Less is More: The Clear Vision of Puredistance

“Puredistance for me is a voyage to the essence. And in the essence lies beauty. The kind of beauty that is timeless. Welcome to the world of Puredistance.”—Jan Ewoud Vos, founder of Puredistance, in the introduction section of the glossy, hand-stamped brochure that outlines the ethos of this outstanding luxury perfume brand.

Jan Ewoud Vos: "In a way it’s like conducting an orchestra... but I do need some very talented musicians to make the music and deliver the whole composition to the audience. I think the metaphor applies because if you work with a small orchestra, it is the work of everyone. Without the violin—it stops. Everyone is important and it is my task to guide them, to say it's always within these guidelines of Puredistance: never screaming, never loud, always an understated elegance. It's balanced, it's chic, it's timeless it's not 'trendy,' so I'm like a watchdog, you know? With my pictures, music and movies, I can give them a guideline. But it's not for me to deliver the perfume, because I cannot do that without their help.

"The original vision was very non-rational, it was like a dream—a very strong, intuitive feeling, and I think you can compare it to meeting someone. Within the first few minutes you have a very strong opinion of them, and as time goes on you learn more about them—if they are an academic, maybe even how much they earn, more details about them, but still you find yourself coming back to that initial impression. This is how it was with the vision for Puredistance: everything was there already, but is was very raw. As time has gone on, all these elements, all those facets have been filled in, and that's a wonderful voyage.

"When I work with perfumers, I get three versions of the fragrance they are creating, sometimes they may have preferred something else, but I can always say instinctively—even though these are great perfumers—'No, this is not Puredistance' because that is mine, it is in my head, in my heart and I know if it isn't right. But so far it has all gone very smoothly—no quarrels!” he laughs wryly.

Jan Ewoud Vos: “I approached Roja [Dove], because he already sold my perfume [having hand-picked it to sell in his exclusive perfumery in Harrods], and I knew I wanted a fragrance that could be for a male or female but leaned towards the masculine side and was much stronger than the previous two perfumes. Roja has an excellent reputation, and I knew this was something he could really do well. As for the first two perfumes, these were created by Annie Buzantian, and the way we met is by chance. There was a synchronicity about our meeting, you can call it fate or chance, in that it had to be that way. I came into this business with no experience, but my brief eneded up on her desk and it so happened she had created something exactly along those lines but for herself—a fragrance for her to use personally. So you cannot read in American marketing books how to do this, how this happened..."

Jan Ewoud Vos: “Yes! It just had to be that way, it wasn't planned.” Puredistance I is the signature scent of Puredistance and created by that Master Perfumer, Annie Buzantian. Intricately blended from some of the world’s finest ingredients, including fresh Tangerine Blossom, Cassis, Neroli, Bigarade, Magnolia, Rose Wardia, Jasmine, Natural Mimosa, Sweet Amber, Vetiver and White Musk. As with all three fragrances in the Puredistance family, it is meticulously produced in limited quantities and exquisitely bottled. Trying it on my skin for the first time was somehow like coming home—it smelled familiar, like the hazy echo of a memory half-forgotten, the kind that makes the corners of your eyes crinkle as you smile in recognition. Seeing the notes listed makes it sound complicated—and it is, but in a subtle way. This is such a well-balanced perfume, so sure of itself that it never has to scream, but with a distinct and immediately apparent personality.

Also created by Buzantian is the creamy green floral, Antonia. This Puredistance perfume is composed of Jasmine, Rose Essence, Ylang Ylang, Orris, Ivy Green, Galbanum, Vanilla and Vetiver. This one is absolutely fascinating on the skin, it begins with a lush freshness that’s akin to pushing open the greenhouse door and having your senses jump alive with a real kick of nature stripped to its elements, yet almost at once softens to an all-enveloping warmth, the calming bliss of slipping into pure white sheets on a freshly made bed.

The fragrance created for Puredistance by the world’s only Professeur de Parfums, Roja Dove, is Puredistance M. Jan reminded me that it certainly isn’t exclusively for men.  “If you turn the bottle around, the ‘M’ becomes a ‘W’!” he laughs. This is certainly true in this modern world of sharable perfumes that are simply right for the wearer, whatever their gender. Indeed, on returning to the office and showing the samples to my colleagues, one announced immediately that Puredistance M was her favourite. “What IS that, it’s gorgeous! I’d definitely wear that,” she enthused, and I unhesitatingly agree. It’s an oriental leather-based chypre with notes of Bergamot, Lemon, Rose, Jasmine, Cinnamon, Patchouli, Mosses, Cistus, Vetiver, Vanilla, Leather and Musk. A heady cocktail of ingredients, but in such safe hands as these it just sings to the soul. This is one of those perfumes to breathe in deeper and deeper until you feel slightly light-headed. It just smells right. It seems I may be slightly obsessed by it, too.

Jan Ewoud Vos: “Only on a very personal basis, but I have always been interested in beauty and a certain timelessness—in the concept of Puredistance I thought a perfume would be the perfect carrier of that, to take that concept around the world and for eternity. I couldn't think of anything else that was so deeply embedded in the senses, that you can take with you and when you wear it, let it surround everything you do, so that is why the vision of Puredistance is in a perfume, because it couldn’t be any other way. In that way, I am inspired by perfumes, but I cannot say I am, personally, a perfume ‘addict.’

“Around the world I like to talk to bloggers, that community worldwide is very close, and sometimes I talk to them and say 'less is more' and they say, 'Yes you might be right, but my fridge is exploding as I keep sixteen hundred perfume samples in there!'” he chuckles, eyes twinkling with amusement at this idea of fridges bulging at the seams with treasured stashes of fragrances.

“For myself, I like to stick to one or two fragrances, they mean and have meant a lot to me. I was fascinated by the story of Chanel No. 5, so I have been collecting vintage bottles from the twenties and thirties, because these were the golden ages. Every day I'm searching eBay, parcels arriving daily, mostly from the States, because that's the main area the bottles are traded. My fascination is not just the perfume, but for those beautiful bottles, for the design itself. And on a personal basis, not always, but there are certain times I like to deepen a dimension of myself by using a fragrance. Not to change myself completely, but to enhance a certain mood, or to bring back some memories.

“I don't have a lot of fear in my life, so I am a bit of a risk taker. I suppose it was a pretty bold move, or seen by some as rather daring, to start in this business with no experience whatsoever! It's also refreshing, maybe, but I had to learn everything from scratch, which means we made lots of mistakes, but these turned out to be for the good of Puredistance as that way we never copied anything, we followed our own path, and it always turned out better in the end.”

Jan Ewoud Vos: “Exactly. They make it scream. Although it seems very simple, there is a lot going on 'under the hood' in a Puredistance perfume. There are a lot of details, but they work so well together, it's as though you've seen a nice Aston Martin and you think 'Oh, I could do that, it's so simple, look at the clean lines...' But if you talked to the person who builds it, they would tell you that, actually, there are two million tiny details—and that is not easy to learn or reproduce.

“You have simple design which is truly simple and easy to make, which I have to say is what I think of some contemporary art, if they throw some mud—or something else—at a wall and say it's art. In that case, I dare to say to all art lovers that I can do that, too, and so can my daughter. But there is also art that may seem to be simple but absolutely is not. There's a big difference between those two. I think we're in that category—I can tell you so much about the tiny details, the time we took over the stainless steel ring around the bottle—but the way it all blends perfectly, it becomes a very minimalistic, pure and simple thing. It's like the compositions of the perfumes themselves—they are very complex, but in the end the message is always understated elegance.”

Jan Ewoud Vos: “You know actually I find that aspect very easy, because the entire vision is in my head, and I don't have to explain it to marketing men as we do it all ourselves. I love the nostalgic looking back to the past, but also have a love of modern technology. I try to blend them so that one doesn't dominate the other, so we don't hang in the past thinking that everything was better then, but I'm also not such a modern gadget junkie that I can't live five minutes without my iPhone and say 'no, everything is better now' as some do. It's a great form of respect, to pay tribute to the past but without copying it—using it as base but moving forward. It's about discovering a new angle, a new way of looking at what was already there, rather than pretending you have found something completely new that has never been thought of before. To come up with some that is actually completely original is almost impossible in some ways, because what's new? Love: is that new? Of course not, so although you may find a new way of searching through the layers of experience, don't pretend you invented the experience itself.”

Jan Ewoud Vos: “I have to be honest, I very rarely go shopping for perfume. The only place I occasionally try other perfumes is Roja's perfumery in Harrods—I like the atmosphere there, the intimacy of the experience. I hate those long white perfume halls you get, with people harrassing me, the perfume companies there try to stalk you! I find those places really soulless, completely without passion. It feels like you're in the middle of a factory, and all they want to do is sell you more, more, more! The difference is [in Roja's perfumery] here you have a wonderful selection, you have nice people who you want to talk to. It's the kind of place I'd like to come and taste fine whiskey, it's that kind of experience, rather than being in a supermarket. So here I take the time to smell some fragrances. I'm also very interested in the people behind companies—I find Frederick Malle fascinating.

“I take great pleasure in Puredistance being far away from that world of perfumery where everything happens—in France, Italy—because sometimes the more tied up you are, the more you know about the market, the more you lose your freshness. We are far away from all that in the Netherlands in our little ivory tower, and every now and then we come out of the church and mix with real people, and I want to keep it that way."

Jan explained that: “…we put the caps on ourselves, we put the labels on ourselves. In that way I suppose we do things the ‘old fashioned’ way. Because of this [the method of production] there may be small imperfections." But that’s surely the joy of Puredistance, this slow way of doing things, the imperfections show they are hand made, they are creations in the truest sense of the word and cared for. It may sound twee to the cynical ear, but these bottles of perfume are made with love. Jan actually ties the ribbons himself and takes pride in that fact. He also know that such a labor-intensive way of creating ultimately means they lose money, in that they don’t go for the easy big-bucks, quick money option. As with most things, Jan is quite down to earth and talked quite openly about how he could compromise himself and make a lot more, but could never be part of a company that works that way.

“If you go to the bank and ask for money, lots of people will lie to you and push you to grow, grow, grow, until one day you look in the mirror and your idea is not yours anymore, you become someone you don’t want to be. Of course,” he chuckles wryly, “when funding a £400,000 house for yourself, it seems some of your politicians don’t mind this so much…”

Jan Ewoud Vos: “To me it’s like all women everywhere saying ‘WHY can’t I sleep with Brad Pitt?! He’s very elite, what a b*****d! Why can’t I sleep with George Clooney?!’” Indeed, a question that many women do ask themselves. It made me roar with laughter, and he laughed in the telling of it, but the explanation has a serious point. “You can look at him, you know. You can go and watch the films he makes, the work he produces. In the same way, I want people to just go and smell the perfumes and take home a small sample. It might open their mind, and if you really decide you love it, perhaps you can save a bit for it. Then you can one day have your very own bottle of that perfume, you only need to use it very sparingly, and it can make you really happy every single time you use it [we’re still talking about the perfume here, ladies. I don’t believe samples are available to take home of Brad and George, alas]—so it’s a lot of money, but it will last you one, maybe two years.

Because of this, maybe it’s a better investment for your money than the perfume that is half the price but lasts only a few months or even weeks. The ones you don’t mind throwing away so you spray them in your shoes or whatever needs a freshen up! This way I can defend it. Being from the Netherlands I come from a very strong socialist background, and I would like to be able to give everything away for free to everyone. Not just fragrances, but food, we should be able to give food for free, yes? But I can’t feed the world and I have a small team of people who rely on me. I have this theory if I am good to my friends, my family, you can change your own world, and that of those around you, for the better. If everyone tries to do that, this is the way we change the whole world. The way I see it is this: Brad Pitt wouldn’t be so attractive anymore if everyone sleeps with him.”

Photo by Puredistance