I received the best news a perfumer can ever get: My first creation is going to be on sale in the world's most famous luxury department store, in Harrods! I was told that their buyer was enchanted by the "sophisticated and tastefully original" perfume centered around mimosa and placed an order without any hesitation.
I still cannot believe it. My creation on the same shelves with Chanel's exclusives and Versace's special editions! I need somebody to pinch me to make sure it is not a dream!
Harrods is a reference I didn't even dare to dream of! If somebody told me at the time when I first visited the shopping center that my perfume will be on those shelves in a few years, I would have laughed so loud out that probably security would have escorted me out directly from the Egyptian interior...
I went to Harrods at age of 24. I was on a few months long mission in London, when I was still in HR, intensively collecting money for the Grasse Insitute of Perfumery. With my french colleagues, after visiting every possible monuments a tourist could visit, we went for a round in the famous mall just to add it to our "UK-done" list. At the end of our visit, we realized that we have spent more than double the bonus we were about to be paid for the UK mission.
No wonder. The changing rooms were bigger than my apartment in Ile St Louis, the carpet was the most fluffiest thing my feet ever touched. I still don't understand the trick with the mirrors inside the changing rooms, but they gave the most charming reflection I have ever seen. It was like I were instantly photoshopped in those mirrors. To the point that I looked at least 10 pounds less in them. ( ...which perhaps paid an important role to the fact that I bought an extremely expensive lingerie for myself on that occasion. )
And Harrods smelled like a coffee. Well before spending a ridiculous amount of money on lingerie, my nose was searching for the source of that beautifully round but strong coffee accord appeased with light ambery notes and a touch of salty ylang-ylang. They were introducing the new A*men Pure Coffee collection from Thierry Mugler on ground zero, hence Harrods' exclusive walls were impregnated with coffee, and I have kept for years the A*men fragrance paper strip they have given me.
I cannot wait to smell the combination of mimosa and coffee.
