I had never heard of Raymond Matts, that is until I read a review of his line written by my good friend Mark Behnke at Colognoisseur. After reading Mark's reviews, I knew right then and there that I had to get my nose on Raymond Matts Aura de Parfum collection.
I was able to find Mr. Matts on Facebook and quickly sent a friend request which he accepted. After chatting with him a few times, I learned that he was a 30 year veteran of the fragrance industry and was behind many hits such as Elizabeth Taylor White Diamonds, Clinique Happy for Him and Her, Tommy Hilfiger fragrances, and many others.
Having seen many of my Brooklyn Fragrance Lover posts on Facebook, he was impressed with my energy and genuine passion for perfume. He reached out to me about meeting up to go over his line. It took a few months to finally meet, since we both have very busy schedules, but we finally did on September 3, 2015.
We met at a Starbucks across the street from my job, and he took me through the entire line as well as telling me all about the creation process. It was a wonderful meeting at which I learned invaluable behind the scenes information, such as that he doesn't brief the perfumers he works with. Instead, he presents emotions, sensations, and experiences and builds the perfume from there. The perfumers he chose to work on his premier collection were Annie Buzantian, Jean Claude Delville, Christophe Laudamiel, and Olivier Gillotin. When our meeting came to end, he graciously left me with generous samples of his collection.
I was planning on doing a written review, but I was so impressed with his presentation at our meeting, I thought it would be better to shoot an interview/presentation video for Brooklyn Fragrance Lover subscribers so that they could experience what I did. My friend Suzanne from Nezbar joined us as well.