We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jil CROQUET a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jil, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Hi, my name is Jil and I am a perfume designer here in San Diego. I was born and raised in beautiful Paris, France and came to America in 2018.
I created Scent Strip Perfume early 2021, launching perfumes and colognes handmade locally in small batches with the French Perfume « savoir-faire ».
After studying at the Institute for Art and Olfaction in L.A., I started to formulate my own blends.  Initially I created perfumes and colognes because I was a bit frustrated with commercial fragrances I found in stores. They were all smelling the same a light standardized sweet floral notes and not long lasting. So my goals were to develop long-lasting, unique scents. After all when you are the designer, the good thing is you can design whatever you want!
I am also found of artisan products made in small batches with quality in mind. I really think this is the best job in the world, being at sync with your art/product and create a unique piece each and every time. Think about an instrument maker, a baker, an upholsterer, a plumassier, etc. wouldn’t you love having such a piece instead of one made from a production line? To me, crafters carry a courage, honesty and trust the mass market lack of.

With the support of my friends and family I decided to launch my brand early 2021, Scent Strip Perfume. As one of my most meaningful goal is to bring extremely high quality fragrances to people at the most affordable price possible, my very first Point of Sale was Farmer’s Market, and I am still there as of today, especially in the Little Italy ones on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I am delighted to be able to offer handmade artisan perfumes and colognes locally made in small batch to my community. After only 1 year, I am also in shops in Oceanside, New York City and Budapest as well as high end hotels!
This project is an amazing adventure for me. I am so glad that people love my work, share their impressions and talk to their friends about my brand. I feel incredibly lucky to be in a community where people are curious, eager to try unique scents, learn about it and ready to support local, small businesses.

Jil, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have always been interested in scents and the feeling, happiness and escape they provide. So, I have smelled everything, constantly. In France, fragrances are everywhere, we even have schools to become perfumers as part of a chemistry curriculum. So becoming a Perfume Creator was like a dream come true.

With Scent Strip Perfume, I am able to offer 8 different scents to my customers on events, markets, online and in shops. I have unique, different and extremely high-quality fragrances to show people what art and artisan scents really are. Sadly, many folks stopped wearing perfumes and colognes due to the decreasing quality the big brand displayed. I don’t blame them, I did too and would only recommend very few commercial brands right now. It is hard to find brands with some creativity in the “juice” (aka scent) anymore, everything goes into the bottle design, the celebrity endorsement and the consumer surveys to flatten any business risk and create another “FlowerBomb flanker”. On my end, my bottles are very simple, I barely do marketing or advertising to be able to put it all in the scent itself and my costumers really smell the difference and I thank them everyday for supporting my art.
Being a French Perfumer in America is an amazing adventure for me. I am so glad that people love my work, share their impressions and talk to their friends and family about my brand. I feel incredibly lucky to be in a nation where people are curious and eager to try unique scents.

I recently got nominated among the 10 best fragrances for 2022 by the Art and Olfaction Institute and the World Perfumery Congress for one of my perfume, Great Wall Valley. It is a huge achievement for me as I started my business less than 2 years ago, I am so grateful and can’t wait to see what the future holds!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I truly think the perfume industry could be more eco-conscious.  Some other sectors are really improving their practices especially in terms of packaging, even if, of course, you can and should always do better, but the perfume industry looks a bit slow on this topic.
 One of my goal is to be as eco-friendly as possible, even is I am a very small actor in the big industry, I still think everyone impact is important to change things and make a better future for our children.
When I ship and pack products, no plastic or cello-wrapping is used for instance, I use cardboard boxes and paper sleeve instead. To me, this should be a good practice everywhere, especially for big brands, they should be leading the way because it is not hard to switch, it is more costly, yes, but not hard. Also suppliers have a big part to play in this. I have screw neck bottles, and these are so hard to find! The standard in the industry is crimp. So when you finish your bottle, you throw it away hopefully in the recycling trash, but you still throw it. With a screw neck, you can actually reuse it. I also developed refill pouches for a complete experience. I know I am a very small brand, but if i can at my scale do some good, I will, I also sincerely hope bigger brands with bigger impact will choose this path too.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I LOVE watching/listening to TED Talks, not only about Scents, Chemistry or Business but also about more random topics such as Behaviors, Sociology, Humanity, Architecture, History and Sciences. I truly believe that being interested in everything is an amazing source of inspiration, creativity, helps being more tolerant and be a better person in general. This is really the perfect podcast!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.scentstrip-perfume.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scent.s.trip.perfume/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scent.s.trip

Image Credits
Scent Strip Perfume