. Burnt Amber is an Amber with distinct smokiness. Yet it begins with an unusual Plum Note!

Gandhara is a dense fragrance composed of Fig and Geranium with a base of Patchouli and Castoreum. Warm and sultry!

Midnight Sea is a different taste of ocean scents. Instead of a bright, sunny day at the beach with suntan lotion and ozone notes, Midnight Sea is a dark, bleak, very salty sea perfume that evokes a later summer-night walk by the dark, restless ocean.

 Even though Neil has created a lot of various fragrances for different memories, places and persons, there are still places he wishes to eternalize with a fragrance. Ireland is such a place. Neil has visited Ireland many times and would love to create a fragrance that manages to capture the sense of the Irish countryside and Celtic spirituality.

Unisex perfumes are becoming more and more common, especially from niche lines, and Neil is kind of a pioneer in that area. All of his fragrances are unisex. Neil finds that labeling perfumes "for her" or "for him" is very limiting. Why shouldn´t a man be able to wear, for instance, Chanel No 5? Actually, Chanel No 5 is one of Neil´s own favorites and he loves to see the expression on people's faces when they ask what he is wearing and he tells them it´s Chanel No 5. Priceless!

Chemistry with skin is more important when it comes to perfume than the gender. Neil thinks the only rule should be to wear what you like and what smells good on you! Working with perfumes is often a time-consuming activity. But Neil loves the whole process. He says: "It can take months of tweaking and adjusting in order for a perfume to convey the message I want it to convey. I think Zephyr was finished relatively quickly because I had a good idea right from the start which scents I was going to use. 

Neil Morris For Takashimaya New York took the longest to get right. I worked day and night for more than six months, with over 45 different variations, before I was satisfied! And I'm pleased to tell you that it has been nominated for a FIFI award!"

"For me as a perfumer," Neil remarks, "I have to say that when the moment comes when I spray a finished version on my skin and there's a 'WOW' factor, that is the moment of triumph and it is the most satisfying thing!"

* Skansen is a zoological garden and an open-air museum in Stockholm, the Swedish capital. Neil has visited Sweden several times, and he is of course always welcome again.

Images: Neil Morris, Brett L, John Morgan, jswieringa

Author: Annelie Högild (rebella)
Fragrantica Member

and writer of perfume blog:
http://rebelladensnella.blogspot.com/