The team sought out to source the absolute best ingredients, and create around them. “When you choose the ingredient, you’re halfway done,” she says. “After that, it starts—[you must find a] way to contrast [them].” The Iris Root eau de parfum, for example, is rooted in the creamy and soft iris rhizome. “I needed something to explode it’s beauty at the top,” Cruelles explains, pairing it with Timut pepper for its zesty, grapefruit-forward aroma, complemented by violet for a herbaceous accord.
For the second perfume, Cruelles looked to vanilla—an ingredient redolent of one’s childhood. Think: being in the kitchen while your grandma is baking—the scent of sugary dough gliding through the rooms. But when you smell the Roasted Vanilla eau de parfum, Cruelles wants you to experience something out of the ordinary. “When you smell the vanilla vine, it’s very animalic and very dry,” she says. In mixing it with oakwood and spices, Loewe created something with a tonic-like sweetness that retains vanilla’s warmth and comfortability.
The last scent of the collection, Bittersweet Oud eau de parfum, is an ode to Cruelles’s time studying perfumery in Dubai where she fell in love with the mystical qualities of oud. In true Loewe fashion, she says, “we twisted it with sweet orange to give something special and unexpected,” she adds. Rich, yet zesty, it’s unlike anything you’ve ever smelled.
Photo: Courtesy of Loewe
Photo: Courtesy of Loewe
From ingredient sourcing to finding just the right composition, the entire process took over two years, with the final elixirs bottled in a vessel just as special as the fragrance. “It’s a piece of art,” Cruelles says. “I think people will keep the bottles after they use it.” Each Loewe Crafted Collection fragrance arrives in a sculptural flask featuring naturally-formed bubbles, inspired by that of handblown glass, topped by a granite cap.
“There is a perfume for each woman,” says Cruelles. “You have different jewels and dresses for different moments. It talks about you. It’s something is in the air and you don’t notice, but it’s there.” When you smell this perfume, she advises you do so with your eyes closed to experience each scent in its fullness. “When you smell the perfume, you are connected.”
