With the unexpected aroma of melting ice caps filling my nostrils, I inhale deeply. Frozen mountains exhale an earthy scent, and in the distance, Andean condors fly.
“Can you feel that?” he asks, taking the sample away so that I open my eyes. “That’s our ‘Lago Del Desierto’ fragrance. We’ve recreated the smell of the glaciers and the surrounding countryside of Argentine Patagonia.”
Instead of Patagonia, I find myself in a cosy plush room in Buenos Aires, with high black walls and velvet curtains, in the company of Julian Bedel, one of the creators of Fueguia perfume laboratory.
Julian Bedel of Fueguia (Photo courtesy of Fueguia)
Filled with dozens of perfume bottles, scented candles and room essences, Fueguia feels mystic and mysterious. Located on the second floor of a beautiful 19th century building in Palermo Viejo, there are no signs, no logos; no indication at all that something special lies behind the door. The only one of its kind in the whole of America, Fueguia creates custom-blended fragrances from a growing range of over 600 individual ingredients.
A never-ending palette of scents awaits; from the more common mint, nutmeg and rosemary, to more obscure aromas like birch, juniper berries and tuberose, Fueguia also has a range of 18 ready-made blends, which just like ‘Lago Del Desierto’, are already utterly unique. ‘Corvina Negra’ with its animalistic and sub marine notes, translates the smells of the under water world so successfully it’s as though you’ve just eaten raw, live fish.
Another ready-made blend, ‘El Mono De La Tinta’, captures the smell of the ink used by 18th century Chinese calligraphers, which had such an alluring smell their pet monkeys would try to drink it. And the stories behind endless intricate fragrances keep flowing.
“The challenge is to go out of your comfort zone and blend scents that you would not expect, like that of coal and fish, and make it into something interesting,” says Julian. “It’s too easy to just mix floral scents.”
A musician and an artist as well as a perfumer, Julian talks about smells much like he would music or paintings. “I don’t imagine who’s going to be wearing it when I create a perfume”, he says. “I imagine scenery and I paint the landscape.” And with an aquiline nose and nostrils like caves, you’re assured his olfactory senses will recognise every subtlety of a fragrance.
Fragrances by Fueguia (Photo courtesy of Fueguia)
With 1kg of rose centifolia extract costing a minimum of US$8,000, maintaining a laboratory with US$250,000 worth of ingredients requires some fine training and must be done by a connoisseur.
As just that, Julian travels all over the world to source the best extracts, which change every year depending on natural conditions. A particularly sunny or wet summer can affect ingredients, and the atoms of the essence expand or shrink according to the mixtures and solvents used, producing different results with every combination. It’s a balanced blend of science and art, all in one.
When I asked him if he ever felt like producing a fragrance that would make the whole world attracted to him, like the character Jean-Baptiste Grenuille did in Patrick Süskind’s novel ‘Perfume’, he shrugged and said: “No. He was essentially stealing young women’s scents, whereas I want to do the opposite - give a scent to people.”
So if you know someone who already has everything but lacks a unique scent, Fueguia can create the perfect personalised gift. Ready-made candles cost US$45 and perfumes US$75, with prices for customised fragrances starting from US$180 and reaching US$1,800, depending on the combination of ingredients used.
Scented candles in the Fueguia showroom (Photo courtesy of Fueguia)
But why would anyone want to spend so much on a perfume? “Each perfume is made so that their owner feels emotionally connected to their scent,” explains Julian. It’s a creative and artistic process, far from the standardised processes of mass-producing high street perfume, and where the blend is complex it may take anything up to a month.
Offering more than just a unique smell, Fueguia’s wooden presentation boxes are made from fallen trees rather than felled, and a portion of their profits go to ‘Help Argentina’, an NGO that finances social development, education and recycling projects.
Fueguia’s products are so exquisite that their clients come to them by word of mouth. Remarkably, nothing has been spent on advertising since they opened in April this year, but apparently none was needed. A second Fueguia store, selling their range of delectable ready-made scents, is scheduled to open soon on Alvear 1680.
