Eric Buterbaugh, florist to the stars, is known as the "The King of Roses." For 17 years, he has designed arrangements from his studio at The Four Seasons hotel in LA, for clientele such as Madonna, Demi Moore, Naomi Campbell, and Gwen Stefani to name a few. He has designed for fashion houses such as Tom Ford, Dior, and Louis Vitton. It doesn't end there, Eric has even designed for royalty such as the British royal family and the king of Thailand.
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| Eric Buterbaugh and Fabrice Croisé |
He created Eric Buterbaugh Florals with beauty industry veteran Fabrice Croisé, and noses from Firmenich. The all star noses include Harry Fremont, Alberto Morillas, Honorine Blanc, Pierre Negrin, and Ilias Ermendis. Launched in 2015 are 7 stunning floral based perfumes (another to follow in November), a boutique in West Hollywood, a line of candles, and even scented roosters.
Brooklyn Fragrance Lover: How did you two meet each other?
Eric/Fabrice:
We were introduced by Mike Jones, ex-CEO of MySpace, for whom Fabrice was working as a consultant and who knew Eric’s desire to go into fragrances.Brooklyn Fragrance Lover: How long was the process from vision to launch?
Eric/Fabrice: 1 year and a half from first meeting to the launch of our brand and space on Beverly Blvd.
Brooklyn Fragrance Lover: Your perfumes are all stunning. How did you go about choosing which perfumers to create your perfumes?
Eric/Fabrice: Thank you. We chose the fragrance company Firmenich first. Both of us had a pre-existing relationship with that company and consider it to be the best in its field. We briefed Firmenich without any specification as to which perfumers we wanted to work with (well, almost). Our intention was to allow perfumers to choose whether they wanted to be part of our adventure, based on their own sensibility to floral notes - and the gems they kept in their drawers (or their minds). We just told them there would be no restriction on ingredients (our price point allows for that) and no changes to their creations if we chose them. They loved this perspective and came up with absolute wonders of floral creations. 5 perfumers worked with us on our first line. For our next line (the Edition line, scheduled for release next year in department stores), 10 perfumers have asked to propose creations.
Brooklyn Fragrance Lover: Was there an inspiration for the bottle design? They are quite beautiful, I must say.
Eric/Fabrice: We found a cognac decanter in a trade show that had a beautiful shape. We increased the glass distribution at the bottom, added a spherical stopper, played with the proportions and finalized the bottle with Nouvel Studio in Mexico City. They specialize in high end crystal creations for Tequila brands and the mastery of their craft is absolutely astonishing. They had never worked on a niche fragrance brand and immediately loved the project.
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| Scented Rooster $3800.00 |
Brooklyn Fragrance Lover: Please tell me about The Scented Rooster.
Eric/Fabrice: It started as a bit of a private joke. We have a rooster at the heart of our brand crest. One day we were having a meeting in a building downtown LA and stumbled upon a taxidermy studio (Prey Taxidermy). We fell in love with its owner Allis, who is wonderful and such an amazing artist. She introduced us to Courtney Bensik of Androgyny Jewelry Studio. Honorine Blanc of Firmenich came up with a gorgeous lemon–flower-and-chestnut scent and the bejeweled, scented roosters were born.
Brooklyn Fragrance Lover: I like that your line is intended to be gender neutral. I personally wear what I like, even if it's a perfume targeted for women. Floral perfumes are typically known to be for women. Have you found your line to be embraced by men too? Is there one in particular that men seem to be gravitating to?
Eric/Fabrice: The world is more and more ready to look at fragrances for what they are, i.e. olfactive creations, rather than carefully positioned marketing products. Paintings have no gender, why should fragrances have one? Our clients understand this and our perfumes are purchased by men and women alike. Velvet Lavender might be the ones men gravitate to at first, but a lot of them seem to be attracted to Sultry Rose as well, and we are looking forward to seeing how they react to Thorns Rose when we launch it next month.
Brooklyn Fragrance Lover: Will there be more perfumes added to the collection?
Eric/Fabrice: Yes, Thorns Rose in November this year, followed by a gorgeous Lilac in the Spring of next year and then an Orange Blossom in the Summer.
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| Brooklyn Fragrance Lover with Eric and Fabrice in NYC April 2015 |
Eric/Fabrice: We would love that. Please come any time and hang out in our garden. We have a few new scents in the making that we would love to get your opinion about.
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| Regal Tuberose |
Eric/Fabrice: We are delighted to say, they all sell well. Our best seller changes every month and is always close to the second and third best-selling ones. Right now, Celestial Jasmine seems to be performing best.
The collection is a floral perfume lovers dream. All are well done, but my clear favorites are Regal Tuberose and Apollo Hyacinth. Regal is a modern take on a classic note in perfumery. It starts off very green and dries down to a beautiful creamy floral. A tuberose that can be worn by anyone, man or woman. Apollo is a vibrant, subtly sweet green floral that just sings on my skin. Sultry Rose is also a thing of beauty. I have to reiterate that the whole collection is well done, and there is a fragrance for whatever is your personal floral taste and preference.
Apollo Hyacinth: neroli, galbanum, Asian pear, hyacinth, lily of the valley, angelica seeds, oakmoss, Haitian vetiver, cedarwood
Virgin Lily of the Valley: orange flower water, bergamot, rosewood, muguet, ylang-ylang, amaryllis, sheer sandalwood, ambrette seeds, clear musk
Regal Tuberose: grapefruit, white pepper, papyrus accord, patchouli leaves, tuberose absolute, jasmine sambac petals, amber wood, oakmoss, captive musk
Celestial Jasmine: linden blossom, freesia, jasmine sambac, jasmin de Provence, tuberose petals, narcissus, sexy ambrox, silkwood, skin musk
Sultry Rose: pepper, passion fruit, rose essence, rose water, vanilla orchid, saffron, ambrette musk, oud, ambergris accord
Velvet Lavender: lavandin, bergamot, apricot skin, lavender Seillans essence, clary sage, armoise, bourbon vanilla, sandalwood, captive musks
Fragile Violet: yellow mandarin, white tea accord, mulberry, purple violet, lotus flower, wisteria, Atlas cedarwood, liquid amber, feather musks
A 100ml bottle will run you $300 and a 250ml in a crystal decanter will run you $500. They also have a Discovery Set (7 x 10ml sprayers) for $250. You can shop the collection at the Eric Buterbaugh Florals website.
Thanks to the generosity of Eric and Fabrice, we are offering one lucky reader a chance to win an 8 Scent Kit (8 x 10ml sprayers) which will include their upcoming release Thorns Rose. To enter, all you have to do is subscribe to Brooklyn Fragrance Lover on YouTube, follow Brooklyn Fragrance Lover on Facebook, then leave ONE comment down below with which EB Florals interests you the most, or something that you enjoyed about the interview. A winner will be chosen by random.org in about a week. Good luck, and thanks so much for reading (and viewing).
DISCLAIMER: This review was based on samples sent by the company, and all opinions are my own.