Smelling the triumph of being a niche perfumer

PNS | Hyderabad

Perfume masks your body odour and helps you smell better, making it easier for others to be around you and have a good conversation with you. And, in regard to this, we bring to you the journey of Dimple Fouzdar, founder of Maison de Fouzdar, India’s first and only niche perfumer, who is changing the dynamics of the perfume industry. What caught our attention about this perfumer is that she blended Indian elements with French elements, something nobody has done.

One of the most important aspects of our day-to-day lives is to smell good. Be it a party, a date, or a formal event, we all need that one life-saving perfume that would rejuvenate our body odour and make us feel confident when we present ourselves in front of a crowd.

An evening with strangers is a lot better when one smells good. It makes for a nice conversation when someone says, “May I know which perfume you use?” Also, we would definitely not want to smell bad, right?

Forget being an actor or a musician; being a perfumer in our society is way more unconventional than anything else. Today, we have with us Dimple Fouzdar, a super successful perfumer and founder of Maison de Fouzdar, India’s first and only niche perfumer.

For Dimple, the obsession with fragrances had begun even since her childhood. “My parents were perfume collectors, and the whole day, I would just keep smelling and playing with them. All my childhood memories are attached to fragrances. Every memory from my childhood, and even my adolescence, is associated with fragrance. When I was in college, I did want to do something, but back then, I used to live in Calcutta, and in those days, India didn’t even make any perfumes. I started doing other things in life, and now I felt the time was right. I would make some blends of my own and use them myself or give them to my friends and family, and they used to be crazy about it. I was like, “Now it’s time that I make a business out of it.” All of a sudden, there was this movement in the country, but I didn’t want to be one of them. I wanted to do something exclusive and luxurious. I wanted to give India what no other person has done in terms of going global. My brand was made with the intention of going global,” shared the perfumer.

When we asked Fouzdar about the unique selling proposition of Maison de Fouzdar, she enthused, “I blend very unique Indian elements with French elements. This is something nobody has done. They either do completely Indian or Western fragrances, or they do very generic fragrances. When someone tries my fragrance, they will know instantly that it’s just leaking luxury. All of the blends are natural and of the highest and best quality. In India, other brands are all doing synthetic stuff, while my brand is all natural and of the highest quality. I use these expensive oils. However, my margins are not high. In general, people use 900 rupees per kilogramme or 2000 rupees per kilogramme of oil.

My oils cost around 68,000 rupees/kg. I make Santal Safran and Oud Safran, and a kilo of that Safran costs around Rs. 8 lakh. That’s the level of quality, and when someone tries my fragrances, they can tell. The stores in these big fancy malls had this policy of not keeping any Indian brand, but when they tried my fragrances, they were like, “You know what? We have to give this a spot.” I do amazing sales, and I’m alongside the likes of Roja and Creed. These are the most coveted niche brands, and it makes me happy to say that we’re placed right next to them.”

The niche perfumer says people think wearing perfume is the last step to getting ready. It is not just mindlessly spraying across the body, but there is so much art and craft that goes into it. She really wants people to be more mindful when they use their perfumes the next time.

There are a lot of manufacturers who sell sets of fragrances for men and women. Did you know that Maison de Fouzdar doesn’t differentiate between genders? Here, the entrepreneur educates us about the topic, “Only designer fragrances have made them gender specific, but in actual perfumery, there is no gender.” In niche perfumery, for the most part, the fragrances are gender-fluid, and all my fragrances are gender-fluid.

Nowadays, that distinction is just not there anymore. The aficionados would like to believe that all fragrances should be equally loved by men and women. “As a subject, there is never any gender in perfumery.”

We were curious about Dimple’s top three Maison de Fouzdar picks, and they were Santan Safran launched in March. “I can proudly say that nobody has ever done a sandalwood fragrance better than me. Anyone who likes sandalwood will love this,” she said. Next is the Oud Safran; Iranian Safran is mixed with Oud, and this is the sweet Cambodian Oud, followed by Oud Imperial. This one is a beautiful blend of white oud and musk. Men and women love them equally for their unique scent.

One of the goals of the founder is to create a platform for people to explore the art of perfumery, thereby encouraging more youngsters to take up perfumery as a career option.