My family has always lived in Paris but I can nevertheless remember my mother planting anything and everything she could find in any available place on balconies she took for terraces. Both indoors and out, she covered the flat with honeysuckle, tomato plants and extravagant philodendrons. Everything grew, bloomed and scented the air right in the middle of Paris.
Yes, I’m an out and out Parisian, born in Paris like my mother, and moreover in a unique neighbourhood: Montmartre, the nine centuries old village that survived the city and its ‘Place du Tertre’ home to internationally renowned artists such as Van Gogh, Degas, Cezanne, Picasso and Utrillo. It was at Montmartre that my parents met and it was in the Montmartre town hall they got married.
On the Place du Tertre, the resident artists were used to my sudden appearances. As soon as I had the chance to get out, I would spend my time getting under their feet and into their colours. They educated my way of looking at things, how to see beyond appearances. It is thanks to them that I understood that matter is a living thing.
I grew up in an exceptional environment surrounded by fantasy and freedom. Imagine that, knee-high to a grasshopper, I had Paris at my feet from the top of the Butte Montmartre! I clearly remember at 6 years old declaring “when I grow up, I’m going to be an artist and florist”; amazing childhood premonition. In my neighbourhood one crossed paths with artists, actors, singers like Piaf, Dalida or Aznavour. As a child, I used to sneak into the wings of the Alhambra theatre with the help of a friend to listen to Edith Piaf rehearsing; a moment of pure pleasure. There was no doubt I was asserting my future vocation to be an “artist and florist” and I wasn’t going to let any of it go.
At 14 years old I took my first dramatic arts and singing lessons. At 14 I was also concocting my first floral elixirs with camomile, lemon juice, vinegar and sprigs of rosemary. I had very long hair and I wanted to keep it beautiful and fragrant. Beyond this intuitive approach to plants I also loved studying them.
At 18 I had my ‘baccaleaureat’ in philosophy, and at 18 and a half I started my first job: street singer!! With a lot of nerve and a barrelful of cheek, I played the hurdy-gurdy and sang popular laments in the streets of Paris. I had my whole life ahead of me and whatever was to be would be.
At 19, I was rounding up my monthly wages by shouting the price of lots of lingerie from a huge wooden crate outside the ultra popular TATI store. Decidedly, philosophy can lead to anything and everything!
At 20 I decided to travel the world on my own for a few years. I took two books with me, my book on botany and Maeterlinck’s ‘The intelligence of Flowers’.
At 24 I returned to France and built a theatre and art gallery with a bunch of friends; artists, architects, producers and actors. The building still exists at the heart of the Halles in the centre of Paris. I wrote plays, created a street theatre company, and went on tour around the world playing a superb Antigone. In a Japanese play by Mishima, I had to suffer a three hour make-up session before each performance but at this period, I was already making my own creams and mixtures that left inimitable fragrances wafting around the dressing rooms. I did say I would be an “artist and florist”!
Not a single year has gone by without my devoting time to studying plants; their healing properties, their symbolism, their characterology and their place in history. Over several years I experimented with the Bach Flower remedies. I studied aromatherapy, the science of beauty and well-being, and beauty care with essential oils. I studied botany at the school run by the barefoot Doctors.
I visited countries that are references in the art of perfumery and the secrets of beauty with plants such as Egypt, Ethiopia, the Maghreb, and I studied medicinal plants in India and Nepal.
I spent several months in Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama’s refuge village where a Tibetan Doctor taught me the relationship between a medicinal plant and a specific vital organ, between a plant and an organism’s energetic recharge. Over several years, I was thus immersed in the complex study of the molecular components of essentially aromatic plants.
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And then, a little over twelve years ago, I decided to live this passion fully. After having made the most of my time in the theatre, now was the time to live my career as a florist… Thanks to my providential meeting again with a longstanding friend of mine, Claire Fillon, scents gifted and as passionate as I am. We then decided to unit our talents to give birth to the future Senteurs de Fée first beauty products range. Attempting to exist in the face of top beauty brands was not the easiest. But we are both challengers and can be seen on all fronts. Finding and choosing the finest raw materials was and remains a veritable challenge.
As time past, Claire’s conviction to create a tool of self-knowledge resting on scents required all her energy. She then experimented it spectacularly through workshops which the participants leave amazed.
In same time I decided to raize Senteurs de Fée up to be one of the best in the field of the well-being, energetic and natural cosmetic, to hold the course of quality at all cost.
Today my childhood premonition has never been as true; I am the fairies’ florist….My feelings of wonder have remained intact as has my passion, and I find that splendid. Surrounded by the aromatic fragrances that bathe my workshop, I create my formulas. I develop a unique concept; the magical, mysterious and energetic aspects of beauty. The Senteurs de Fée range draws its excellence and performance in the active principles in plants. With Senteurs de Fée, a magical link is created between beauty, energy, self-confidence and well-being.
And guess what? I opened my first Senteurs de Fée boutique in Montmartre, a few streets away from where my grandmother was born. That shop is now closed but a new one now reigns in another of my favourite neighbourhoods, the Marais.
Today Senteurs de Fée-Paris is synonymous with glamour, magic, quality, expertise and trust. Fragrances from the other side of the world bloom at the heart of Paris. My unique elixirs and preparations are waiting just for you in phials, bottles and pots. They are magical just for you…
to know more about Claire Fillon / www.innovation-olfactive.com
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