KNOWN for her use of ingredients that are exceptional, unusual, and often exotic (hemlock anybody?), Linda Pilkington founded the Ormonde Jayne luxury fragrance brand in 2000. Cheshire-born Pilkington is an instinctive entrepreneur who has travelled widely, living abroad for 14 years in South America, Africa and the Far East before setting up Ormonde Jayne in London. Her travels inform her range, such as her Four Corners of the Earth collection which includes Montabaco evoking Latin America, Nawab of Oudh (India), Tsarina (the opulence and drama of Russia) and, inspired by China, Qi, a very light and delicate scent.
Linda Pilkington the founder of Ormonde Jayne
All Ormonde Jayne’s perfumes and scented candles are produced in her own state-of-the-art studios in Regents Park, every aspect of which, from the bottles to the packaging, is of the highest quality. Now distributed widely across Europe, Asia and the US, the demand for Pilkington’s exquisite refined perfumes continues to grow, as does her business; but on her own terms. “I have been doing this for 18 years and I’m growing slow and steady. Slow and steady wins the race,” as she tells me when Glass recently caught up with her in Ormonde Jayne’s recently refurbished bijou Bond Street boutique.
Ormonde Jayne, Four Corners Collection
What would you say the Ormonde Jayne style is?
First of all, that we always try to use unusual ingredients; we pour at a very high percentage; and every perfume has a basic accord in each fragrance which is the house signature. The reason that’s in there is that it opens up the perfume and allows it to breathe. Consequently, you get a perfume where you can smell all the ingredients coming in, one by one. So even if a perfume is quite a heavy formulation, what you’re going to get is actually a complex perfume with all the smells coming through one by one. I’d say our perfumes breathe.
What is your creative process?
First of all, I would be very mindful of what people are asking for and of what I think is missing from our collection. In my mind, I will already have a fairly good idea of how I want it to smell. Not completely – I have actually changed track, occasionally – but when I’ve got an idea, more or less, then I will be thinking about ingredients. I would take advice because of the IFRA (International Fragrance Association) because nowadays the whole process is very different. You have to check ingredients against their regulations to make sure they are safe to use.
Eighteen years ago, you could put something out in the market without doing this but now you have to go through a very long process while you’re making it. However, ultimately we will make between one and four samples – some with different amounts of perfume of the main basic accord and different concentration levels. And from that we would pick one and work with it. Following this, perhaps, we put in a different top note on three or four of them and finally we would pick one. Concentrating on the base note, so you’re sort of going up and if you get to the point where you don’t actually care for the perfume too much, you just go back one level. You don’t have to go back to the very beginning.
Four Corners collection in Intensivo formulation (50ml)
Have you got a favourite ingredient to work with?
My all-time favourite number one is pink pepper. I love it so much I used to have a little tin in my fridge door, so I could just smell it and then put it back.
What are the biggest challenges you face as a perfumer?
I think the market is really saturated. Every year there are 20 to 50 new brands popping up. The challenges at the moment are being able to keep all of your market share, which I’m doing very well, and we are growing. But when I talk to the perfume buyers in stores, they tell me that they receive 50 to 80 bottles of perfume every week. You can imagine how much space they have got. Luckily because we have been around for a while and people know Ormonde Jayne, they appreciate we’ve got the longevity as a brand.
Ormonde Jayne boutique in Royal Arcade, Mayfair
What plans do you have for Ormonde Jayne?
We’ve just redesigned our shop. The reason behind this is that we have this extraordinary, massive rent increase on Old Bond Street. It is now officially one of the most expensive shopping roads in the world. We are quite proud to be at 28 Old Bond Street and I didn’t want to move out, so I took it upon myself that I was going to put money back in and decided to reinvest and reinvigorate. So, we changed the perfume packaging to a very expensive orange linen. And for the shop, we want to make it modern and innovative; we want to create a fantastic retail experience. We introduced my made-to-measure service in the basement here, so clients can buy customised higher percentage formulations of my fragrances.
Tell me about your one of your most recent perfumes True Love?
True Love was the end of the Love Trilogy, which was exclusive to Moscow, and it is the nicest out of the three, in my opinion. It’s quite rich on rose and iris, so it has a lovely accord. It breathes. It is very, very, beautiful and has been very well received.
What new launches are you planning or new regions are you going to be in?
We are now available in Hong Kong and I am also releasing a new line of hair fragrances in some of our most popular scents Ta’if, Ambre Royal, Osmanthus and Montabaco so you can perfume your hair throughout the day.
By Caroline Simpson
Ormonde Jayne, Royal Arcade, Old Bond Street, London
Ormonde Jayne is now available at Parfumerie Trésor, 18 Upper Station Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
Linda is hosting perfume workshops at Parfumerie Trésor, Hong Kong, until May 18.
Booking details here:
To book a session please email: info@parfumerietresor.com or call: 2711 5922
[…] retain a very individual niche style; the emphasis is innovation and personal taste,” says Linda Pilkington, who founded the cult perfume line in […]