December 18, 2024 |
Azzi Glasser once made a perfume that smelled like pus, blood, vomit and excrement. It was designed to conjure the medieval sick room of a gout-ridden body and its ingredients were so potent that the London-based perfumer had to work out of her garden to avoid contaminating her studio. During the process, she struggled not to get sick from it herself. But it was worth it in the end because her client was happy. The noxious concoction was exactly what Jude Law was looking for.
Amber Molecule eau de parfum
We might refer to Glasser, 54, as ‘Hollywood’s perfumer’ because she works with actors to create scents that will help them inhabit the world of their characters. Law’s noxious fragrance was designed for his role as Henry VIII in last year’s Firebrand. while less repulsive projects have included a fragrance for Johnny Depp in 2010, when he played the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. It captured the eccentricity of the character at a tea party with notes of fairy cakes, lemon drizzle, cookies, tea and icing. Glasser has also developed seven character fragrances for Helena Bonham Carter, including a cracked soap and powdery lace scent for her role as Miss Havisham in 2012’s Great Expectations and a mixture of foxgloves, hemlock and belladonna for her role as Bellatrix Lestrange in various Harry Potter films.
She also crafts personalised fragrances for clients’ off-screen selves with her bespoke fragrance service, which is available to the non-famous too, although they still have to be flush, since the starting price for the service is £18,000 per session (though she does run a fragrance workshop for £850). For Glasser, these appointments are like a “fun therapy session” in which she asks questions and observes clients’ self-presentation to pinpoint which scents would best complement their character. “I want to know what you’re all about,” Glasser tells me over a video call from her studio, where she sits in front of a wall brimming with bottles containing dozens of creations made over the course of her 30-year career. “I want to know about your family, friends, romantic relationships; what films you like to watch, where you like to go on holiday and what you do for work. As we’re discussing these things, I’m also looking at your mannerisms, your style and your skin, because some skin can absorb and hold fragrance more than others and I need to know that for the formulation.”
Those who can’t afford a one-to-one session with Glasser can purchase a fragrance from her brand The Perfumer’s Story, which she launched in 2016. In keeping with her personality-driven approach to perfumery, each of its 13 core fragrances have been designed to suit common character and style types. These include Fever 54, a rose de mai, davana oil, saffron and ylang ylang scent made for someone who is, in Glasser’s words, “wild and hedonistic and a bit glamorous”. There’s also Glasser’s own signature scent Sequoia Wood, which is made for people who are “sensual, a bit edgy and cool, but intelligent at the same time”. Another is Old Books, Elvis actor Austin Butler’s favourite fragrance, which is a blend of frankincense, olibanum, myrrh, elemi and patchouli. “It’s heritage, intelligent and a bit eccentric,” she says.
from left: Glasser in her studio and The Perfumer Story’s Rain on Earth candle, photographed by Rikki Ward
Glasser’s work is not, however, limited to people. She has designed signature scents for some of London’s most well-known restaurants and hotels including Chiltern Firehouse, The Dorchester, Annabel’s and Sketch among others. She also regularly collaborates with designers, musicians and artists on projects, including a scent for Kylie Minogue’s 2007 show at the V&A (Kylie was also her first bespoke fragrance client and wears a scent of French iris, violet leaf, powder musk and sandalwood) and the fragrance for Alexander McQueen’s legendary spring 1999 show in which Shalom Harlow was spraypainted by two robots. For that, Glasser filled the room with 1,000 custom-made jasmine candles, all of which were pilfered by the audience after the show. She shot to fame in her early twenties when she designed Agent Provocateur’s fragrance. With that launch, Glasser bucked the ‘90s trend of watery smells like CK One and asserted the style that would become her signature – opulent, heady scents that are impossible not to notice and obviously expensive.
We might also call Glasser the ‘psychic perfumer’ because of her preternatural ability to quickly assess a person’s character and distil it into a scent. She says her bespoke services are like therapy, but it might be more accurate to compare them to astrological readings, in which Glasser perceives aspects of your personality and matches them to her scent profiles. Less than 30 minutes into our conversation, where I was interviewing her and not, I thought, the other way around, she told me which one of her fragrances would suit me best. A few days later, when I received testers of the brand’s perfumes, I realised she was exactly on point. Sure, my predisposition to the fragrance could have been a by-product of her saying it was my match. But even if that was the case, there was something satisfying about being read by someone who is a bit of an expert in reading people in the same way it is satisfying to look at a horoscope and be told what traits you have, how you are perceived in the world – and there, perhaps, lies the real crux of Glasser’s gifts.
Azzi Glasser, founder of The Perfumer’s Story, photography courtesy of Azzi Glasser
Her industry is, in many ways, still one ruled by tradition. The amount of noses working in the world of high-end perfumery is limited to a select few, almost all of whom have been trained in Grasse and many who come from a lineage of other noses. With a client list and resumé like Glasser’s, she could easily get away with being serious, reserved, abstract, even cold. In reality, she is exactly the opposite. On the day of our conversation, Glasser is warm and jocular. Her long nails are painted buttercup yellow and she moves her hands as she speaks about her work in a passionate but unfussy way, eschewing the vague and occasionally esoteric language that can be common in the industry.
“My dream is to be the most successful, sought-after perfume house in the world,” Glasser tells me, and her means for doing that is “bringing common sense into the marketplace” through straightforward language and fragrances that correspond to someone’s taste and character.
“The industry is quite conservative and they have this marketing language, which I will never bring into my world because it just doesn’t make any common sense,” she says. “I think more people are coming my way because I’m making [choosing a perfume] easy to understand and using language that is much more intuitive. Luxury perfume isn’t cheap, so obviously you want quality ingredients, that’s a must. But also, [you want] fragrances that resonate with who you are and resonate with the people around you.”
For Glasser, people are easy to read and perfumes should be too. It’s yet to be seen whether this approach will allow her to achieve her dream of being the most successful fragrance house in the world. But, as she points out, “I work with Hollywood actors who are really fussy about what they wear and get given everything, and they give me their endorsement.” So if she is reaching for the stars, she has already caught a fair few of them.
Taken from 10+ Issue 7 – DECADENCE, MORE, PLEASURE – out NOW. Order your copy here.
