L’envol de cartier is a robust and contrasted eau de parfum, a unique orientaltransparent fragrance. Both strong and mellow, it is alive with freshness before becoming more rounded, inspiring and uplifting all who experience it. Its bottle is unique, in that it is a capsule contained within a detachable glass dome and can be carried independently.

What was your first inspiration for L’Envol de Cartier?

I wanted to work around mead, which was the ambrosia of the gods — a honey-based wine giving them immortality. My inspirations have always been very diverse; they can be literary as well as visual. For instance, I get a lot of inspiration from photographs. I have been inspired by mead, but also by the notion of intellectually surpassing your limits. There really is this connection between experience, the intellect and self-knowledge.

What was your second inspiration?

My second inspiration, or desire, was to have a simultaneously airy-light and intense fragrance. So I worked on the top notes, like a cloud of iris, musky, very fresh and very light to enliven the deeper and creamier heart note.

What is the family link between your olfactory creations?

In the end, the fragrances I create are always designed to produce an effect on the person wearing them, to help, encourage and accompany that person. An intimate bond is always created between the person and the power infused by their fragrance, which is something like an active substance.

Was Baudelaire’s poem Elévation an important factor?

It was. When I create, I often come across elements that “validate” me, and when I discovered this poem, for me it was like an endorsement of my approach. I had done some research around the Haschischins’ club and the experiments that Baudelaire had carried out precisely in the aim of intellectually surpassing himself and of surpassing his own creativity; and it’s true that when I was shown this poem, I said to myself that we were on the right track.

Why this name, L’Envol, and what is the notion of elevation about?

L’Envol really evokes someone’s personal elevation — intimate and private; in other words, your own life taking flight. For me, taking flight means developing and cultivating yourself, widening your awareness, guiding yourself along your own path and creating your own life.

What does the unique, detachable design of the bottle correspond to?

The bottle’s design resulted from a conversation I had with the designer, during which I explained to him that I was working on active, almost psychotropic ingredients; things that are going to act on the state of mind. This is how he came to the idea of a vial carrying a precious and active liquid. So this liquid must be protected, which is exactly what the bottle does.

Is there any man in particular behind this fragrance?

There is never a particular man or woman behind a Cartier fragrance. There is every man or every woman — at Cartier a fragrance is not a sexual caricature. Here, it’s true, L’Envol is a fragrance designed for men, but it is not a caricature of masculinity, and any man can make it his own.