Scented Gateways: Claudio Denz Presents Maison Noir
Step into the world of Maison Noir, where scents serve as gateways to both reality and imagination. Co-founded by Claudio Denz, who brings 18 years of industry experience, Maison Noir transforms the traditional fragrance experience into an enchanting journey, with each scent inviting you into a fictional townhouse, a place where unique aromas create vivid stories and scent memories. In this interview, Claudio shares the inspiration behind his brand and the creative processes that turn fragrances into immersive, sensory adventures. Join us as we explore the escapist universe of Maison Noir!
What does the power of scent mean to you?
To me, scents offer true potential for exploring different facets of identity, allowing individual expression and freedom to become who you want to be in the moment.
What has your experience and career been like in the fragrance industry? Where did your journey begin?
I’ve been in the fragrance industry for over 18 years now, having gained experience in all key sectors of the industry, from production, procurement, and evaluation, with a focus always on marketing and design. I have designed cross-category fragrance products, from best-selling prestige to home fragrance lines up to crystal special editions. These experiences ultimately crowned the birth of Maison Noir, three years ago.
What has the experience been like creating your own brand? Through your experience in the industry, what did you think was lacking that made you want to bring your own ideas to life?
Coming from the prestige segment, I always wanted to explore on a deeper level my passion for perfume, and I believe the growing niche segment resulted in the perfect stage to do so.
My work these days allows me to go beyond branding and storytelling, placing scent creation at the core of the brand.
Fragrances can transport us, how does Maison Noir explore and bring to life the sensory delight of journeying through different worlds and places?
Maison Noir is a very customer-centric brand.
For us, it is very important not only to inspire our customers but also to offer them guidance.
Besides a luxurious packaging experience, we think it’s important to help the customer discover fragrances individually before smelling the full range, which is why our brand motto is: “Smell with your eyes first”, as we build colourful worlds around each fragrance.
How does the Maison encourage people to discover new scents? What experiences are in place for consumers to expand their fragrance knowledge?
All our perfumes follow their own concepts, making each scent a uniquely intriguing discovery.
To support the customers in exploring the scents, we have created our own fragrance wheel, defining each fragrance by the three most dominant scent directions. Each fragrance has a number in the name to follow a scent direction. This unique tool not only gives definition to every scent but also allows the consumer to discover new unexpected facets.
How does Maison Noir explore the role of ingredient sourcing?
We work with some of the world’s most renowned perfume houses and perfumers. These relationships not only give us insights into quality control and supervision of the ingredients, but also grant us access to witness perfumery manufacturing methods, and centuries of expertise.
The Maison features both home scents and fine fragrances. Why was it important to include both?
Our fine fragrance creations are our main focus, whereas our scented candles are conceived as the extension of each fragrance.
The candles add a complementary experience, which is our brand ethos.
Candles also open the market opportunity for a safer ‘blind buy’ gift, as they are conceived to be as personal as a fine fragrance.
How has the brand evolved from your initial ideas to now to fit within the current fragrance market?
I never felt that we as a brand had to specifically adapt to the market like a puzzle piece. When we started to sell our perfumes two years ago, we only started with a range of 4 scents- they were completely different from each other but created a brand DNA concept together. Since then, we have added two additional fragrances and will release number 7 this September. We feel very lucky that the brand was so well received by many valued partners and consumers, to the point that we already distribute our products in 28 countries!
What innovations are exciting you about the fragrance industry?
To me, there are not too many groundbreaking physical innovations in our industry. I however think that AI will change the world and also affect our industry. When it comes to industry-driven innovations, I think we will continue to see both, an uptick in naturals and lots of new opportunities through new captives which enable us to discover odours that twist our minds.
What can we look forward to from Maison Noir in the future?
We will never stop creating new worlds of scent and opening doors to new adventures. We as a brand are working hard on listening and understanding our customers, in order to present them with collections that inspire them. Stay curious, the next door opens this September.
And never forget, with us you smell with your eyes first!