Three eras, one scandalous ingredient.

Enter the time-travelling universe crafted by perfumer Margaux Le Paih Guerin for Sarah Baker. This triple-feature epic takes us from the Wild West past of Velvet Vendetta, to the sumptuous ice-cream-cocktail present of Va Va Vanilla, through to the futuristic sci-fi world of newly released Year XOXO. This is vanilla, but not as you know it.

Fragrance expert Nicola Thomis, got into a Q and A with Margaux to discuss how she made vanilla unexpected, audacious and utterly thrilling, across three very different scenes. 

Three fragrances focused around vanilla, but each must have a very different character. How did you feel when you got the briefs for these scents? 

Margaux: This trilogy marks my first collaboration with Sarah. I had been fascinated by the brand for a long time, with its bold, sensual and slightly crazy universe. I love the stories behind it and Sarah’s creative world. It was an honor to receive these briefs, and always exciting to work with a brand you genuinely love!

Sarah Baker Perfumes are known for being cinematic and sumptuous. How did you manage to convey that sense of drama in the three fragrances? 

Margaux: I brought vanilla into Sarah’s subversive world through overdoses and unexpected combinations: gunpowder, a Manhattan cocktail, and the forbidden pairing of apple and vanilla. I had to rethink vanilla, not as a warm, rounded amber base, but as a skeleton to be dressed up in unexpected ways.

In the vanilla trilogy, we explore a place as it moves through time, from the past, to the present and then onwards to an imagined future. Which of these settings did you find it easiest to imagine yourself in?

Margaux: I can most easily picture myself in the world of Va Va Vanilla as it is today. A dimly lit, intimate space, almost like a speakeasy, where I’d be sipping a Manhattan. I had the chance to have one with Sarah in New York last year, and I think that moment was truly magical. It helped me to finalized the perfume.

The perfumer’s organ has many different types of vanilla within it. Can you talk us through which specific types you focused on for each of the three compositions?

Margaux: The common thread running through the trilogy is the Forbidden Vanilla infusion. This is a boozy and complex vanilla that brings sensuality to the base of the fragrances. In Velvet Vendetta, I also used a black vanilla from Madagascar, which enhances the tobacco and gives it a more animalic effect. Finally, across each fragrance in the trilogy, I played with different synthetic vanilla notes to shape and sculpt the natural vanilla exactly the way I wanted.

Could you tell us a little about the farming practices and sustainability of the vanilla you used?

Margaux: Forbidden Vanilla is based on a special type of vanilla plant, imported from Mexico and planted in Réunion, Madagascar, and the Comoros. The supplier for the Forbidden Vanilla, Behave, developed a special extraction process which it then shared with the association Parfumeurs sans Frontières to help the communities of Nosy Komba (an island off Madagascar) increase their income through selling a finished product rather than unprocessed black pods.

After trying several alcohols, the community decided to macerate the vanilla pods in rum. Rum in Madagascar is associated with the colonial period during which enslaved people were exchanged for rum, and it served as a form of currency. Malagasy people were gradually pushed away from the production of this rum as it became a significant economic asset. In 1895, the French colonial authorities introduced licences, quotas, taxes, and sometimes restrictions on artisanal distillation in order to control tax revenues, protect French producers, and regulate local production — going so far as to ban indigenous distilleries which they deemed as dangerous.

By reclaiming this very special rum, the community wished to acknowledge this past and restore its history and origin, using it through the green vanilla process generously shared by Behave. 

Did the vanillas you use give you any unexpected surprises when you were working on the compositions?

Margaux: I loved seeing the different facets the vanillas revealed when they were combined with the other notes in each fragrance. It was almost as if the natural material transformed itself to blend with the rest of the composition and make everything work together.

How did you ensure that the fragrances were not overpowered by the vanillas you selected? 

Margaux: It’s all about dosage and combinations. You can’t just look at how much of a material is used in a fragrance, you also have to consider what other materials it is combined with. Sometimes it takes several trials to find the balance you’re looking for.

If someone were to smell each of the three fragrances blind, without knowing that vanilla is the central character in them all, what emotions do you think they would pick up on for each scent?

Margaux: Velvet Vendetta would represent obsession, Va Va Vanilla would be sensuality, and Year XOXO would be euphoria. 

What subtle facets or nuances - aside from the vanilla - would you like people to take notice of when they smell the fragrances?

Margaux: For Velvet Vendetta, I’d like people to pick up on that desert atmosphere, with the gunpowder and tobacco. For Va Va Vanilla, I’d love them to get the boozy, cherry-like character of a Manhattan. And for Year XOXO, I hope they notice the lightness of the vanilla, which is something I hope will surprise them.

Is vanilla an easy ingredient or a hard one to work with? Why is that?

Margaux: Vanilla can be easy to work with because it pairs so well with so many different notes, but it’s actually quite complex when you want to create something surprising and new. You have to be inventive.

The three fragrances are available now, both as individual scents and also as a trilogy mini set.