Roja Dove: I always said I was six or seven, but I don’t really know how old I was. One night my mother came into my bedroom to kiss me goodnight. She wore a dress of gold lamé, the light behind her formed a halo. For me as a child it was the image of a fairy or an angel. She kissed me, and I remember the smell of her perfume and face powder. I believe that was the moment I was set on this path.
I often went into her bedroom, opened the bottom left-hand drawer of her dressing table and found large bottles of eau de cologne, gifts from a friend in Paris, Bernard Lévy. I would open them, smell them, and sometimes apply a little. Later, as a teenager, I spent all my money on perfume, which was unusual for a boy at that time. I fell in love with it. I always said perfume is like a genie that takes you on a journey — you just mustn’t be afraid to follow.

Roja Dove: Perfume is, in my opinion, the only creative form where the tangible is made from the intangible. In painting you see the result — the light, shade, colors. With perfume it’s invisible, just around you. To me, perfume is closest to music.
With music you don’t just hear it, you feel it. It can move you to tears, wrap you up completely. Perfume can do the same. Once I smelled a perfume and unexpectedly started crying because it reminded me of my childhood, of spring flowers like hyacinth.

Roja Dove: Not in perfumery directly, but in my approach to work. A Swiss friend, Annelies Klimek, taught me discipline: to check, check, and check again. With perfume, the most important advice I give beginners is to allow time.
In perfumery itself I admire masters like Ernest Daltroff of Caron or François Coty — both had no formal training. They broke boundaries. Too many people focus on why not to do something. That kills creativity. You must follow your own path. When we launched Roja, I invested all my savings without knowing if it would succeed. We could have lost everything. Believing in yourself is essential.

Antoine Cotton: From a young age I felt the energy of the region and wanted to understand the industry. Picking flowers in the fields, lab discussions, the whole ecosystem around perfumery was stimulating. It is not just about crafting fragrances but also about culture, raw materials, and identity.

Antoine Cotton: Yes, my great-grandfather produced rose oil, jasmine, and tuberose — three of the most important raw materials in the world. That is part of my heritage, the heritage of the region. My grandfather — not my great-grandfather, but my grandfather — was also extracting raw materials. This heritage is very important and something naturally shared in the region. Meeting different people, such as Roja, helped me explore identity, continue this tradition, and create fragrances. I studied at ISIPCA, the perfumery school in Paris, and then went on to develop a wide range of fragrances.

Antoine Cotton: Yes, exactly. I completed a five-year master’s degree in Paris. It was focused on fragrance creation but also included everything related to perfumery — chemistry, biology, all aspects of the field. I then did several internships, which went quite well. They included working with raw material extraction, evaluating trends, and studying the market, which gave me valuable insights from different perspectives within perfumery. This helped me gain broader knowledge of the industry and eventually led me to continue with my own company, Argelis.

Roja Dove: I think one of the important things in that story is having worked directly with raw materials. Not everybody does that. To have the exposure of how raw materials are grown and treated is very important.

Antoine Cotton: That is something I really value and love about my job: traveling to see the fields, or going to another country to understand how a spice or a plant is cultivated and used culturally. Then I think about how this can be applied in perfumery — what newness it can bring, what new ideas it can inspire. Back in the lab I try to transform these inspirations into raw materials, into liquids, to extract and then use them in fragrances. It is about bringing new ideas to life with the beautiful materials I use for Roja.

Roja Dove: One of the things that was unusual about this collaboration is that Antoine was up against seven perfumers. So there are three different houses that I approached. One’s about four perfumas, one’s about two, and one’s about one. So there were seven perfuners. They were given four briefs. Antoine won three of them. And I think that the thing that I feel with Antoine’s work is just how highly original it is. It’s very intellectual.

Antoine Cotton: Yeah, that was very … well, the original version was unique. For me, it was a daytime fragrance: addictive, citrusy, woody, and distinctive, with its own signature and DNA. The Ointent, for me, was more sporty and citrusy, with hibiros knots inside, which is also quite unique. That perfume is more sporty in form. This new fragrance combines the addictiveness of the original version with the strength and intensity of the intense version, while introducing a darker, original approach. I explored a light and dark contrast—something brighter and closer to me. The difference is built around spices, woods, and leather. On top, there are berries, including fried kingberry, with a spicy accord of pink pepper, cardamom, and juniper berry, creating a strong top vibration. In the heart, there is a blackberry accord with rose, which adds addictiveness and is complemented by high-quality musk in the dry down. This creates a dense, immersive sensation: a rich top, a full middle, and then leathery, woody, and musky notes. The result is darker, with great sillage and a powerful presence.
Blackberry carries a subtle musky character, and one of the key elements of Elysium’s DNA is its musks. This sensory aspect is one of the features that men love about it, and it also appeals to women.

Roja Dove: I think that a lot of women use Elysium, men’s Elysium, but I’ve always said that a woman’s skin is fundamentally different from a man’s. So when you put this scent on a woman’s skin, it will smell different. I think many women love men’s fragrances because they find too many women’s fragrances too sweet or too fruity.

Roja Dove: The idea is — and this may sound very arrogant, that it has changed the shape of the human being. I can say that without any hidden meaning. I hope it continues along this very creative path, where others look at what we do rather than us looking at what they do. That is one of the reasons for working with very young people who are just beginning their careers. I think most people are megalomaniacs who want to hold on to things. My thought was: how great, our plants are really young — let’s see what somebody very young will do.