A weekin Paris

Paris is where Ashley Santiago learned her craft. After studying chemistry, she trained at ISIPCA and at the Givaudan Perfumery School, before composing the first Neue Terra collection. We recently spent a week there with her.

It was a working week. We filmed in a studio, and we toured Givaudan, whose Orpur® naturals form the foundation of every fragrance in our first collection.

On set

The film is built around a single table. On it we laid out raw materials: branches and botanicals, citrus, glassware, small bottles of essences. These are the starting points a perfumer works from, long before a fragrance exists.

A long white table laid with botanicals, citrus, glassware and small bottles in a film studio — Fig. 02 — The raw-materials table, set for the film.

We kept the studio spare: white walls, the lights, and the table at the center. As with all of our photography and films, we worked with independent collaborators who share our sensitivity to place.

Ashley Santiago seated at a table of raw materials in a dark film studio, a large round light behind her — Fig. 03 — At the raw-materials table.

Ashley Santiago spraying a fragrance toward a camera lens, a tray of smelling strips beside her — Fig. 04 — A close-up, with a tray of smelling strips at hand.

We portray real landscapes and real people. Here, that meant Ashley herself, at work among the materials she composes with.

The raw-materials table and a camera on a tripod in an empty studio — Fig. 05 — The table and camera before a take.

A large gridded softbox and a boom arm on stands under the studio rigging — Fig. 06 — Lighting the set.

A camera operator filming the table from behind a tripod — Fig. 07 — Filming the table.

Two white Neue Terra Lost Coast presentation boxes — Fig. 08 — Lost Coast boxes on set.

Givaudan

We also toured Givaudan. Each fragrance in the first Neue Terra collection is built on a foundation of Orpur® naturals from Givaudan. The designation is awarded to the finest qualities of natural raw materials in Givaudan’s palette, reflecting their distinctive olfactive character and provenance.

Those materials bring texture, depth, and clarity to every composition. It was a chance to see where they begin, alongside the perfumer who works with them. For Ashley, it was also a return to the city where she trained.

We came home to San Francisco with the footage, and with a closer sense of where our materials begin.

Paris

Neue Terra

Made in California

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