Not a Perfume

Juliette Has a Gun is the house of Romano Ricci, great-grandson of Nina Ricci and grandson of Robert Ricci, to whom L'Air du Temps is owed. Not a Perfume, released in 2010, goes against the catalog: a single raw material, claimed to be synthetic, and a name that refuses the label.

A molecule promoted to subject

Cetalox usually serves as a base for modern compositions. It is a synthetic substitute for ambergris, a rare and costly material, developed at Firmenich. Ricci makes it the entire subject and gives his fragrance a name that runs against the category.

The brand claims a strictly molecular formula, with no natural occurrence, and above all without regulated allergens — a rare argument in perfumery, confirmed by the ingredients list with its four entries.

The creator's word

Romano Ricci says he regularly uses this material for its woody and musky finesse, and that this time he wanted a fragrance composed of this single ingredient, which would therefore not be one in the conventional sense of the term. He leaves the judgment to the wearer.

ÇaFleurBon reports that Ricci described his creation as an unidentified flying object in the landscape of perfumery, and that Geza Schoen, creator of Escentric Molecules, did not liken his own molecular series to this creation.

An entire line behind the fragrance

Success went beyond the bottle: the house now offers the same material in lotion, shower gel, body oil and laundry detergent, all filed under names built on the same negation.