Christian Provenzano who is renowned as the famous alchemist (wizard of scents) recently visited Nigeria. Having created not less than 400 fragrances for some of the best brands in the world, which include Clive Christian, Electimuss London, Boadicea, Fragrance du Bois, Sospiro, Jo Malone, Penhaligon, his own name sake brand & very many more, many of his fragrances are world-renowned, having won awards.
Provenzano is a renowned master perfumer with over 40 years of experience in the fragrance industry. He is the Global Director of Perfumery at CPL Aromas. He is also known for his eponymous fragrance line, Christian Provenzano Parfums.
He has been recognised as a master of his craft and his creations have inspired the success of both niche and designer fragrance brands worldwide. In this interview with IFEOMA OKEKE-KORIEOCHA, he speaks on his mission to Nigeria, his partnership with Seinde Signature and why the Nigerian market has become very important to him.
Can you briefly tell us your mission here in Nigeria?
My mission is to come and visit all the Seinde Signature stores and promote my new brand, my brand, Christian Provenzano. This is the reason why I’ve come and yesterday we were in Abuja to do a presentation and we’re trying to do the same this evening here.
Tell us about your new brand.
I’m launching three new fragrances. Onda de Mar, Crystal musk and Mangostino. These are three fragrances that have been released a couple of months ago in Europe and now it’s going worldwide as well.
How many countries have you been to with your fragrance before coming to Nigeria?
My fragrance is selling in 30 countries at the moment. Nigeria is number one in Africa. Yes, it’s my first one in Africa actually.
So, why did you decide to come to Nigeria? Is the market here big for you?
It’s a big market, it’s growing. I mean, niche fragrances are becoming very popular here and you guys love fragrances anyway, so yes.
If you were to talk about the smell of Nigeria, what would that be for you?
Oh, the smell of Nigeria is very strong perfumes, really long-lasting, highly concentrated and this is what I’m good at because I’m based in the Middle East. And all the fragrances I do are usually for the local people, the Arabs and they love very strong fragrances as well. Like the amber, oud, musk, saffron, rose, this is very typical of the Arabic fragrances also.
Tell us about your partnership with Seinde Signature. Will you be creating particular perfumes for Seinde Signature?
We’re creating unique perfumes for them. We are discussing this at the moment. In fact, I brought a lot of samples with me. I’ve got about 60 samples that we have to evaluate together. And hopefully, he will select maybe five or six to do his own brand under his name.
So, how many fragrances did you bring to Nigeria?
This time, I mean, just for my brand only, but the samples I have is only specifically for Seinde to see and select some of the fragrances he wants to launch.
So, you are known for creating about 400 fragrances. How do you maintain originality?
Well, because perfumers have a very large palette of raw material, we have approximately 2,000 raw materials to use from. So, every time you create something, if you put a tiny drop of something, it will change the smell completely. So, this is how you differentiate all the fragrances. So, there’s different approaches, citrus fragrance, woody fragrance, amber fragrance, whatever.
How long have you been a perfumer?
It’s more than 50 years.
How has the journey been so far over the years?
So far, it’s been excellent. Obviously, I went through all the stages before becoming a master perfumer. Now, I’ve been a master perfumer for the past four or five years. So, I’ve done all the stages from junior perfumer, senior perfumer and now, I’ve reached the top.
So, how does a typical day start for you in the process of creating perfumes? Do you want to share that?
First of all, I review all the projects I have because I have many clients, and I try to work one by one because they have different priorities. So, you look at the more important one and start working on your formula. Normally, they send you some information of what they actually want. Because it’s very difficult to come to me and say, oh, I want to launch a perfume. I can give you 1,000 perfumes, but what direction do you want? Do you want something fresh? Do you want something woody? So, this is the dialogue we have with the customer. Once I know exactly what they want, I start doing my formula; send it to the laboratory to compound it.
And then I evaluate it. If I like it, I say, okay, I will show it to the customer. If I don’t like it, I do another one and another one. And this process can take more than six months.
Is there a particular market you’re yet to conquer?
Russia. I’m trying to get into Russia. I’ve tried it for quite a long time now. But the type of fragrance I do, apparently, according to the Russian, it’s not suitable for the Russian market. So, now I’m working on a completely new range for Russia. And I’ve shown them the fragrances and they love them. So, hopefully, I will start working with Russia this year or maybe next year.
What does the Nigerian market mean to you?
Well, it means that I will be coming more often, that’s for sure. Obviously, it’s a very interesting market for perfumes. And, yes, I know it’s going to be very successful.
What role does culture and storytelling play for you in making perfumes, especially in the African context?
So, usually, we try to use ingredients from other countries. So, obviously, in Nigeria, I’ve got some spices. I don’t know if ginger also is part of the spices for Nigeria, but I have a list of countries where, before creating the fragrance, I say to myself, okay, what are these countries producing? And then I start from these ingredients and build around this to create a fragrance.
As a master perfumer, is there anything left for you to conquer in the perfume industry?
You always learn. Master perfumer is just a title. But you always learn because there are always new essential oils coming in the market. There are always new molecules. You have to explore and work with it to see how they perform in the perfume. So, you’re always learning. You never stop learning.
