The desert exhales a specific and cruel sort of heat. It's very dry, which you'd expect. But it's full of debris that's invisible to the naked eye, and it sits in your throat, and your ears, and your eyes (nosebleeds are alarmingly common among new arrivals).
And the sheer temperature torches your human, in-built cooling system; sweat evaporates in seconds, and you're all the hotter for it. So as perfumer Francis Kurkdjian talks through his latest creation in a very well-air conditioned sanctum in the south Utah desert, onlookers feel literally and spiritually refreshed: it's a super hydrated version of its lionised Sauvage fragrance, and a scent that, according to Kurkdjian, packs “a soaring freshness.” Since 2015, there's been several different versions of Sauvage.
But this version, the Sauvage Eau Forte, is the first that Kurkdjian has solely remixed. And unlike its predecessors (and unlike most men's fragrances ), it's been formulated without a drop of alcohol. He passes some samples around the room and encourages an extended moment of silence, like a lecturer patiently waiting for a student to raise a nervous first hand.
The room fills with approving ‘mmmmmm’s. “The water base brings something that is impossible to re-create,” he says. “That lust effect.
It's a feeling, not a smell. It's wetness, but it's not watermelon notes or cucumber . This is smoother than the alcohol of the past Sauvages hit your nose.
” It's subtle. Which, in a world of men's fragrances that still want you to smell like a Milanese nightclub tycoon, is a nice change of pace. But that doesn't mean Sauvage is any less memorable.
There's an undercurrent of spicy, woody notes, but with a deeply fresh finish. For almost 30 years, Kurkdjian has led the charge on some of the world's most famous fragrances. The slow build of rep has paid off; he's one of the few perfumers with enough name recognition to launch his own label, which luxury stable LVMH bought for an undisclosed sum in 2017.
And one of the brands that sits within that stable? Dior , the French luxury house that Kurkdjian joined three years ago. “All the Sauvages of the past, they're heritage,” he says, motioning towards a collection of smooth ombre bottles that house prior iterations, like the Sauvage Elixir, and the Eau de Parfum. “I have to take care of it, and nurture it.
But I have to put my own vision on it.” That isn't easy. According to a Business of Fashion report last year, the brand stated that they sell one bottle of Sauvage every three seconds.
Mess with the formula too much, and one could risk alienating millions of guys (and the people who buy fragrance for them). Kurkdjian is surprisingly candid in how he makes it work – because, put simply, “it's work” to him. “You don't find inspiration, you work to find it,” he says, leaning back in an armchair against the backdrop of a burnt orange canyon.
“Inspiration is not something that already exists and you lift up a stone and see underneath that there's something inpsiring. You have to make it happen. Every time I have a project, there's a group of people.
.. This is not only one person.
” In an industry that makes millions on the idea of a mood, Kurkdjian is matter-of-fact. Turns out that the bottle of Sauvage Eau Forte isn't the only refreshing thing in the boiling, bristling Utah desert..
