These are not the Nepobabies of the perfume world. None of them were born in Grasse, nor do they have five generations of noses behind them to support their intuition. Despite everything, Sylvie Loday, Olivier Royère and Benoît Verdier have created Ex Nihilo, one of the most interesting names in a market where brands do not stop growing and born with the ambition to be the alternative to the stereotypical luxury or similar His Saudi Customers call him the new generation of French perfumers.
The founders of Ex Nihilo – a Latin phrase meaning “created from nothing” – are an MIT engineer (Sylvie), a financial market expert (Olivier) and a marketing master (Benoît). Verdier tells very vividly exactly what they were running from when they developed the concept of Ex Nihilo: “I travel a lot and I can recognize that uniform smell of an international airport, that sillage (technical term that refers to that). Odor arc of a fragrance) from Duty Free. It's the same smell all over the world. I hate it! What depression!”
“We found our niche within the niche,” he says, adding: “And I don’t like that word [nicho] because it doesn't mean anything anymore; The idea was to reinterpret the French avant-garde and to collaborate without borders with artists from all disciplines: fashion, architecture, design, photography.” For the founders of Ex Nihilo, the figure of the “all-powerful creative director” is outdated. “We are more creative and efficient when we work with people who complement our skills.”
The brand's flagship store on Rue de Saint-Honoré.Ed Alcock
The Ex Nihilo boutique at 352 Saint-Honoré in Paris, the brand's first, could be an art gallery. In addition to the scents, there are also their names, very elaborate and imaginative. Verdier is responsible for the naming. He says he gets inspiration from Spotify, writing different combinations of nouns and adjectives on his phone and going back and forth until he comes up with ideas like Fleur Narcotique, Lust in Paradise or Explicite.
As you enter the store, on your right you will see Osmologue, the machine for personalizing perfumes in record time. A process that would take several hours in a laboratory. It's about discovering the notes that are most personal to the customer. If someone wants to increase the vetiver or musk point of a scent, this can be achieved. The result, which must be almost unique, is bottled and sealed with the customer's name. A certificate of authenticity notes the date, location and ingredients. Every time you want to relaunch the fragrance, simply drop off this document at one of their boutiques. They have 250 points of sale worldwide. In Spain it is sold in isolée.
To be a pioneer in luxury, you have to be disruptive. At least that's what the founders of Ex Nihilo believed. And they achieved this through extreme personalization of the flavors. “It was strange that you could put your ID number on a pair of Nike sneakers and you couldn't personalize a perfume. A common practice in the fifties or sixties. We have patented the Osmologue technology. It is an experience that compels many people to come to us,” explains Verdier.
The Givaudan laboratories on Avenue de Kléber in Paris. This is where Ex Nihilo perfumes are created.Ed Alcock
Ex Nihilo works with 16 master perfumers. “Almost everyone works according to the strict guidelines of the big brands, but knows that there are no creative restrictions,” says Olivier Royère, CEO of the house.
Among those chosen is Quentin Bisch, trained at the Givaudan perfume school and creator of the Delina Parfums de Marly series. Fleur Narcotique, Ex Nihilo's first fragrance, emerged from an initial conversation in 2014. He came and kissed the saint. Ten years later, it is still the house's bestseller. With Fleur Narcotique, every marketing manager's dream has come true. One morning in 2018, Benoît Verdier woke up to a tweet from a fascinated Hailey Bieber, who admitted that she had been addicted to the scent for several years. The model repeated the move in a video shot for Vogue Paris, in which she emptied her bag and pulled out a bottle of Fleur Narcotique. “Suddenly it became a cultural phenomenon, we started forming queues to enter the Saint Honoré boutique, to the points of sale in Moscow, in Eastern Europe, in Israel,” recalls Verdier.
Another obsession of Ex Nihilo is re-education “in a positive sense,” they emphasize. Ex-Nihilo stores teach not to use perfume, that fragrances should never be rubbed into the skin, and that fragrances are photosensitive and should be protected from light. Recently there have also been trainings to get out of this trance called “layering” (the layering of several scents to create a new one).
A perfume in the Givaudan laboratories.Ed Alcock
The interpretation of the concept of sustainability, which has been heavily used in recent years, is also revolutionary. They put it into practice with Hedonist, one of their new creations that contains a laboratory-made component called Akigalawood. “Instead of traveling around the world looking for ingredients and leaving an immense carbon footprint for each jar, we find it more sustainable to produce them in a controlled environment,” says Verdier. In this fragrance, natural bergamot is combined with ginger extracts and the final touch is achieved through a biotechnological creation. “We love a good mix of synthetic and natural molecules. I think it’s really sustainable,” he concludes.
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