A bijou of a scent
Caroline Néron launches Pur Diamant
Fans of actor and jewelry designer Caroline Néron will not be surprised to learn she recently launched her first perfume, Pur Diamant, with a body cream soon to follow.
Néron, the unstoppable entrepreneur and star of the television series Diva and Réseaux, built a thriving jewelry business over the past nine years, opening 20 stand-alone boutiques. She has more than 100 points of sale and a new showroom in Paris. Now this: a debut perfume that nods to the diamond collection within her line of women’s and men’s jewelry.
“This is the perfume I will celebrate in 20 years,” said Néron, 40, who previously wore Givenchy’s Amarige perfume. “I wanted to take the Amarige-type scent somewhere else and go more modern and sweet, with more oriental florals.”
To help create her scent, Néron turned to Galimard, the French perfume house founded in Grasse in 1747. “I wanted the best, so I went to the top,” she said at the launch party last week at the Loft Hotel, where designer Jean Airoldi, singer Suzie Villeneuve, television hosts Marie-Claude Savard and Maripier Morin and film producer Luc Bélanger arrived to celebrate Néron’s success. A giant version of the perfume bottle — cut like a diamond, with crystals resting inside — was on display, along with an explanation of Pur Diamant’s top notes, including vanilla, plum, lily, blackberry and bergamot, a sweet citrus.
“I was surprised to learn how much I liked the bergamot,” said Néron, who placed 11th this year in the Profit 500 ranking of fastest-growing companies in Canada, while placing first in Quebec. “I trust myself and my instincts more and more every day.”
Comparisons with Sarah Jessica Parker were unavoidable at the perfume’s launch, where there were whispers about Néron working on a handbag collection.
Néron confirmed the rumours, adding: “But not until fall 2014.”