1. How did your interest in scents start?

You've decided to
make a career in perfume since 1988. What had you been
working on before that?
I started my career in fragrances right after completing my university
studies in business. I started working in the marketing department of a
fragrance supplier in the Netherlands. I had always loved wearing
fragrances but just stumbled upon the job, and hadnt really thought
about fragrance being a possible career before that. I quickly fell in
love with the process of making scents. When I transferred to the
companys Paris office, I was given the chance to train as a perfumer. I
studied at the ISIPCA perfumery school in Versailles, and finished my
apprenticeship with the same fragrance supplier.
2. You haven't got an extended distribution. Do you have a
specific reason for that?
Working in an artisanal way in the niche perfume market suits my
character. I have a lot of freedom to work the way I want because I
dont necessarily need to please a maximum number of people like big
perfume brands have to do in the mainstream market. And customers
in the niche market tend to be really passionate about perfume, which
makes it more satisfying.
3. Could you please tell us about your motivation when you
enter your laboratory to make perfume?
My motivations arent always the same. Sometimes I read about a new
raw material that has come onto the market and I order a sample.
Then Im very curious to try it out with other materials to see what it
can do. Sometimes I already have more of a conceptual idea for a
finished fragrance that I want to try to realize. Whatever the
motivation, theres always a sense of excitement in creating something
entirely new thats never existed before.
4. The emotions felt by people can be changed individually.
Perfumes are such private things. What kind of emotions do
your perfumes arouse in you? Pessimism, pain, despair,
happiness, peace? Have you ever thought about the
personification of your scents?
I often think of the personality of my scents, and also the way they
change the personality of the wearer. For example, Balmy Days &

Sundays smells to me like a casual day in a city park, and makes me

feel relaxed and happy. It seems to bring happy memories to many
people who wear it, but those memories are quite different from one
person to the next, even though they usually involve nature.
Evening Edged in Gold is the fragrance I wear most often. It has a
combination of backnotes that I find delicious together cinnamon,
vanilla and sandalwood and it just makes me feel refined and
sophisticated.
5. How do you summarize and express Ineke to people who
haven't used Ineke yet?
I think the Ineke line of fragrances is probably fresher than what you
normally smell in the niche fragrance market. Each fragrance has its
own distinct character though. I also think that one of my great
specialties has become replicating the scents of unusual flowers found
in nature but that are not usually seen in the perfume world. This
gives me some really superior materials with which to compose.
6. You defined your perfumes as unisex. How are the
preferences of men and women different with Ineke perfumes?
In principle, I think all fragrances should be unisex and that men and
women should feel free to wear whatever they want. However, there
are clearly gender codes associated with specific raw materials and
combinations based on what people have smelled in the past. For
example, aromatic notes like lavender and pine tend to be perceived
as masculine, while floral scents are perceived to be feminine. In my
fragrance line, Derring-do and Field Notes from Paris have more of a
traditionally masculine arrangement, and the rest are more feminine.
However, I always encourage people to follow their nose and ignore
these gender cues.
7. You said that you have taken influences from literature and
visual arts. Could you please give us more details about this?
Have your scents got artistic references?
Im a great consumer of the cultural arts, and they tend to find their
way into my fragrance creations. This can be anything from the name
of a fragrance, like Gilded Lily which comes from one of
Shakespeares plays, to fragrance composition ideas. Right now Im
working on fragrance structures that are inspired by the romantic idylls

of the turn of the 19th century for my upcoming fragrance to be called

Idyllwild.
8. How do you classify your scents? As you know there are
many specific classifications like floral, musky, spicy, menthol,
etc.
I find olfactive classifications useful, both to communicate the overall
fragrance category and then specific raw materials. I tend to use the
ones that I learned in my studies and work in the fragrance industry. I
would categorize my fragrances as follows:
After My Own Heart
Balmy Days & Sundays
Chemical Bonding
Derring-do
Evening Edged in Gold
Field Notes from Paris
Gilded Lily
Hothouse Flower

Soliflore (Lilac)
Green Floral
Citrus Musk
Fresh Fougre
Floral Oriental
Woody Oriental
Floral Chypre
Solifore (Gardenia)

9. Do you believe there are people who have a more superior

sense of smell than others due to genotype? Do you think of
yourself as one of those people?
Maybe there are a few people who experience smell differently than
others because of the way their brains are wired. For example, a small
number of people experience synesthesia, where they see colors or
shapes when they smell a particular odor. Then there are quite a few
people who have gaps in their olfactive spectrum: there are some
things they just cant smell. For example, a lot of people cant smell
musks. Some people who have had serious illnesses or accidents may
lose their sense of smell entirely.
Having said all that, I think that most people have a perfectly good
nose that could be trained into becoming proficient enough to be a
perfumer. Im one of those types of people. Its all about study and
practice. It takes repetition to create the links between your nose and
your brain this is not something with which were born. After that,
creativity and persistence are what make a great perfumer.