The soulful perfumery of Rania Jouaneh
What can we say about Rania J? Sometimes an artist seems to work outside the noise of the world, creating art that appears to emanate directly from their soul. Rania Jouaneh is one such artist, a perfumer who draws inspiration from her youth in Jordan and Morocco, informed by formal training in France, to formulate timelessly beautiful fragrances that are impossible to forget once experienced on skin. Softly radiant, secretly smoldering, mysterious, sexy, refined — it's impossible to find the perfect words. These perfumes simply must be smelled.
We first heard of Rania when collectors began to buzz about one of her inaugural perfumes, Ambre Loup, back in 2012. The head-turning balsamic amber put her on the map but was certainly no one-hit wonder; each fragrance in the collection is a stunner. And we were lucky enough to meet the Paris-based perfumer in Milan this year, where we were instantly drawn in by her gracious warmth. Now, upon bringing in the entire collection, we thought it was perfect timing to ask Rania more about her magnificent work...
Q. How did your journey in perfumery begin and how did you learn to make perfume?
A. I started my career in several different fields outside the fragrance industry. While I loved the work and enjoyed learning new things, I still had the persistent feeling that something was missing. One day when I was at a crossroads in my career, I thought about how perfume was always a passion for me, and that it had been my childhood dream. On that very day, I applied to Cinquième Sens (Fifth Sense), a perfume school in Paris. And so, the adventure began …
Q. How would you describe your olfactory aesthetic as a perfumer, and what are your primary influences?
A. I love raw materials. They guide and inspire me. I try to feel them and listen to them. [Aha!]
Q. Why did you choose to create a collection of fragrances
each built around a single ingredient, and how do you decide which direction to take each starring ingredient?
A. For each fragrance, I wanted to highlight a raw material and give it the leading role. The other materials are present to accompany this star material and surround it.
I’ve never completely decided the direction of a perfume in advance; there is an aspect that we can’t control, and we must accept that. Raw material combinations are like when humans meet for the first time — the best encounters are always spontaneous.
Q. Even though they're full bodied and complex, Rania J scents wear with a radiant softness — present but never too loud. How do you achieve longevity without high-volume projection?
A. I use a lot of natural raw materials in my collection. Natural materials are more complex but also heavier… so they have less projection but more depth and more stories to tell.
Q. What do you look for in a raw material supplier and how do you find them?
A. My dream is to visit every raw material grower in person but for the moment I work with suppliers who have thousands of raw materials of different qualities and origins. I always choose the highest-quality materials that are the most beautiful to my nose.
Q. What are your favorite materials to work with, and why?
A. I like all raw materials so it’s very difficult to choose. Each material is unique and brings its own DNA and richness to a composition. But if I had to choose just one material, it would be natural oud because it is indomitable, complex and mysterious, with a very high energetic vibration.
Q. Natural perfumer Mandy Aftel has said that her perfumery
materials are like friends to her. How would you describe your relationship to the materials you use?
A. I really like Mandy Aftel’s work. For me, natural raw materials have a soul and an energy. I just try to listen to them and feel them when figuring out how best to work with them.
Q. Which perfumes are you wearing these days?
A. Recently I've been wearing a new perfume I'm working on, but it’s still too soon to talk about it. Stay tuned …
Q. Musc Moschus and Lavande 44 are selling really well at our stores, and Rose Ishtar is also a popular staff pick. What can you tell us about the creation of these three fragrances?
A. Thanks! Knowing that my perfumes are popular brings me a lot of joy. Musc Moschus is a quintessential musk fragrance. It’s gentle but also beautiful, soothing and elegant in its sillage (fragrance trail). It creates an invisible cloak, like a deer.
The materials used in Musc Moschus are high quality naturals with the exception of the musk itself, which is vegan and biodegradable. This is important to point out given that the musk deer is a protected animal.
Lavande 44 and Rose Ishtar are two fragrances with opposing characters. Rose Ishtar has feminine energy, while Lavande 44 has assertive masculine energy. But at the same time, Rose Ishtar becomes masculine when worn by a modern man, and the opposite is true for Lavande 44 when it’s chosen by a woman. They both have a masculine feminine duality. There is a yin and yang joy in putting on a perfume that suits us or that we just like to wear.
Q. What's the #1 piece of advice you would give to an aspiring perfumer?
A. Dare to create and dare to dream! Smell raw materials endlessly, memorize them, imagine where they will take you. This is the most important part of this creative path.
Thanks, Rania, and welcome to Ministry of Scent!
Explore the collection with the Rania J Discovery Set for $45.