Olfactive Studio launched in 2013 at a Chelsea gallery as a collaboration between contemporary photography and perfumery.
Born out of the desire to create a “fragrance that doesn’t yet exist,” Olfactive Studio represents the attempt to capture a moment in time: through a photograph and a memory produced by the sense of smell.
With its alluring milky cloudiness, Olfactive Studio‘s Lumiere Blanche is akin to sailing through the Swedish archipelago in summer when the morning’s mist still hovers above the water.
© Olfactive Studio
A mixture of heat and cool, Lumiere Blanche opens with the spice of anise and cardamom before settling into a heart of almond milk and cashmere.
As alluring and transgressive as absinthe, or a glass of milk with a shot of Scotch, Lumiere Blanche captures a sense of the forbidden – not unlike Icarus flying close to the sun.
© Massimo Vitali / Olfactive Studio
Winner of a 2013 Fifi Award, Olfactive Studio‘s collection also includes Flashback, Still Life, Autoportrait, and Chambre Noire, each of which is complemented by an associative photograph taken by a notable photographer.
For Lumiere Blanche, photographer Massimo Vitali captured the peak of summer light along the Italian coastline, which, in his words, “gives the world a surreal brightness, a milky aura, and on its outer edges, the lure of a mirage.”
