SMOKY SOUL Tuul & Bruno Morandi
SMOKY SOUL
THE SOUL OF TEAS
With Smoky Soul, Olfactive Studio debuts the first extrait de parfum of its new trilo-gy inspired by world teas in the Sepia collection. The next two creations in the works will take us to other continents and traditions of tea sharing.
Spearheaded by perfumer Marc-Antoine Corticchiato, a graceful creator and a lover of beautiful natural materials, the collaboration will blossom around tea, this plant graced with fragrant leaves and subtle and aromatic facets. For this future new trip-tych, the beautiful radiance of the shot also gives way to a softer temporal scent rich in emotions and soulful.
In the first act, Smoky Soul captures the soul of a smoked black tea, giving it vo-luptuousness and presence. This photograph of a landscape in the Fujian region of China, where tea growing is a tradition and a pride, transports us into a moment of eternity and contemplative heights. Smoky Soul captures this weightless moment and the gracefulness of the materials: black tea, smoked with the essence of Java vetiver, infused with Osmanthus absolute, and tempered by an essence of patchou-li.ß
Osmanthus is a traditional Chinese flower sometimes used to flavor tea: in Fujian, its fresh flowers are spread onto a precious tea to enhance its be-witching flavor. Osmanthus is also a bold flower that has been used as a top and heart note in perfumes since the "1000" perfume by Jean Patou: its smell is at once floral, fruity with apricot notes, and leathery.
PerfumerMARC-ANTOINE CORTICCHIATO
Marc-Antoine Corticchiato is a discriminating designer whose perfumes reveal an intense and often carnal scent. He is also a scientist who defended his doctoral the-sis on a new technique for analyzing perfume plant extracts to understand how a plant produces its scent and emits different fragrances depending on its flowering cycle. He is passionate about the most noble natural raw materials and their history in different cultures.
Of Corsican origin, Marc-Antoine Corticchiato was born in Morocco where he grew up between his parents' land - among their citrus crops - and the Corsican scrub-land, at the family home in the village of Cuttoli Corticchiato. After his doctorate, he completed his training at the famous Versailles International School of Perfumery (ISIPCA).
Marc-Antoine began his professional activity at a research laboratory specializing in the analysis of perfume plants and their extraction methods. For years, he "dissect-ed" natural raw materials, acquiring an intimate knowledge of them in the process. His work is published in international research journals. He worked on his first crea-tions in aromatherapy, learning to take into account the therapeutic and olfactory aspects of scents. Very selective in his choices of natural plant extracts, he set up an essential oil production plant in Madagascar.
After several years in research, he joined a perfume creation laboratory in Paris, where he was finally able to give free rein to his creativity, before founding his own brand, Parfum d'Empire, and continuing to create perfumes for other brands that inspire him.
PhotographerTUUL & BRUNO MORANDI
Tuul and Bruno Morandi are nomadic photographers: one was born in the steppes, the other by the sea. Despite the thousands of kilometers that separated them, the encounter did take place, and for the past sixteen years, these two photographers have shared their lives and their passion.
After growing up in the Mongolian steppes and living a nomadic childhood, Tuul went to Paris to pursue a master's degree in farming and developed a passion for graphic art and photography in the process. She was a finalist in the 2005 Grand Prix Photo-reportage.
Trained as an architect, Bruno spent every summer in his father's native Tuscany. It is easy to imagine that the hills where light was always part of the landscape, have informed the way he looks at things and love for travel. It was at the age of 18 during a trip to the Himalayas, that he began to develop a passion for photography.
The traveling couple set out to crisscross the ancestral tea routes from the far reaches of China and Mongolia to Japan, before traveling to India and Ceylon, then Turkey, the Sahara and Kenya. They recently published a book of magnificent pictures for tea and travel enthusiasts, "Les routes du thé".