Arabic Scents meet Italian refinement | MORESQUE

Imagine Italian style and Arabic charm combined into ten sublime and elegantly-shaped fragrances 100% Made in Italy . This is Moresque, a Haute Perfumery label and innovative concept of perfumery where taste embraces elegance and becomes superb refinement.

JDEED met with Cindy Guillemant, the house’s founder to discover more about the brand and the release of their new frangrances, exclusively at Harrods.

Interview by Fiona Ma

C.G : Moresque is an Italian brand, completely new in the UK.  We are based in Milan, our products are 100% Italian but the concept of the brand is a tribute to the art of perfumery from the Middle East. It’s a fusion between Italian design and Arabic tradition.

Per example, if you look at the product, the shape of the bottle is similar to an Arabic door. The name Moresque refers to the Moorish civilization and the Arabic art and architecture you can find in the south of Spain and the south of Europe. Our first collection was the White and Black collection and then later on, the Art collection. The bottles from the Art collection are hand decorated and hand painted.

For this specific collection, the bottles’ materials come from Tuscany where we work with incredible artisans that make each piece one by one. It’s a small family company that has passed down their craft from generation to generation. They paint the gold with the brush and then they remove some of it to create the pattern you want. We have different companies working on our different lines. In Italy, we have so many small, family business that we want to use and we want to really celebrate this craftsmanship.

We’ve launched 6 perfumes in Harrods. Soleil from the Gold collection is the latest one; we just launched all around the World in July. It’s a tribute to the sun, it’s a very summery fragrance. It can remain for 24 hours on the skin. A friend was telling me this morning, he put some on then he took a shower, he went swimming, took another shower, fell asleep and could still smell it. Our fragrances are very persistent, they have a high concentration of perfume, 26% as we are only using very good quality materials.

To go back to the beginning, Moresque is the story of Andrea – my best friend and nose- , my husband, who owns a perfume factory and me. I’ve always been working in perfumes and I was in the Middle-East for the last 5 years with Andrea. She introduced me to a whole new world and it really fascinated me. They use perfume in an incredible way compared to Europeans. They mix perfumes, they are very aggressive with perfumes, they gift perfumes to everyone, they make their own perfumed-oil at home, they mix it…. We especially visited Dubai, a city where everyone comes together. My partner has an office in Dubai, with an oud producer, retailer, etc..

We have a perfume with a specific oud that’s not carried in Harrods yet. It’s an oud from an island in Indonesia, a very high quality oud. It’s a very spicy fragrance. Truly, people either love or hate it, there is no in-between for this fragrance. Usually people who really know about perfume love it. If they are not experts, it comes across as more peculiar and is harder to appreciate.

To carry on with our range, we have Regina which was launched exclusively in Russia last year (even if we extended the distribution for the rest of the world, but it was made exclusively for Russia). It’s very sophisticated with vetiver and amber, and the white bottle is applied with gold leaf/foil. The fragrances are very different but they all have a strong personality. They are all unisex but I have to admit that some are more appreciated by women than men and vice versa.

Personally, I switch up my fragrance a lot. I like Aristocraty when it’s cold, Tamima I use it a lot and Regina for warmer days… I do alternate eve though for the longest period it was Tamima but then I changed. The last one is Fiama, which means flame in Italian. It’s a woody and aromatic fragrance that is part of the Gold collection.

How did you choose these six?

CG: I did not, it was Harrods which made a selection. I think they took the best seller from each collection to start with. We are launching a new fragrance in September and then we are working on a new perfume for next year. We are constantly working on new launches. The September one will be part of the Art collection. It will be the last for 2017 then next year we will have about 3 or 4 more coming out.

Do you plan on launching Anywhere else in the UK?

CG: We work with our distributor and we will extend to other department stores but this year we are exclusive to Harrods. Harrods’s target audience is perfect for Moresque.

Visit Harrods online to purchase your bottle of Moresque