Fragrances are embedded into Middle Eastern culture and as MOJEH.com talked to Geoffrey Nejman, co-founder of luxury perfume brand Micallef, we found out how intimate the relationship is between scent and personality.
Co-founders Martine Micallef and husband Geoffrey Nejman
Who is the M. Micallef woman?
I think it’s a woman with taste and sophistication. I wouldn’t give her an age because we have fragrances and followers of all ages – personality and someone that wants to be different would wear Micallef.
What’s the concept behind your personalised bottles?
The whole concept is art and perfume. We train our own beauty advisers as artists so they can personalise these bottles for you – we have developed the idea that a person should be able to complement your bottle when you buy it with additional Swarovski crystals, engraving your name or by putting a few flowers on it at your request.
You’ve been coming to Dubai for many years, was crystal falcon inspired by your time in the Middle East?
We’ve been coming to Dubai since 1998 – so 16 or 17 years – the falcons are very well appreciated here in the Middle East, it’s an impressive bottle and we have already sold two to collectors in the European and Asian markets. We are coming out now with a few exclusive pieces which will have the heads of Arabian Stallions.
The Crystal Black Headed Falcon
How do you think the Middle Eastern woman differs when it comes to choosing her scent?
Her shopping philosophy is quite similar to European ladies, with maybe the exception of perfume, because perfume is such a big subject in the region. I’ve got some statistics of consumption of perfume between the Middle East and Europe and it’s almost 1 to 10. A French woman will have maybe 2 or 3 kinds, but here on average you have 15 to 20 bottles. Middle Eastern women love perfume; it’s part of their culture.
How do you decide on particular notes for people?
I try not to be influenced by anyone but myself. Once I’ve created a perfume and shared it with my wife and my closest friends, I have to be absolutely happy with the scent to offer it to other people. If your passion and your own love is not involved in your creation, it gets very difficult to sell. Especially in our niche, artistic, exclusive, small industry of luxury perfumes. One good example is our perfume Ananda, which we created as soon as we started the business and it is still one of our fast moving success fragrances. My mother was a Guerlain type and she loved Shalimar – it is quite a nice story because at one stage the formula changed.
It’s quite frequent now that brands update fragrances, what happens during the process?
It’s not only updating it, it’s replacing the natural ingredients with synthetic ingredients to lower the cost. Some addicts of Shalimar have noticed it when they wear it, but the more you go away from natural, top quality ingredients the less time your perfume will last. Natural ingredients have a chemical reaction, they actually go into your epidermic layer of skin and mix with your pH – staying much longer within your skin cells.
