Interview With Maria Candida Gentile

Maria-Candida Gentile was one of the perfumers I wanted to meet at Pitti Fragranze 2011 in Florence. I had never smelled her perfumes, just read some great reviews by others. So when we met, I began to smell all the perfumes first, and was really surprised that the perfumer was there too! I began to interview her near the perfume stand as I was charmed by her Barry-Lyndon perfume – but soon we realized that it`s completely impossible as new people come again and again every minute to join the conversation. You know – Italians are very open people, they love to communicate so a quiet tete-a-tete interview is impossible in this perfume crowd! So we made a business card exchange and arranged for an e-mail interview right after Pitti Fragranze. This is that interview .

What are your very first scented memories?

Maria-Candida Gentile: One of the first scents I can remember is the “clair matin” roses of the garden of my family house in Italy. The parents house is on a sea shore in Liguria, so the climate is good enough not only for roses but also to gardenias, camelias, verbenas, cedrinas, calycantus to bloom. I remember a huge magnolia tree of 15 m high, the oldest of the little village.

A lot of my family members were chemists, a sort of tradition in my family. My parents wanted me to become a chemist too, so I did chemistry studies and graduate The University of Florence as a chemist, while I was always fascinated by the fragrance’s world and its creation.

What was the call for perfumery – why did you decided to become a perfumer-creator? Have you had any other professional background? Maître Parfumeur – how did you obtain the title?  (clique aqui para ler a entrevista completa)