Discover Étoile d'Une Nuit with Perfumers Camille Goutal & Isabelle Doyen

As music hums in the background, a young Parisian woman touches up her make-up from a soft leather make-up bag. Dressed in a silk slip, she sweeps powder across her brow, and applies a striking rouge to her lips. She finishes the look with a beautiful silk scarf, tied softly around her neck. And anticipation grows for an amazing night ahead... This April, masters of fragrance [Goutal](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/brands/goutal), introduce a brand new star of the night, Étoile d’Une Nuit. Drawing on memories of evenings spent in Paris, the elegant, youthful fragrance combines soft powdery notes with hints of the sensual, and a gentle undertone of leather. To mark the new fragrance launching on fenwick.co.uk, we chatted to Goutal's wonderfully warm and unashamably funny perfumer, Camille Goutal, daughter of legendary founder Annick Goutal, and Goutal's longtime in-house perfumer, Isabelle Doyen.

##### What makes a great fragrance, and how do you know if it’s the perfect scent for you? **CG:** "A great fragrance is one that is perfect for you. Like a little black dress, it has to fit perfectly. It has to make you feel something, like a boyfriend you can’t live without. It’s also a fragrance that everyone remembers... like those mythical fragrances that are in everybody’s mind even 50 years later. What makes them special? I don’t really know. That’s the mystery of fragrance, you never know what is going to be the perfect fragrance." ##### What inspires you when you’re creating a scent? **CG:** "It’s really from our everyday life, which we try to make very rich. We try to fill our minds with paintings, exhibitions, travelling - we're always doing something. Also, I think it’s because we want to have beautiful things in our minds. The world nowadays is so tough for everyone, that we need it to be filled with lovely things. That was something when I was younger that annoyed me a bit. My mother always wanted everything to be perfect, and I was like, 'ahh you’re so boring! I’m fed up with perfection - just be who you want to be.' And then when I grew up, I realised it was because she was so ill, she needed to have this. It wasn't perfection she was looking for, it was just beauty... to make life softer, and more beautiful. Now, this is something we're looking for, and want to share." ##### For someone who hasn’t tried Goutal fragrances before, where is a good place to start? **CG:** "Well first, of course, [Eau d’Hadrien](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/eau-dhadrien-eau-de-parfum-100-ml/2530004613077.html) and Petite Chérie are the ones we tend to suggest for new customers, because the DNA of the brand is within those fragrances. They're tender, delicate and fresh. There is a feeling of natural ingredients you can see in Eau d’Hadrien with the citrus notes or with the rose in Petite Chérie, but they are also…" **ID:** "Timeless." **CG:** "Yes, timeless. I think also [[Étoile d’Une Nuit](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/etoile-dune-nuit-eau-de-parfum-100ml/2530010224984.html)] is very interesting because it has a link between the traditional know-how of the brand and is something a little more modern. I know some people have an image of the brand that is a bit, perhaps, old-fashioned is too strong. But I think [Ètoile d’Une Nuit] is a good balance between the two." ##### Who has inspired your fragrances? **CG:** "There’s three different types of women. For [Tenue du Soirée](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/tenue-de-soiree-eau-de-parfum-50-ml/2530000596244.html), she would be the woman that enters a room and everyone looks at her, sees her, and you can smell her fragrance arriving before she does. Sometimes she’s a bit too much, but in a nice way. For [Nuit et Confidences](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/nuit-et-confidences-eau-de-parfum-100-ml/2530001239553.html) she would be a young woman, going out and having fun." **ID:** "Not worrying about anything." **CG:** "This fragrance for us is a bit sparkly, it reminds us of drinking champagne. She’s carefree. She’s partying and she has this scent that's cute and younger. And [Étoile d’Une Nuit](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/etoile-dune-nuit-eau-de-parfum-100ml/2530010224984.html) would be for a woman who is not more elegant, but more classical. Reserved. We love movies from the 50s, and she would be more like that kind of lady. Very chic." **ID:** "Just like Grace Kelly." ##### Is there a particular fragrance you have an emotional connection to? For me, a certain scent reminds me of my mother or an old love. Is there one that stands out for you? **CG:** "Ce Soir Ou Jamais was created by Isabelle and my mother, I think [my mother] had been wearing it for so long, there was always this kind of aura when she walked into a room because she was trying the fragrance all the time. When she was in the hospital, Isabelle was still working on the formula, bringing all the new trials to her, so even the room smelled of it." ##### Camille, you didn’t begin your career as a perfumer. Is this something that came naturally? **CG:** "I think what I hadn’t realised is that I could imagine fragrances in my mind. I'd never thought about being a perfumer until my mother died and I started to work with Isabelle. I didn’t know how to create a formula. I'd never learned, but I was used to smelling everything. Since I was five I was smelling all my mother’s trials, and Isabelle’s as well." **ID:** "She had to go through the lab to go to her house. We would wait with blotters and say, 'Camille, what do you think about this?'" **CG:** "When I started to work with Isabelle, she gave me her formulas, and I was putting them in the bottle and smelling everything to learn the ingredients. Then I could see that when I was smelling something very heavy, it was a certain type of ingredient. Or when it was rose, it was another type of ingredient." ##### How do you work together through the process now? **ID:** "Either one of us has an idea, and begins to work on the formula to make the idea come true. Sometimes it’s fast and we can put it in the bottle very quickly, which is unusual, because we're perfectionists. Sometimes it takes longer, and sometimes in the middle, we cannot work on it anymore. We're fed up and we say to the other one, 'Oh please! I give you the baby and please go with it, I cannot stand it anymore.' _[laughs]_ So the other one works on it to the end." **CG:** "But we smell everything together." **ID:** "The collaboration is on the evaluation of each trial and each step." **CG:** "It’s just more convenient, we couldn’t work on the same formula at the same time, as we'd make mistakes. It would be a mess!" **ID:** "What people maybe don’t know, is that we have no assistants. We write and weigh all of our formulas ourselves, so it would be complicated if we worked on the same idea at the same time."

##### Is there a story behind the distinctive packaging of the fragrances? **CG:** "Yes, [Tenue du Soirée](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/tenue-de-soiree-eau-de-parfum-50-ml/2530000596244.html) is for a woman you remember. She’s wearing a faux fur scarf. Whilst the other, [Nuit et Confidences](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/nuit-et-confidences-eau-de-parfum-100-ml/2530001239553.html), is for the dancer, so her clothes are flowing. As Isabelle said, for [Étoile d’Une Nuit](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/etoile-dune-nuit-eau-de-parfum-100ml/2530010224984.html), we were thinking about Grace Kelly, it reminds me of her silk scarves in the movies." ##### Describe the new fragrance, Étoile d’Une Nuit, in three words? **CG:** "I’d say powdery, because it has a make-up scent." **ID:** "Elegant." **CG:** "Yes, elegant and like a second-skin. We say Petite Chérie is the perfume you want to kiss. And this one, for me, it’s like the one you want to nest in, and nuzzle it." ##### Do you have a favourite from the new collection? **CG:** "I love [Étoile d’Une Nuit](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/etoile-dune-nuit-eau-de-parfum-100ml/2530010224984.html), but it’s very personal. [Tenue du Soirée](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/tenue-de-soiree-eau-de-parfum-50-ml/2530000596244.html) is very nice, but a bit too sugary for me. Fortunately, we don’t create fragrances only for ourselves! [Nuit et Confidences](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/nuit-et-confidences-eau-de-parfum-100-ml/2530001239553.html) reminds of Petite Chérie, it’s a very happy fragrance, and so reminds me of a young woman. My daughter is 20, Isabelle’s daughter is 18, and my other daughter is 17 so..." **ID:** "They like this one... after Petite Chérie." **CG:** "I prefer [Étoile d’Une Nuit](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/etoile-dune-nuit-eau-de-parfum-100ml/2530010224984.html). It’s more the image I have of this woman. Also it has these hidden, woody notes that I like." ##### Petite Chérie, of course, is inspired by you? Is it your fragrance? **CG:** "I love Petite Chérie of course. I always say it’s like my little sister, because now I’m 44\. I love it. I love smelling it on my friends, but it’s too fruity for me. I love notes that are darker, and a bit more mysterious. I created [Songes](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/songes-eau-de-toilette-100-ml/2530004613466.html) with Isabelle 10 years ago now, which is made of white flowers and spices, it’s really good, I love wearing it. I created it for myself. It’s more me." ##### What's next for Goutal? **CG:** "We are working on a fourth fragrance, and also on a new secret project for next year. We also have limited editions of [Eau d’Hadrien](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/eau-dhadrien-eau-de-parfum-100-ml/2530004613077.html) and Petite Chérie launching in new colours. Wait and see!"

_Goutal Étoile d'Une Nuit Eau de Parfum [50ml](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/beauty/fragrance/womens-fragrances/etoile-dune-nuit-eau-de-parfum-50ml/2530010221228.html), £89 and [100ml](https://www.fenwick.co.uk/brands/goutal/beauty/fragrance/etoile-dune-nuit-eau-de-parfum-100ml/2530010224984.html?cgid=goutal-beauty-fragrance#sc=0&start=2), £132_