Yesterday evening was the opening of Jovoy Parfums Rares in Paris at Rue de Castiglione 4, one of the most prestigious locations an exclusive perfumery could have. One finds the store only metres from the famous place Vendome, the Ritz Hotel and many other of the world’s leading luxury brands. François Henin is the owner and mastermind behind it and yesterday evening he spent most of his time in front of the store welcoming the many guests that came from all over Europe with his usual friendliness.

The interior of the spacious store is dominated by a beautiful shade of red that is both modern, warm and inviting. The rustic wooden floor and cabinets – complemented by modern architecture – add further to the warm feeling of the store.

We were very pleased to see that Puredistance was given a special place, so customers can see and sample our Perfumes in the right setting, guided by the right people. We hope François will enjoy great success in Parfums Rares; he deserves it, his project is a beautiful and daring initiative.

Late december 2011 we organised the first Puredistance Event in Shanghai in the Langham Xintiandi Hotel. Jiaqi Zhang represented Puredistance and explained to a select group of perfume enthusiasts the story of Puredistance.

The evening turned out to be a great success. We like to thank the Langham Hotel for their fantastic support, Jiaqi for the professional and personal way he organised the event and last but not least a big thank you to all people that attented the event and gave us so much positive feedback!

As of now Puredistance is not yet available in China. We are in the process of finding the right partners that understand our philosophy of true exclusivity and great personal service. More Puredistance Events will be organised in China this year. This way we start spreading the story of Puredistance in small circles and for the true Perfume Lovers in China we offer a great opportunity to get directly in touch with one of the most exclusive Perfume Brands worldwide. As always we won’t rush to enter the market, but will go step by step and end up with the right people who understand the beauty of our brand.

Simone Shitrit from + Q Perfume Blog voted Puredistance best niche perfumery brand. In this article she writes:

“It is not a secret that when it comes to the notion of what is chic and hip, this blogger has exhaustedly repeated that “less is more”. Although I love Art Nouveau and many other aesthetic styles, I tend to feel more connect to the minimalistic ones. The sharp clean lines of Puredistance flacons reveal what is the most important concept of the scents kept inside of them: understated elegance and beauty….  Once interviewing Della Chuang, a designer who has created one of the perfume bottles that I love the most (White Patchouli EDP by Tom Ford) said something that I will never forget: ‘Simplicity seems natural, almost obvious in its final form, but getting there takes experience, talent, and patience. Design for simplicity cannot be successful unless it is supported by perfect execution. Simplicity isn’t simple.’ I couldn’t agree more to her, and that is exactly what I have found in Mr. Jan E. Vos’ brand. It took him years to transform an idea into reality, and patience led him to perfection.”

Click here to read the whole article.

Last week I visited Moscow to give some interviews to magazines. During my stay I discovered the word ‘Poshlost’ which is a complex Russian word best translated to mean false, tacky and pretentious all at the same time. Vladimir Nabokov – the famous Russian writer – made it more widely known in his book on Gogol. Poshlost, Nabokov explained, “is not only the obviously trashy but mainly the falsely important, the falsely beautiful, the falsely clever, the falsely attractive”.

Exactly what Puredistance is NOT and exactly what made me come up with the name of Puredistance in 2002. By creating an authentic brand with high quality, pure perfumes, understated elegant packaging and people that try their best to act simple, natural and honest, we keep the world of Poshlost at a distance: Puredistance.

We designed exclusive leather holders for our range of 17.5 ml Perfume sprays. It took us a long time before we found a very nice small company that still employs experienced craftsmen and delivers top quality products made with great care: Leder Reyne hand in Ghent, in Belgium. 

In the short time Puredistance M has been on the market (since December 2010) many bloggers and users have already been writing about this special fragrance. We selected some comments from M-users who expressed their thoughts on a forum on the internet.

The Beck – USA: “M opens with a nice bergamont lemon combo leading into very subtle nice carnation floral. The lemon really never goes away, constantly refreshening the carnation. The dry down is spicy, woody, resinous and balsamic with a touch of very soft leather. There is no WOW FACTOR with “M”, just a consant whisper. Listen close and you’ll fall under its spell. Is it worth the money? Absolutely, fragrances like this are rare treasures.”

MikeNY – New York: “My bottle/ vial arrived today after three weeks of waiting. With the first spray I was very let down, probably because it was not what I expected. Five minute later, my nose opened up, my mind opened up. It hit me and I was moved beyond words. This is one of the most gorgeous fragrances I have ever smelled. It’s operates at the same volume as Windsor, living up to it’s own motto of “quiet strength.”I’m lookin forward to seeing how this progresses throughout the day, but so far: stunning!”

SoGent – USA: “FINALLY received mine today on the 2nd try. A single spritz around noon & it’s still going strong.This will be / is an instant classic & just may be about as close to perfection as a perfume can reach – nothing else will surpass it.

NineXseven, New York: “Got my sample two days ago. I’m not usually one for modern niche fragrances but M is un-friggin-believable! Roja Dove has blown my mind. A bottle has been ordered (and I almost NEVER buy modern niche, especially not at full retail).

‘It’s a gnarly brew of leather and spicy notes with a not-so-subtle animalic undertone. It’s potent, it’s smooth and it’s got some serious, serious funk. One dab on my wrist – a single drop – and I was clearly smelling M a full 20 hours after application. It’s too bad they didn’t offer this in a splash as I’d prefer to dab my parfums but whatever. I’m imagining two sprays and they’ll be smelling me two towns over.’

Buzzlepuff, Central Oklahoma: “Thanks for talking up M by Pure Distance- it is quite simply a fantastic fragrance. It has the softness and depth of Invasion Barbare, but I am much more attracted to it because of the leather base. It has the complexity of many Amouage fragrances with incredible balance of ingredients. The intensity of just one spray reminds me of the best attars or mukhallats I’ve tried – M is even better. An instant classic.”

Anonymous Review at the Lucky Scent website: “When people say that M makes everything else obsolete, I am afraid that is very close to the truth. From the very first whiff till it fades away (up to 24 hours later), this is an experience of constant astonishment. And just as much – constant, giddy delight. Of course, I will still wear other favorites. But M inhabits that rarified air of very few others – Gobin Daude Nuit Desert and Guerlain Derby come to mind (in terms of quality, not scent). The price is initially off-putting, but the 18ml bottle is easily the equivalent of many 100ml edp’s. The very tiniest little drop last all day, into the night, and into the next morning. Like I said, constant astonishment. This is the real deal.”

The enthusiastic and professional Puredistance Team is fundamental for the beautiful presentation of the Master Perfume Collection. While the Perfume itself is made by Master Perfumers in London and New York, the Puredistance Perfume Sprays are assembled by hand in our main office in the Netherlands from various high quality components. Each Perfume Spray includes a hand polished, stainless steel ring with inscription that has to be manually fixed to the flacon. Then we put the cap on the flacon to see if it fits perfectly.

After that the signing of the certificates of authenticity starts; each perfume giftbox includes a certificate that is signed by hand by founder Jan Ewoud Vos. In the end every Perfume Spray is manually checked for imperfections… To finish one Puredistance Perfume giftbox is a time-consuming exercise, but we love what we do and take great pride in the end result.

In the end a company is as good as the people who work for it. Fortunately Puredistance is blessed with a very positive and enthusiastic team that enjoys trying to be the best.

Puredistance Master Perfumes can now be purchased on Cyprus exclusively at Dora Theophilou, the oldest and most prestigious perfumery on the island. Customers can sample the Master Perfume Collection in the privacy of a specially for Puredistance designed lounge; our first ‘store in a store’. Following the Puredistance philosophy that trying out a perfume ideally should take place in a peaceful setting, the Theophilou family – owners of Dora Theophilou Haute Parfumerie – created a quiet and elegant space where customers can relax and enjoy the world of Puredistance Master Perfumes. They adopted the same principles as we did when we designed the Puredistance Perfume Lounge in Vienna: to give the customer time, care and trust.

Last week we visited Bologna, Milano and Florence; three fascinating cities. We started in Bologna to meet Giovanni Padovan and Lia Lo Brutto from Antica Profumeria al Sacro Cuore a Bologna. Not only one of the most famous perfumeries in Italy, but also one of the friendliest! Lia told us that in all her life she only fell in love twice with a perfume, the second time with Puredistance I Perfume. She called it ‘a coup de foudre’.

Soon Puredistance will be available in most major cities in Italy, but as always in a very small number of carefully selected stores and in only one store per city. Puredistance is one of the few, and perhaps the only perfume house that can guarantee true exclusivity. Where we look for a maximum of 10 stores in the whole of Italy, other ‘exclusive’ niche brands can be found in 50, 100 or even more perfumeries in Italy.

It took 5 years to develop Puredistance from an idea into a reality. Then it took 3 years to find some quality perfumeries in Europe that offer the kind of personal care and enthusiasm our brand needs. And all this time we were selling only ONE scent: Puredistance 1 Perfume. And we never did any form of paid advertising. The message is clear. We move carefully – step by step.

To quote Bill Bryson from his fascinating book – a short history of nearly everything – “There is one extremely pertinent quality about life on Earth: it goes extinct. Quite regularly. For all the trouble they take to assemble and preserve themselves, species crumple and die remarkably routinely. And the more complex they get, the more quickly they appear to go extinct. Which is perhaps one reason why so much of life isn’t terribly ambitious.”

We feel the same can be true for building a business. Which doesn’t mean we are not ambitious. But our ambition is focused on keeping it simple – and beautiful. Staying small and personal. Getting the product right and find perfumeries that love our products and can tell our story. For us it is not about how much we sell. It is about the quality of the interaction with the right people. It is about making a small amount of people who really appreciate our Perfumes happy and not try to please the whole world. Keeping things small and beautiful is our way of fighting extinction!

Sometimes people think the 17.5 ml Puredistance 1 Perfume Spray is only sold in combination with the Puredistance Crystal Column. Actually 17.5 ml Puredistance Master Perfumes can also be purchased separately from the Crystal Column.

The idea is to have an elegant perfume spray that can be easily put in a handbag or suitcase, but also fits in a beautiful and rare jewel – the Puredistance Crystal Perfume Column – that can be be purchased as a highly exclusive accessory. It makes the ultimate gift and is suited for those (gift) occasions where one wishes the memory of the gift will last a lifetime. Marriage being a perfect example.

Puredistance is listed in Quintessentially Perfume; a luxurious hard-back book chronicling the development and world of perfume. Perfume lovers will love the beautifully illustrated and in-depth interviews from perfume creators; eloquent articles from perfume writers and experts, as well as a showcase chapter paying tribute to 40 world class perfume brands. The book was compiled by perfume expert, Nathalie Grainger, and Roja Dove acted as creative director. The book features profiles on a range of brands, interviews with perfumers and general perfume articles, with contributions from Chandler Burr, Josephine Fairley and more.