• Can you begin at the very begin of your journey into perfumery?

My journey into perfumery began when I was a child. I used to live in a small village in the South West countryside and I spent a lot of time with my grandparents as they had a very big garden full of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. I learned a lot with them, that experience would lead me later very naturally towards fragrance.

• What is your history and background?

I am passionate and curious about life. I can say that so far I have had three lives. The first was a passion that I had for basketball. I started when I was the age of four and it became a big part of my life until University. While in high-school I also joined a cinema class, and that was also the beginning of a second passion. But one day while training, I broke my knee ligaments. As I remained immobilized for a certain time, I started to think about what I really wanted to do professionally and so I realized that I wanted to travel and discover the world.

 From that time on, many of the decisions I took brought me to travel, either for my studies or for work. It became a lifestyle. I took different classes based on my interests. Communications, marketing, and management even TV production. I worked for Walt Disney World in Orlando, then I worked for Business France in London, and after that experience, I moved to Asia where I stayed for almost 10 years. I also ran a TV production company based in Singapore that specialized in economic documentaries that were aired via CNBC, Channel News-Asia…

I was not making movies but it was close enough. I was able to discover many countries and cultures along with projects in Eastern Europe, Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Meeting with heads of State, ministers, top CEOs made life an adventure. I spent the most time in Malaysia and I even bought a flat in Kuala Lumpur, facing the Petronas Towers. But after all those years, I started missing my family and I thought that I wanted to do something more creative than business news, the fragrance became a piece of evidence. I went to the cosmoproof exhibition in Paris in 2012 where I met for the first time Valérie Vanier (Mission Beauté). She told me that it was a very hard and competitive industry, but somehow in spite, I felt it was this that I had to do. So after our meeting, I decided to sell my flat and move back to France to start the artistic fragrance brand OLIBERE.

• Had there always been an interest in fragrance or was it something that developed over time?

I was very fortunate to work with Aurélie Dematons and Valerie Vanier. Aurélie introduced me to master perfumers Bertrand Duchaufour and Amélie Bourgeois. Valérie helped me understand the commercial aspects of the fragrance industry. I have always been interested in fragrances, but it became evidence much later in my life. I guess sometimes that we don’t really understand our choices right away but with time a clear pattern emerges. It felt to me that even though I was new to the industry that I had developed over the years, all the skills necessary to make this project happen.

Can we talk about destiny..

Indeed, sometimes we don’t see the obvious, Silvio Levi from Cale was the one to make me think about the meaning of my last name, He said to me "Marjorie don’t you understand that you have a magic last name ?" I was surprised by his question. How come I answered? He stated the obvious "O in French means water and LIBERE in French means fred or freedom and O de parfum, O libre, O libérée… Your last name is a calling for PARFUMS!

"Then I recalled the Irish writer Georges Moore and it all made sense " We travel around the world in search of something and we come back home to find it. " - Georges Moore

• Is there any scents that last in your memories from your childhood?

Many actually, growing up in the countryside is a privilege as you really get to feel the change in seasons. So in the winter time, sometimes I would have a walk in the forest with my father. I recall very well the smell of oak trees and moss. In spring my grandmother would make bouquets of white roses and in the summertime, we would spend some evenings at my aunt’s house. I recall the smell of the box trees and later in August the figs. But then again, our garden was giving us fresh tomatoes, prunes, cherries, strawberries, apricots. In autumn, the smell of mushrooms was always freshly found.

What was your life like growing up?

As a child, living in the countryside I have always had a lot of freedom because it was a different time. So I could wander off with my bicycle and discover little roads and ponds. I would share my time between my different interests reading, basketball and movies.

• Where is Olibere based?

Maison Olibere is based in Paris, but my family lives in Toulouse which is a one hour flight away from Paris. Basically, I share my time between these two cities.

Has that culture affected the creation of the scents in anyway?

My life has been a source of inspiration, as I used moments that I experienced or witnessed to create olfactive stories.

• As for the brand can you describe it's themes?

First, I write a synopsis around the themes of the brand love, travel and sheer chance and then I develop a fragrance and its short movie. These three themes are very important to me as I have made many decisions because of love. I also spent twelve years of my life traveling and I got to meet many different people thanks to sheer chance.

• What does the creative process of scent making and design mean for you?

I have challenged Amélie Bourgeois and Bertrand Duchaufour to bring surprising notes into each fragrance, as I wanted to bring a more modern and newer approach with each creation. I also used different elements of the aesthetics of cinema into the packaging. For instance, the bottle is inspired by the design of a camera super 8. And of course, the lines are more elegant as I wanted to create a luxurious item as opposed to something technical.

• What was the process of creating the fragrance brand like?

I have spent about two years working on the DNA of the brand the themes, design, and packaging. I had a great time working with Amélie and Bertrand on the collection of fragrances as they understood quite quickly what I wanted.

• Can you describe what the moment was like that set everything in motion ?

The logo of the brand is represented by a peacock this is very original and sets us the brand apart. The peacock is actually linked to the there themes of the brand :

Love: This bird is the bird of seduction and love. It seduces with its plumage.

Travel: For instance. it is the national bird of India and there it means fecundity and in China it means prosperity. For the Arabic cultures, it is a cosmic symbol and represents eternity. For the west, it is a symbol of power and represents royalty,kings used to have this bird in their gardens.

Sheer chance: Thinking about it I realized that for many years I sold a CNBC product and their logo is a peacock as well but it's done in a totally different style. It represents a link between my life before and my life now.

• Where can we find the STOCKLISTS for the brand ?

Consumers can write to us and we will send them the retailer the nearest to them.