“[Scent] is the way for me to communicate that seems a little bit mysterious but accurate at the same time.”
I am starting to get a little scared by how cool our guests are guys…I mean how many perfumists or scent artists do YOU meet every day? Isabelle Moser is something of a rising star in the world of fragrance, and I’m so glad to have been able to talk with her about her process, how she thinks about fragrance, and her newest candle LILYVEIL: one of the most delicate and complex scents I have had the pleasure of enjoying, so much so that I have recklessly almost burned through my entire candle and I can’t just run over to Diptyque to buy a new one! No no, you have to be lucky enough to catch one of Isabelle’s pre-order windows and hope to get one before she sells out or closes down shop to begin production, which she does 100% independently in her studio here in NYC. And, not to be a little tease, but…there may be a new iteration of LILYVEIL coming sometime sooooon ;)
But, as usual, I am getting ahead of myself. SO let's go back to how I first came across Isabelle’s work – TikTok, surprise surprise, I can’t even feign embarrassment at this point, my FYP loves me and I hope yours loves you too – and how her interesting takes and theory on the art of fragrance creation (and curation) stood out to me as distinctly different from the way that many other fragrance influencers on that app benignly discuss their endless shelves and drawers of perfume. When looking at Isabelle’s social media, namely her TikTok, it is immediately clear that she’s not only a creative scholar, but someone who cares deeply about getting the minutiae right within her work. This comes as no surprise when you get an understanding of how niche and complex a form scent artistry truly is. I think many people, myself included, try to silo perfumists into one of two categories: a) a kind of chemist, or b) a kind of curator. In reality, both of these responsibilities exist somewhere at the apex of those two titles. Yes, scent artistry requires formal training in how the scent chemically is composed; it is also the art of being able to capture the essence of a brand’s idea or identity (or your own) while knowing when to say when. One thing Isabelle talked to us about that I hadn’t even considered is the importance of critical discernment when compounding a scent. When working with the individual scent components that will go on to create a fragrance, it’s easy to get carried away and want to include a million notes to make the scent as complex as possible, but sometimes that can have the exact opposite effect of creating a scent no one can really wear or understand.
“Why not make something physical that someone else can experience and interpret? If they can feel the way I’m hoping that they can feel, then I’ve succeeded.”
So, when Isabelle embarked on the process of creating her own scent, she knew that balancing the simple and the complex would be absolutely necessary, especially given that she was capturing a scent that would represent her childhood. LILYVEIL has notes of petrichor, honey, wet soil, lily of the valley, lichen, moss, palo santo, and sodden woods. It is as ethereal as it sounds and it plays well with other fragrances if you’re feeling adventurous (I love pairing it with Oud by Diptyque).
Her essential list? Simple
Isabelle’s essentials are:
Osmanthus Tea by One Day
LILYVEIL
I learned so much from this conversation and I hope you do too :)
You can find Isabelle on Instagram and TikTok.
