DOMINIQUE MOELLHAUSEN

“Perfumery is the most abstract form of art, where the artist who creates a fragrance, does so by using the palette which enshrines own feelings and images. And the spectator/beneficiary can engage with it in different modes, thanks to the emotional richness that the artwork unleashes. I discovered how my creative soul, which initially manifested itself in poetry and painting, can find its perfect expression playing with scents.” Raised in an open and multicultural international environment, Dominique Moellhausen experienced the fascinating variety of fragrances and she developed a unique sensibility for all the ethnicities and cultures of the world. Dominique was born in Milan on March 9th of 1992, to a Paraguayan mother of Dutch origin and a German father. THE EDUCATION OF A FREE SPIRIT. Dominique Moellhausen likes to call herself a “life traveller”, always pursuing something new and happy to enjoy every moment of the journey. Her home is the “here and now”, an inclination also ensued from the cosmopolitan family nature. Since childhood, Dominique travelled the world with her father Anthony, the President of the family business, and she studied and speaks four languages: Italian and Spanish (mother tongue), English and French. After specializing in modern languages at high school, she lived in London and Paris to study International Affairs and Business. Once Dominique graduated, she decided to consolidate her perfumery vocation at the Grasse Institute of Perfumery, the prestigious international perfumery school. Altogether, Dominique followed a consistent study path for a young woman with inherent artistic talents and grown up in the Moellhausen family, that holds over 50 years of tradition in the fragrance industry. THE PERFUME AS A GLOBAL COMMUNICATION CODE. Dominique is Perfumer and R&D Vice Director at Moellhausen. It is her belief that perfume is a global communication code, capable of speaking different languages depending on the nose smelling it, of triggering emotions that change depending on personal experiences. A sensibility that Dominique developed thanks also to her “free spirit” years between Paris and London, to her travels and her lively curiosity. She carries out these explorations by daily immersing herself in novelty and diversity, driven by the desire to better and better know tastes, fashions, habits and culinary preferences of the various cultures and ethnicities. AN ARTISTIC TALENT. Dominique loves painting, poetry and, above all, the composition of fragrances: “This is the form of art and expression which I truly feel my own. When I realized how my thoughts and my need to createartistic works could be expressed by just so evocative and powerful means, I fell in love. I believe that, through own research, a perfumer manages to tell a story and, at the same time, to keep a secret. I find this is an extremely beautiful and intimate ability.” FASHION AND PERFUME: A DEEP UNDERSTANDING. The relationship between fashion and perfumery is a captivating theme, which Dominique investigates not only because of professional reasons, but also due to a predilection to understand the modern living psychological aspects. “Through fragrance, we express the more intimate and subtle concept and image of ourselves, which could also be read in a different way than how we conceive them; through fashion the message is more direct and much louder.” According to Dominique, perfume is candid because “we cannot lie about or disguise our personality...we will always choose a perfume which we unconsciously like..." And again: “We would never wear a perfume whose smell we do not like, just because it is being used by someone who looks cool to us...” A WORLD OF INSPIRATION. To Dominique everything can be a source of inspiration: a person, a dish, a landscape, a single ingredient, and even so an adjective, a book, a story. “Depending on the brief given to me, I start creating or concentrating on the scents evoked by the storytelling. If the received brief begins with a concept, a tale or images, I start off with suchnarrative...with words that translate into raw materials. If I get a brief which requires specific raw materials, my greatest endeavour is to relate them to each other, aiming to develop the features of harmony and contrast. It is my starting point. It is from there that I begin designing a fragrance which the client/buyer falls in love with and that I must entirely feel mine.” OBJECTIVITY AND CREATIVITY. Objectivity is Dominique’s strength point. “Personal taste must not interfere with the fragrances creation; I always seek to keep the right balance between the artistic originality and the needs of the customer, who must obtain what she/he really wants and, even if at times the temptation is strong,...I cannot let myself be taken on by my creativity, thus losing sight of the goal.” Thanks also to team work, well-structured business processes and Moellhausen several decades of expertise, Dominique is capable of creating and choosing the fragrance that best fits with the brand context, and best communicates the brand message and identity, without ever being distracted by her own personal taste.