Jerome Di Marino Of Takasago 

 It was in our Best of 2020, that Editor Ermano Picco named Jerome di Marino his rising star. “Mentored by Françis Kurkdjian, he has begun to compile impressive creations striding between commercial and niche with perfumes for Burberry, Carven and Elie Saab, but also for Molton Brown, Masaki Matsushima and Une Nuit Nomade. I just happened to smell his commercial fragrances only, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Di Marino’s creations in the next years appear as the nose for top notch exclusive brands or perhaps winning a FiFi”. Ermano was correct because Jerome di Marino of Takasago won a French Fragrance Foundation Award Best masculine mass market Fragrance (2016) for Black (DANIEL HECHTER). At 35 years old, Jerome di Marino has signed and/or co-authored nearly 75 perfumes ranging from designer, mainstream and niche fragrances and has been awarded Academia del Perfume 2021: Best feminine lifestyle fragrance (2021) for Women’Secret Intimate (WOMEN’SECRET), GQ Grooming Awards: Best men’s EDT Fragrance of the year (2020) for Mr. Burberry Element (BURBERRY), Glamour Beauty Awards: Best woman fragrance (2019) for Ungaro for her (EMANUEL UNGARO) and Beauty society of perfumers Awards: Best men’s fine fragrance (2018) for Oud de Parfum (WILLIAM HUNT).-Michelyn Camen, Editor-in-Chief

 

Perfumer Jerome di Marino

I was born in the French Alps where I grew up in a small village of less than 500 people. I will always remember the stunning view I enjoyed from my room, overlooking the Mont-Blanc. I lived a happy and fulfilled childhood with a complete sensation of freedom. I spent most of my free time in company of my three brothers. We adventurously explored the neighborhoods on small bikes, riding through the woods or the green fields of this French country side. It was quite a perfect place for a child where I could develop my senses surrounded by this endless nature.

A drawing Jerome did last year

At 11, when my parents get divorced, we moved to the south of France, in Nice. It really strengthened the bonds with my Mediterranean origins and has had a strong influence on my personality. I was a very creative teenager and I spent hours and hours drawing with my twin brother. It really was a way of escaping and forgetting all the rest around us.

During high school I had to pick a choice of study orientation. I was dreaming about a creative school where I could learn more about drawing and the arts. The fact is that I would have had to leave home to do it. It made my head spin and I felt too young to take the plunge. So I finally chose a safer option and studied a science so not close any doors for the future.

As Nice is geographically close to Grasse, I thought that specializing in chemistry would be a good idea. I could end up working in laboratories in search of new olfactive compounds for the world of perfumes or flavors. I really didn’t know anything about the perfumery world…During summer holidays I was trying to find an internship in a company in Grasse, but the doors of the historical city of perfumes doesn’t open that easily…

The ISIPICA brochure Jerome kept

It was only during my second year of university of Chemistry that by chance I discovered that a school dedicated to the creation of perfumes existed. That day I was waiting for a meeting with the person in charge of helping students finding the appropriate formation after their degree. As the lady was a bit late, I started having a look at a stack of brochures promoting various schools. And here it was, ISIPCA, the renowned school founded by the Guerlain family. Of course, it would be the perfect way to finally bring my university studies and my creative aspirations together. When the lady finally arrived, she asked me “how can I help you?” I spontaneously answer “Actually Nothing, I found it Already!”.

This day I brought back home an ISIPCA brochure and a bag full of dreams!

ISIPCA (photo Jerome di Marino of Takasgo)

2 years later I was there, sitting on a chair beside of 20 other students, starting the most exciting course of my life. The school was really something (Isabelle Doyen made it very special to me, and many other students), but I made my real first step into the world of perfumery when I spent my first day of internship at Givaudan in Paris. What a thrill!! That’s where I met Natalie Cetto who was about to become my “fairy god mother” of perfumery. There could not have been any better way to be introduced to the fragrance world than by her side. She was so patient with me and she generously shared her time and her vision: the raw materials, the creative process, but also a lot of life’s tips to survive into the Parisian’s urban jungle! It was kind of magic for the young trainee perfumer that I was at the time. I use to say that I felt like a kid in the middle of a candy shop. I still see myself exploring the infinite stairs of raw materials that I was furiously curious to discover, smelling again and again each and every of them to memorize it.

I spent two years near to Natalie focusing on the learning of the raw materials and the understanding of the most iconic fragrances of the market. As I was enjoying what seemed to be a fantasy, the real world was shaken by the bank crisis of 2008. My “perfumer” dream seemed to fade away as I could not enter the Givaudan’s perfumery school. It was my very the first lesson of the resilience. I started looking for opportunities into another company, like many other young aspiring perfumers on the market…Until something unexpected crossed my path…

Back in the Days with Francoise Donche

Like almost all the brands now, Givenchy had an evaluator who was internally working beside of the marketing team for years. I had the opportunity to join the brand and thought that an experience on the over side would be a good learning, and it was, far more than I imagined! As I was recently out from school, Francoise Donche would accompany me in my new mission. And what a extravagant personality! In a way she was the memory of the house, she knew Hubert de Givenchy , Alexander McQueen and John Galliano when they took the artistic direction of the fashion house. She was such a storyteller (she named herself the “Olfactologue” of the brand) and she taught me a lot about the marketing vision of a brand. She shared stories about the good old days when “people were taking their time to make the things right. And everybody was waiting almost 10 years for the new fragrance launch of a fashion house…”

I started in a very exciting time when the brand was starting a brief for a new masculine pillar. And my mission was to help the marketing into the evaluation of the submissions of all the fragrance houses running for the competition to win it. I have learnt a lot about the brand side of a fragrance development, the three- and five-years marketing plans, the coordination with the production site, the extension lines…In the way I was taking part of the creation of the fragrances but I had the sensation of never being completely part of it. Something was missing and I knew that I needed to go back to a fragrance house.

 

Francis Kurkdjian was Jerome’s mentor

Givenchy gave me the chance to meet a lot of people within all the fragrance houses. When I left Givenchy, Takasago offered me to participate into a recruitment process for trainee perfumer. I did various interviews and “olfactive tests” at the production site. It quickly led me to the last step of the process which was to meet with Francis Kurkdjian. That was a very exciting and promising encounter for a young perfumer…!! A conversation about fragrances, art, fashion and food…

Takasago called me back few days later with the best good news ever: I will be one of the next trainee perfumers and Francis would be my mentor. I was I heaven! We then started my training from a blank page. From the accords made of few raw materials to the study of pillars of perfumery, from N°5 to La vie est belle. The young perfumer has to understand how each success has been built and thought, just like Picasso did with the great masters of painting.

It is true that the perfumer’s path can be long and lonely. I spent two years far from the projects and focusing on my training…until one day Francis Kurkdjian came to me, with a smile on his face, and proudly said “Jérôme, the time has come, I think you are ready to start on a project”.  A project, finally. That was in a way the final test of my training and the official beginning as a Junior perfumer.  Will I be creative enough? Do I have the technical skills to make it? How will the marketing team of the brand receive my first creation?

Jerome receiving the Fragrance Foundation France award with the L’Oréal team 2016

This project was for L’Oréal on Daniel Hechter brand. They wanted to launch their first Eau de Parfum. It was my very first creation for a brand. I worked on an aromatic ambery fragrance with a touch of spices, vanilla and labdanum, some of my favorite raw materials, and the ones I felt more comfortable to work with. The marketing team validated quite quickly the fragrance. And what a surprise when a year later the Black EDP won a French fifi award!

Jerome di Marino at the French Vanity Fair event for the “30 under 30”

Since Daniel Hechter I worked under Francis’ advice on Carven l’Absolu and Carven l’Eau Intense. And I started creating fragrances on my own with l’Eau Sezane and Elie Saab in White. But that’s when I also began to understand how competitive the fragrance world was, with the first “finals” on projects for Kenzo or Burberry.

Jerome di Marino at Launch of Carven L’Eau Intense

Francis shared with me his his vision and his knowledge about formulas and creation of course. But also, about how to deal with the competition and the failures, how to communicate or convince on a project…about the skills that a perfumer needs today on social media, for a press launch, for a journalist interview or nothing more than for a presentation of his creations to a marketing team.

Jerome holding a Jasmine Flower in a Temple during a trip to Sri Lanka

I consider myself a wanderer. I love traveling and discovering different cultures. It is one of my main source of inspiration. Some of my favorite raw materials are tonka bean, cistus labdanum, almond bitter, vanilla pod, hot spice, everlasting flower. I am still learning a lot every day on my own.

But at the end of the day what I enjoy the most is that no matter what, the creation of a fragrance is always a human adventure.–Jerome di Marino, Perfumer at Takasago

 

Fragrances by Jerome di Marino of Takasago

Adopt: Peach Me –  Adolfo Dominguez: Nude Musk, Terracotta Musk– Agatha: Balade aux Tuileries – Amouroud: Lunar Vetiver – Armand Basi: L’Eau pour Homme Woody Musk (duo with Aurélien Guichard) – Blumarine: Mon Petit Chou – Burberry: Mr Burberry Element, Her Blossom (duo with Francis Kurkdjian), Her London Dream – Burberry Signatures : Windsor Tonic- Carven: Paris Tanger, Carven L’Eau Intense (duo with  Francis Kurkdjian), Carven L’Absolu (duo with Francis Kurkdjian), Carven pour Homme EDP – Davidoff: Aquaman For Him, Aquaman For Her, Cool Water Street Fighter Edition For Him & For Her – Daniel Hechter: Black (duo with Francis Kurkdjian), Signature Hechter Malt Cuiré – Dunhill Signature Collection: Valensole Lavender – Elie Saab: Le Parfum In White – Emanuel Ungaro: For Her 2019, Intense for Him – Galleria Parfums: Moving Times (duo with Francis Kurkdjian) – Jesus del Pozo: Halloween Blossom – Judith Leiber: More Is More! – More Spice! – Kenzo: Kenzo World Power EDP & EDT, Memori Soleil Thé – Le Couvent : Lysandra – Mango: La Fiesta, Hédonisme, Près du Soleil, Giornata Perfetta, Bodrum N°3, Mémoires de la Méditerrannée – Masaki: J-Mat, Matsu Sunshine, Mat; Homme – MCM: Orris, Incense, White Tea – Molton Brown: Neon Amber, Suede Orris – Morgan: Black by Morgan, Red by Morgan, White by Morgan – Navitus Parfums (duos with Francis Kurkdjian): Exalt Nuit, Eidola, Soleil Matin, Empyreal – Paco Rabanne: Pacollection Dandy Me (duo with Aurélien Guichard) – Panouge: Perle Rare Intense (duo with Francis Kurkdjian) – Pedro del Hierro: Pedro del Hierro, PDH Eau Fraîche, PDH Intense, PDH Le Parfum, PDH  Peonia, PDH Hibiscus – Pepe Jeans: Pepe Jeans London For Him, Celebrate, London Calling – Première Note: Ambre Kashmir, Aura Tonka, Himalayan Oud, Tasman Santal – Scorpio: Noir Absolu EDP – Sézane: L’Eau Sézane – Ted Lapidus: Orissima Divine – Une Nuit Nomade: Jardins de Misfah, Ambre Khandjar, Sun Bleached – William Hunt: Oud de Parfum – Women Secret: Intimate, Intimate Daydream

all photos supplied by Jerome di Marino©

In Support of Jerome di Marino

photo Navitus Parfums

Thanks to the generosity of Navitus Parfums we have a draw 100 ml Empyreal  (2021) which was composed by Jerome di Marino and Francis Kukjdian (Creative Director is our own  Video Editor Steven Gavrielatos) in the EU, USA and Canada for a registered reader. YOU MUST REGISTER TO ENTER. To be eligible please leave a comment with what you found fascinating about Jerome di Marino of Takasgo, his path to perfumery, if you are familiar with any of the perfumes he signed, and what inspired you !!! Draw closes June 24, 2022

AS OF NOVEMBER 2022, Jérôme has joined MANE

Follow us on Instagram @cafleurebonofficial  @jeromedimarino @navitusparfums

This is our Privacy and Draw Rules Policy

We announce the winners only on site and on our Facebook page, so Like ÇaFleureBon and use our blog feed … or your dream prize will be just spilled perfume.