The House of Kerosene is the work of a motorcycle mechanic turned perfumer. I’m inspired by brands that create something for the pleasure of it and not just as a sales driver. What I love about self-taught noses is that they don’t know the standard rules of perfumery so they break them. Now there’s a big move towards 30ml sizes which cost less and mean that customers can assemble a ‘fragrance wardrobe’, which is a big development in perfume retailing.Īs a 21st century perfumer you have to be open to everything. I really look at price points and I try to stay below the £200 mark unless it’s something absolutely exceptional. I want something innovative that will be around for a long time. It can be simple like a soliflore, but I don’t carry pale imitations of great art. I want a collection that brings together the best of its kind. I don’t want people to be excluded because of price and I’m not snobbish about scent. We try to be democratic financially, because ‘expensive’ doesn’t always mean ‘best’. You want to find a collection that is going somewhere with enough diversity to appeal to many different people. For a retailer that’s not ideal, you can’t tie-up your capital in stock like that.

Certain brands have one fragrance that carries the sales of the whole collection while the rest sit there and gather dust. The hardest thing is finding a collection where the majority of fragrances sell through – they don’t just sit on the shelf. In fragrance terminology, I don’t like the word ‘niche’ because it implies that these are brands that will only appeal to a small, specialised section of the population! I do not select for our perfumery intending to be 'niche', I want everyone on the planet to experience the joy of them! Instead, I use the word 'luxury' to define scents that are innovative, of great quality and the best in their category, and to convey the idea that they have been pre-selected because they shine and stand out from the crowd in the creative sense.Ī collection has to have something unique to say because if it doesn’t, there is no point in it. I enjoy talent and love being able to give shelf space to young, creative people – that’s a real joy. We also like change, we like to bring in something completely new. I had already worked with most of the brands that I sell when I was in the PR sector but we still have to review to see what is and isn’t performing. I think I worked during the golden age of PR, but then print media began to shrink and the great beauty journalists (from whom I learned so much) were slowly disappearing too and so I thought that perhaps it was time to make a change and focus on retail instead.Īt Roullier White there are about 100 brands in the offer now, which waxes and wanes depending on the market and what the customer wants. I was in the right place at the right time because no one else was doing what I did. It was at a point when no one knew what luxury fragrance was. I launched Byredo in the UK, I worked with Creed for 10 years, with Frederic Malle for 14 years. When you stay in one medium you can have tunnel-vision– you think you’re curing cancer, - but you are just a part of something much bigger. I have an overview and I think of the consumer first. So I moved around a lot but I think it’s a strength. I ended up specializing in luxury fragrance after working in film, publishing and then fashion – because it looked like everyone in it was having a better social life than me (laughs) – then interiors and food and drink.

Michael donovan