Burnt sugar, hot and bitter-sweet, deep and fascinating as the Caribbean Island of Haiti is the epitome of “Sucre D’Ebene”, created by perfumer Pierre Guillaume for the house that bears his name.
The perfume lets emotions come alive. A mental cinema is created, images of a burning hot tropical island where sweating people work under harsh conditions to earn a living. Sugar cane is still the number one export product of that island and the conditions have not much improved since the time of slavery in the 18th century.
Sugar cane is used to make refined sugar and rum, and both scent notes are traceable in “Sucre D’Ebene”.
It is not a soothing or friendly perfume, but one with depth. Men can also wear it, maybe it is even more a perfume for men than unisex. The perfume has nothing to do with Haiti’s sister island, the Dominican Republic. Tourist hotspot, certain standard of life, typical Western ideas of Caribbean laisser-faire. This is not Haiti, with is difficult history and hard living conditions. Still the water is as blue on one side as the other and the beaches are as beautiful. Haiti deserves respect and Pierre Guillaume made the perfect avatar for the island (in my opinion).
Official scent notes for “Sucre D’Ebene” on PIERRE GUILLAUMES website are brown sugar, witch hazel, vanilla, orange blossom and benzoin. Burnt sugar, caramelized, like the top of a crème brulé, is what reaches the wearer, probably a dessert with some rhum agricole, the French version of rum, with less sugar than in the classical English rum.
The colour of the fragrance is a transparent dark brown.
Buying the perfume, smelling it, and not looking closely, I got the impression the subtitle in small letters below the name of the fragrance gives a hint to the island of Haiti because for me the association is so strong. That is wrong. The letters mean “Huitieme Art”, the 8th art, referring to the art of a perfumer. The name “Huitime Art” was later changed in the “Black Collection” and for “Sucre D’Ebene” it is a fitting place to be sorted in.
The other collections of PIERRE GUILLAUME are the “Cruise Collection”, the “White Collection”, the “Confidential Collection”, the “Contemplative Collection” – with more to come.
Pierre Guillaume, the nose behind all the scents of the brand that bears his name, is a chemist by profession. His company’s website gives a lot of information about his addiction to scents from an early age and his way as an independent perfumer. A bit of recherche in the internet adds that he was born in 1977 in the French city of Clermont-Ferrand, in the region of Auvergne to the mid-southern part of France. The region is one of old volcanos and is probably rather underrated when comparing actual tourist numbers to pure natural beauty in France.
His father founded a company that catered to the beauty industry, with a focus on chemical formulations. Pierre Guillaume did start his career in his father’s company, but around the year 2000 began with perfume creation. As usual we do not, and need not, know how he financed his way to his dream profession. What is clear is his rapid success and acknowledgement of his talent by the outside world. His own company followed: Parfumerie Generale and later PIERRE GUILLAUME.
Since 2010 he owns a manufacturing site, raw materials storage, and everything else needed to create perfumes. He stuck to his hometown of Clermont-Ferrand for the expansion of another workshop in 2015.
He has boutiques now in Paris, Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand and Belgrade, Serbia. You can check out photos on the PIERRE GUILLAUME website – the marketing of his stores, his perfumes and his person in general take a bit getting used to. It is his brand, he is the boss, he creates cool perfumes of high-quality standards. He decides how he presents them. It is a great reminder not to judge something or someone just on the first impression, biased by one’s own perjuries.
I made a mental note during the writing of this article to check out all perfumes by Pierre Guillaume. Till now, they came to me more or less on a moment’s notice, coincidentally. “Sucre D’Ebene” I bought for a reduced price on a whim in a local perfume store. Judging even from the few perfumes I own of his brand, Pierre Guillaume seems to be an extremely versatile perfumer, not bound to a certain type of smell.
PIERRE GUILLAUME stayed a real niche brand. The owner is proud to create only perfumes. No additional lifestyle articles or make-up, he stayed true to his roots and to his region. So far, he has never accepted investments from larger companies, which are certainly eager to take over such a jewel. Let us hope it stays like this.
Independence and a free spirit are rare goods in today’s world.