Scent Imitates Art – Basenotes Interview With Evody’s Cerine Vasseur & Perfumer Cecile Zarokian

image: Basenotes Vasseur (left) with Zarokian

“What abstract artists did was to use shapes and colours. I thought that if I had to transpose abstraction into my field, my art, it would be to use my ingredients without representing anything in particular. So it would be non-figurative. It’s very tricky, actually. Because it’s about balance. You focus on the fragrance and the emotions it gives you, without being able to say it’s about rose or jasmine. I think you could say it’s citrusy, or it’s floral, or woody or green. But besides that, you can’t say which kind of flower or wood or spice is in it.”