The legendary ladies of the House of Herrera graced Dubai with their presence at a lavish and star-studded launch party of the most personal perfume line produced by the Herrera designers. Herrera Confidential is a collection of six fragrances and four essential oils, extracted in the purest way possible. Carolina Herrera de Baez transforms her world into a collection of sophisticated perfumes and oils, giving them a contemporary twist and revealing for the first time the secret ingredients that have long perfumed the Herrera Family. When asked about the inspiration for this collection, Carolina Herrera de Baez simply states that it is a tribute to her mother.

We’ve spoken to the perfumers who worked on the collection; Elisabeth Vidal, who is the internal perfumer for Carolina Herrera; Rodrigo Flores-Roux, who’s worked on two scents for this collection and has an endless list of perfumes that he has created for the industry giants like Tom Ford, Calvin Klein and Donna Karan -to name a few; and  Pierre Constantin Gueros, who is currently based in Dubai and helped in the creation of Oud Couture for this collection.
How would you advise people to wear this collection? Is there any order?
P: The most obvious choice for the day would be the Neroli Boheme. It is the most fresh scent. Oud and Patchouli are more sofisticated for the evening time.

R: We have positioned them in an order (left to right in the photo) from morning to midnight.  Patchouli is for the time of dusk, when things can get dangerous.

E: Then it also depends on people, you can mix and match as well. Patchouli is an ingredient that Carolina loves and she wanted to have one in the collection; it is associated with the power of seduction for her. It is all about fantasising at night.

What would be the most challenging experience while working on this collection?

E: Oud.

P: Oud is a very tricky thing to work with. There are different faucets of Oud: smoky, tobacco-like, leathery, and so to create Oud that would fit in the Western brand collection that would also appeal to the Middle Eastern region is quite tricky. That is the reason why you have the Oud faucets combined with easy faucets that have fruity and floral notes. Overall, it is very balanced.

What would be the lessons that you’ve learned from this project?
R: It’s a work of love. I think we put ourselves inside each of these bottles; this project was complex and long, but we were all in tune. It is all about high quality.

E: It is what I wanted to say as well. I kept on telling the perfumers that we had to do our best. I think when you push people to do their best, they love that, because they are going to put the most effort into the project.

We’ve tried the fragrances and we highly recommend you get them as they are magnifiscent and versatile. Carolina Herrera Confidential is available in the UAE now.