Why Jean-Sandro Parfums ?
A simple truth: Most perfumes suck, smell the same, do not last, and are just made to blend in.
My name is Jean-Sandro. I’m a self-taught nose based in Berlin, of French and Italian descent.
I believe our scent says so much about us, that it is as distinctive as a signature - we all smell different.
This is what mass-market fragrances miss: commercial, overpowering, monolithic compositions that impose themselves on people's natural smell, making everyone smell the same, based on the current fleeting trend.
Fragrances shouldn't just be trends imposed on people, they should reflect individual character. I dreamed of being able to make perfumes that would change depending on skin profile, and smell different on everybody: an elixir to magnify each and everybody's true smell.
So I did.
How did it start ?
My hyperactive sense of olfaction has been with me forever. Very early, I began approaching most things through the lens of my nose.
It started as a child, with the cars down my street. I was attracted by their addictive gasoline smell, especially when the engine was still warm. I was learning to walk at that time, so the exhaust pipes were right in front me - quite literally.
I noticed they all had a faintly different smell, with nuances in notes of smoke, petroleum gas, tar, greasy rubber, warm metal, plastic and dust. I started to go around and smell all the exhaust pipes of the street. I felt how fascinating smells were. I started smelling everything.
My childhood experiences brought me to different perspectives on “what smells good”. I do not come from a classical smell education, with the archetypal passion for delicate flowers and other “things that smell good”. I was into smells, the uglies and the pretties all together. They all had something to say, a full character out in the open, for those willing to listen.
Later in life came the disappointment of department perfume stores. Most of them heavy, pointlessly gendered, mass-produced consumption goods. They were boring and cliché. Gimmicky bottles and rigid notes full of promises that were never kept.
I loved smells, but I hated perfumes.
So I decided to make my own, and spent 6 years composing in my Berlin atelier.
Gender neutral, because smells have no gender.
Animalic, because there's enough boring perfumes already.
Unconventional, because composed like works of art, slowly and intuitively over the years; not following fast trends.
Is there a brand story ?
No. The story is whatever happens when people make it happen. i hope my scents can help.
expect skin notes and animalic smells, because that’s what I love and there aren’t many of them.
What is this specific blend of molecules that make it possible to have a different scent on every person ?
You might remember Molecule01, the single-molecule perfume that pioneered the idea of a fragrance that sublimates your own body odor. The molecule is called Iso E Super. Lovely in itself, but a little short in terms of performance, radiance, longevity, etc.
I fell in love with a close cousin of it, and made a proprietary blend based on it.Second Skin, a pure skin perfume, is mostly this blend with a few additions.
Not all my perfumes are strict skin perfumes though. They all have a skin feeling and enough of my blend in it to spin your body’s natural smell, but there is my own composition on top of it.
And yes, perfumes tend to differ in scent profile depending on the person they're applied to. Mine do that even more.
How should I store my perfumes ?
Many of you ask this often. The answer:
It’s art, don’t put it in your bathroom!
Fragrances have two enemies: light and heat. Meaning, your bathroom is the worst place of all to store them. A shaded corner in a place with constant room temperature, a clean drawer, or even a perfume cabinet are all fine options. This is also the reason why my bottles are black.
What is an extrait de Parfum ?
There are several concentration catgeories that every fragrance falls in. The highest, called Extrait de Parfum or simply Parfum, is 30% and above of pure, undiluted perfume oil.
This is what I do - and only this. Because time is the secret ingredient of every good story, scents have to be long-lasting.