Page 106 - Sharp September 2023

FEATURE
Christophe Raynaud, a veteran perfumer with over three decades of experience and umpteen blockbuster scents to his name. “We had to express a man who wasn’t a caricature, in all his subtlety.”
The idea for MYSLF was formed in Tangiers, when perfumer Daniela Andrier stayed next to the famed couturier’s former home, Villa Mabrouka. Browsing the Moroccan city’s labyrinthine souks, Andrier was fascinated by the wide variety of orange blossom scents. With a shape-shifting character and an established place in perfume history (from the court of Louis XIV to the ultra-masculine scents of the late 1960s), it was the perfect place to begin. “Orange blossom is the only raw material perfumers have at their disposal that can express, depending on how it is fashioned, every stage of life and gender: the newborn, the bride, a totally manly man...”
The new fragrance opens with citrus top notes, including those of Tunisian orange blossom and also vert de bergamot, an extract of green Calabrian oranges picked early in the harvest. “It is fresher and livelier because it’s less about the ripe fruit,” Andrier explains. “It imparts vivacious, radiant notes to the opening of MYSLF, and this radiant freshness is long-lasting.”
This bright, fresh opening is balanced by a woody base that adds depth, intensity, and sensuality. To achieve this, the perfumers used a scent derived from sugarcane to provide natural notes alongside the aroma of ambergris, one of the most precious ingredients in the perfume world. Next emerges the earthiness of Indonesian patchouli,
an exotic scent that offers warmth and richness. And lastly, hints of Provençal lavender, herbaceous clary sage, and geranium bourbon from Madagascar paint the final delicate strokes of the picture.
“When you first spray it on your skin,” says Butler, “it’s very bright and you smell a lot of florals off the top. But then it becomes really warm and smooth as it settles on your skin.” The fragrance, the actor adds, takes him back to childhood, when he and his mother would pick oranges from a tree in their backyard. “I find that our sense of smell, more than almost any other sense, bypasses the conscious mind and gets right to an emotion,” he explains. “The smell of popcorn always reminds me of being a kid and going to the movies with my parents; I have so many different [connections] like that.”
Of course, the true beauty of a fragrance like MYSLF is its ability to evoke different memories and emotions in every person who spritzes it. Just as those notes of bergamot and orange blossom call to mind childhood memories for Butler, MYSLF’s complex bouquet of florals, woods, and citrus scents will stir up other distinct hits of nostalgia for anyone who wears it.
“The cool thing for me is imagining people wearing it and all of the memories that then get associated with that,” Butler says. “Like when you fall in love for the first time or you buy a fragrance in a new place and it always reminds you of that city. It’s kind of amazing to get to be linked to something that then could be connected to so many peoples’ memories.”
106 SEPTEMBER 2023
SHARPMAGAZINE.COM