Cultivating Scents of Style: Master Perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud Shares the Story Behind Louis Vuitton’s eLVes Parfum
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
What better flower to symbolize the courage, strength and beauty of women in all their dimensions than the mighty rose? But just as the notion of femininity today is non-cliché, sometimes a rose is a rose — and then some. For Louis Vuitton’s latest fragrance, eLVes (pronounced “elles”) in-house Master Perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud gave the classically romantic bloom a decidedly subversive twist, at once familiar but with a silent message not to be underestimated. “When you love someone, you offer roses, and roses have this eternal aspect of a perfume everyone knows from childhood,” he explains, “but if you take [a rose] the wrong way, it can hurt you.”
Louis Vuitton Master Perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud / Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
To tap in to the eternal beauty of the flower — with a subtle reminder of thorns — he blended deep, velvety Bulgarian rose absolute with airy CO2-extracted Centifolia rose then laced in delicate, dewy lily of the valley, for the first time “giving a voice” to this note through a never-before-used extraction process developed in his native Grasse. A cornucopia of juicy fruits and spices further infuse a pulse of energy. Think blackcurrant, peach and a hint of creamy coconut milk plus exotic spices including cinnamon and ginger. Finally, the scent unfolds in amber, which the perfumer believes represents “the epitome of 21st century sensuality,” and a hit of patchouli, always reminiscent of unbridled freedom.
The complex scent took Belletrud five years to develop and, in the end, over 100 takes. But he looked to a familiar muse for the final stamp of approval. “When my wife is coming back to me saying ‘you’re destroying the beautiful perfume you gave me before’ I know I have to come back to what makes the perfume beautiful.”
eLVes Louis Vuitton, $330 for $3.4 oz., louisvuitton.com
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