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Talking about Chopard is speaking about elegance, femininity, luxury, and an ethical commitment to the planet. The house is known for its jewelry and Haute Horlogerie creations, but since 2017, the French firm has stood out unusually in the perfumery scene. Caroline Scheufele’s love of nature led her to create fragrances with a carefully selected percentage of natural ingredients, unusual in this industry.
Chopard has naturally applied the ethical philosophy to its perfumes, embarking on a marvelous adventure: a journey towards sustainable luxury perfumery.
Within all Chopard fragrances lies a beating heart and soul, those of Caroline Scheufele, Co-Chairman of Chopard and the muse behind all Maison’s perfumes. She designs her fragrant universe just as she invents the jewels and decorations that make it unique.
Chopard perfumery is a book, an endless story. The new chapter that is now opening is a dedication to forests. Like a timeless walk that invites you to stop to admire a landscape or a tree; or to listen to a bird or dream, this chapter consists of three parts: Santal Odeyar, Bois Nomades, and Patchouli de Sumatra. All three are imaginative journeys around the theme of wood.
Chopard and its enchanted forests
Santal Odeyar and Bois Nomades are creations by master perfumer Alberto Morillas, who developed Santal Odeyar and Bois Nomades as two characters in the same story.
The first, Santal Odeyar, is a shiny woody aroma combined with floral and fruity notes. It features majestic white Indian sandalwood, one of the most precious woods in the world. Perfumers have used it for centuries to enrich their creations and give them depth, sweetness, and mystery.
Due to massive deforestation, sandalwood is endangered in India. For this reason – since the end of the 90s – production has moved to Australia. There the sustainable cultivation of this essence has begun. Within the framework of its Naturals Together* program, the Firmenich perfume firm, with which Chopard collaborates, has established alliances to obtain a tailor-made essence that meets demanding criteria in terms of sustainability.
Firmenich has established a relationship in Australia with Santanol, a world leader in the ethical, responsible, and sustainable production of Indian sandalwood oil. The company has focused on the conservation of this endangered tree. For the last 15 years, this majestic species has found a new home in Australia.
Bois Nomades, the Garden of the Kings
The second fragrance is an imaginary meeting of two legendary trees: the Moroccan Atlas cedar; and Aquilaria (Agar) from Sylhet in northeastern Bangladesh, which produces Oud. These have been combined with pink to soften their fiery character.
Perfumers use cedar essential oil to add vitality and structure to a composition: cedar can run through the entire olfactory pyramid, from top to bottom notes. With its dry, green, resinous, lively, and sophisticated woody notes, Moroccan Atlas cedar possesses extraordinary olfactory qualities.
As an endangered species, the cedar is protected by the Moroccan government and recognized by UNESCO. Firmenich has partnered with local producers and distilleries to provide the most responsible essence possible. The company thus obtains this essence from Azrou, in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco, where this majestic tree is considered a national treasure. The cedar forests that cover this high mountain range are home to half of the country’s biodiversity. Cedar wood is extracted under government control to avoid overexploitation that would impact climate change. The oil is distilled locally from sawdust, a byproduct of furniture manufacturing.
Firmenich’s Atlas Cedar is unique and obtained through its Naturals Together program.
To create Bois Nomades, in addition to the cedar notes, Chopard also chose to use the rarest, most precious, and pure variety of Oud in the world, Assaf Oud, from Jalali Agarwood.
Aquilaria belongs to the Thymelaeaceae family, which includes about 40 species, and is the plant in which the dark, fragrant resin called Oud is born. Small pieces of metal are planted on its trunk regularly – and in reaction – the tree produces excess sap to obtain this rare material. Enzymatic activity transforms this into a precious resin. Aquilaria plantations are rare, as they are not very profitable: the wood takes about 30 years to mature and exploit.
Then the tree is cut into small pieces, and only the blackened parts are employed. The darker the wood, the more resin it contains. Knowing how to stop the soaking time is an art: if it is not enough, the oil will not come out of the wood; if it is too long, the scent could go wrong. Oud masters collect the oil by hand. It is then loaded into a still with water and distilled for one to ten days. Then the resulting essential oil is subjected to an aging process.
The smell of Oud is hard to reconstitute with synthetic molecules since it has a hundred facets. Its rarity and low yield explain its high price: 70 kilos of wood will produce just 20 ml of pure Oud. Therefore, it can reach 30,000 dollars per kilo.
Bois Nomades is a fragrant and imaginary evocation of the long journeys that travelers took in the past, crossing continents in search of another place. Trips full of poetry, music, cultures, smells, and flavors. Another world, another time.
The fragrances in this collection are genderless. Santal Odeyar remembers the strength of this rare tree. Thought to be a very masculine scent, it is very feminine: creamy and milky, with a «skin-like» quality. This fragrance exudes magic when worn. It is not a dark and austere wood but a truly luminous wood.
Sumatran Patchouli, the Garden of the Tropics
The third work in this collection is a patchouli-based composition. It is not a dark and earthy patchouli that would appear as base notes but a luminous, fresh, and energetic fragrance as if there were a patchouli spring in which to take a refreshing dip. This beautiful raw material is present from the first notes. It is unexpected and impregnated with a fresh touch. Fresh and patchouli are two words that one is not used to saying at the same time. However, perfumer Dora Baghriche’s talent lies in associating these two incompatible elements. He has created a crystalline, fresh, sparkling, and very present fragrance. Wearing it induces an irresistible feeling of well-being.
To create this work, Chopard opted for Sumatran patchouli. Indonesia is the world’s leading patchouli producer and offers the best quality. As part of its sustainable Naturals TogetherTM program, Firmenich has entered into a ten-year partnership with Indesso (Indonesian Essential Oils) to implement a sustainable patchouli supply chain. This fragrance is an overdose of fresh patchouli, a composition that is as raw as sophisticated, which makes the wearer feel good and, being unisex, is perfect for everyone.
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