Vincent Ricord

Vincent Ricord is a French senior perfumer whose work for the British house Clive Christian is stocked at Redolia Perfumery. Clive Christian took its present form in 1999, when Clive Christian acquired the historic Crown Perfumery Company, and the house has since built a reputation for high-concentration perfumes in heavy crystal-stoppered flacons.

Ricord's two compositions here show a perfumer who likes structure to stay legible even when the materials are rich. Art Deco Blonde Amber Extrait de Parfum (2022) is an amber-floral built on a wide opening of rum, olibanum, bitter orange, cardamom, pink pepper, ginger, bergamot and grapefruit, a heart of dried fruits, white tobacco, sandalwood, saffron, tuberose, osmanthus, jasmine and orris, and a base of tonka bean, vanilla, myrrh, labdanum, patchouli, musk, cedar and vetiver. Despite that density it reads bright rather than heavy, which is the point of the name.

Town & Country (2023) takes the opposite route: an amber-woody composition pared back to clary sage, ambergris and sandalwood, where the interest comes from the quality of each material rather than the length of the list.

Reading those two side by side is a useful lesson in perfumery: the same nose can work maximally or minimally, and concentration is not the same thing as loudness. Browsing by perfumer is one of the surest ways to find your next bottle. Explore Vincent Ricord's fragrances at Redolia Perfumery below.