Yesterday, Anna and I visited Le Labo in Nolita. As founders Fabrice and Edouard like to say, it's almost pointless to try and describe a scent in words. But if I had to, I'd say the perfume laboratory and store smells like the South of France. And now your apartment can too! Nearly everyone at OC HQ owns a Le Labo scented candle, so we figured it was time to team up. The expert perfumers have made four candles specially for OC in their signature scents: Anis 24, Santal 26, Figue 15, and Cedre 11.
We watched as the team mixed fragrances on the spot and asked Le Labo's Gaëlle and Fabrice all of our burning fragrance-related questions: "Is it true you can you bruise a scent?," "How do I pick out the perfect perfume," and "How do I stop my candles turning black?". Read our interview with Fabrice, one of Le Labo's founders, below, check out photos of the lab, and take a peek at our candles, printed with customized OC labels!
Shop all Le Labo for OC here.
Photos by Anna Mackenzie
Alice Newell-Hanson: I'm sure you get asked this a lot, but what's your favorite smell?
Fabrice Penot: My old comfort blanket, which my daughter calls "my papa's doudou." I won't attempt to describe how it smells because it might sound scary. I'm pretty sure it would make a very bad candle.
ANH: What smell conjures the strongest memories for you?
FP: The fig tree in my grandmother's front yard. I have the happiest memories of being under that tree––because of it I'm obsessed with any fig-based scent. Any cheap celebrity perfume with a fig top note has me at hello... I need to get over that.
ANH: Do you wear the same scent every day? If not, what determines your choice?
FP: I usually wear the latest modification of the perfume we're working on. So every day it's pretty different, but it's never mindless: I am evaluating the performance (long-lastingness and diffusion) of the perfume as well as its aesthetic throughout the day. Being in a permanent creation process, it's pretty rare that Eddie or I wear a perfume just for the sake of it. That's the only bad part about this job. And I can deal with that.
ANH: How did you begin working with fragrances?
FP: By chance really. Neither Eddie or I were born into this "industry" (what an horrible word), in the way that many perfumers come from perfumery families. We discovered perfumery by chance and since we didn't seem to be very good at anything else, we decided to commit our lives to it.
ANH: How did you and Edouard begin Le Labo?
FP: We were creating fragrances for big brands and became frustrated by the industrial and marketing realities. We wanted to bring back the craftsmanship and the magic around fine perfumery, which got lost in the money-making machines in charge of perfume labels nowadays. And the idea behind Le Labo was also to get Opening Ceremony stickers on our candles one day! We now feel complete—thank you!
ANH: What's your process for developing a scent?
FP: I never know how to answer this. It can come at any moment: a dream, a word, the light, a woman, a thought, a sketch found on Tumblr, and it is the beginning of an idea you will then try to shape into a perfume. It starts with a draft—a rough arrangement of single ingredients—and then you keep on knitting until you reach the "perfect" form. It can take a few months, sometimes years, and always hundreds of trials before the right equilibr
We watched as the team mixed fragrances on the spot and asked Le Labo's Gaëlle and Fabrice all of our burning fragrance-related questions: "Is it true you can you bruise a scent?," "How do I pick out the perfect perfume," and "How do I stop my candles turning black?". Read our interview with Fabrice, one of Le Labo's founders, below, check out photos of the lab, and take a peek at our candles, printed with customized OC labels!
Shop all Le Labo for OC here.
Photos by Anna Mackenzie
Alice Newell-Hanson: I'm sure you get asked this a lot, but what's your favorite smell?
Fabrice Penot: My old comfort blanket, which my daughter calls "my papa's doudou." I won't attempt to describe how it smells because it might sound scary. I'm pretty sure it would make a very bad candle.
ANH: What smell conjures the strongest memories for you?
FP: The fig tree in my grandmother's front yard. I have the happiest memories of being under that tree––because of it I'm obsessed with any fig-based scent. Any cheap celebrity perfume with a fig top note has me at hello... I need to get over that.
ANH: Do you wear the same scent every day? If not, what determines your choice?
FP: I usually wear the latest modification of the perfume we're working on. So every day it's pretty different, but it's never mindless: I am evaluating the performance (long-lastingness and diffusion) of the perfume as well as its aesthetic throughout the day. Being in a permanent creation process, it's pretty rare that Eddie or I wear a perfume just for the sake of it. That's the only bad part about this job. And I can deal with that.
ANH: How did you begin working with fragrances?
FP: By chance really. Neither Eddie or I were born into this "industry" (what an horrible word), in the way that many perfumers come from perfumery families. We discovered perfumery by chance and since we didn't seem to be very good at anything else, we decided to commit our lives to it.
ANH: How did you and Edouard begin Le Labo?
FP: We were creating fragrances for big brands and became frustrated by the industrial and marketing realities. We wanted to bring back the craftsmanship and the magic around fine perfumery, which got lost in the money-making machines in charge of perfume labels nowadays. And the idea behind Le Labo was also to get Opening Ceremony stickers on our candles one day! We now feel complete—thank you!
ANH: What's your process for developing a scent?
FP: I never know how to answer this. It can come at any moment: a dream, a word, the light, a woman, a thought, a sketch found on Tumblr, and it is the beginning of an idea you will then try to shape into a perfume. It starts with a draft—a rough arrangement of single ingredients—and then you keep on knitting until you reach the "perfect" form. It can take a few months, sometimes years, and always hundreds of trials before the right equilibr