MY MOODBOARD
Jacques Cavallier Belletrud bottles the joy of seaside holidays in his citrusy new scent for Louis Vuitton
The perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud on his citrusy scent for Louis Vuitton
‘There are all these inspirations that arise from being at the beach,’ says the perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud of creating his latest fragrance for Louis Vuitton. ‘You get to watch momentary fragments of the lives of people you will never see again; love affairs starting or ending.’
The new scent, On the Beach, is zesty and invigorating – it smells of hot summer days and windswept strolls along the coast. For years, Belletrud had wanted to work with yuzu, ‘a fruit celebrated in food but forgotten in perfumery’. He collaborated with a citrus specialist in Japan to create a distillation, and then added aromatic herbs to the formula – rosemary, pink pepper, thyme and cloves – for depth and spice.
‘What I like is that this perfume stirs all sorts of emotions, whether childhood feelings or good times with friends,’ he reflects. ‘My own first memory of scent was when I was four years old, on a private beach near La Croisette where I was staying with my brother and mother. I remember the warm smell of the sun cream that my mother smoothed onto my skin.’ A new-found inspiration for the scent was a beach in Malibu just by the restaurant Nobu. ‘It’s quite magical there: you have the ocean in front of you, and the mountains and desert behind you. That contrast is breathtaking. For me going to the beach is a way of connecting with nature.’ meg honigmann
On the Beach eau de parfum, £200 for 100ml, Louis Vuitton.