Professeur de Parfums - Roja Dove

Roja Dove is THE name in the perfume business and we feel rather privileged to say that he is the new nose of Handbag.com sharing with us his most sought after recommendations and secrets. Read on to find out just how he made it into the industry...

Roja Dove is not rare. Roja Dove is unique. Roja is the world's sole
"Professeur de Parfums". There are celebrated noses in this multi-billion international business; there are small pools of astonishing creativity in what has become a corporate, highest of high tech, but anyone who asks for real knowledge - for a sorcerer's grasp of what really happens in the perfumery industry is always, always referred to Roja Dove.

Roja's comments and his great expertise are quoted in relation to nearly every manufacturer of fragrance in the world, whilst his anecdotes keep world-wide audiences on a rollercoaster of laughter, astonishment and fascination. Roja knows the rules of perfumery, he knows the rules of business and he knows what the market has done, is doing and will be doing next year.

Roja Dove's fascination with fragrance began at a very early age when he was kissed goodnight by his mother. As she  lowered her head to kiss him, he was aware that her  fragrance lingered in his room long after she had gone, keeping the image of her cocktail dress and the kiss alive.  Beguiled by the magical odours and exotic names of the
many different scents which were available at that time, Roja's interest continued to grow and develop into a passion:  this created within him a huge desire to be part of this fascinating world. He celebrated his 21st birthday with a visit to the Guerlain Boutique on the Champs-Elysées; already familiar with many of their legendry fragrances, this visit
decided him on his career - he was going to work for them.

Having decided his path, Roja started to research the history of the House and its creations, bombarding the global Guerlain subsidiaries for information. Eventually to shut this young man up, Robert Guerlain decided that this level of enthusiasm was better harnessed inside the, then family owned, company. He was recruited by Guerlain and started working in training and public relations with a special remit
within fragrance, where he began to learn about perfumery. Six years later he was bestowed the title of the world's sole "Professeur de Parfums", later becoming Guerlain's Global Ambassador - the first non Guerlain family member to be bestowed this honour.

Roja left to set up his own Public Relations, Training, and Fragrance Creation Company called RDPR specialising in selective luxury PR and Training. He has continued to travel extensively, broadening his knowledge and sharing his passion of the mysteries of perfume: and has worked with many of the leading fragrance houses within the industry.

Throughout his years in perfumery, and his constant travelling and lecturing, Dove has become the connoisseurs' connoisseur. Roja continues to travel and shares his passion of the mysteries of perfume, whilst working with all the top names the industry has to offer. Whether Dove is making his audiences giggle with a risqué description of Schiaperelli's Shocking ("like the interior of ladies' underwear") or its
new imitator Westwood's Boudoir ("like Shocking but without the knickers") the phrase which probably sums him up best is simple: "his passion is contagious".

"The audience was utterly enthralled...". Mary Le Comte, Programme Manager, V&A Museum; after a keynote lecture ‘Couture Fragrance - It's Golden Decade' for their main winter exhibition ‘The Golden Age Of Couture: Paris & London 1947-57'.

The genuine passion, with which he speaks about fragrance, and the evocative language he uses, touches everyone who listens -unlocking the mysteries of fragrance and truly conveying the emotion and artistry which made the truly great compositions great.

It might be astonishing that the man who has become associated as the voice of perfumery should be English. Modestly, Dove will point out that in the early 19th Century it was English toiletries which were most admired on the continent and those that were the fathers of French perfumery studied in England. How appropriate that Dove trod an almost identical path before visiting Paris and losing his heart to the exoticism of the cut glass bottles and the mysterious contents he found there.

Roja has assembled what is probably one of the most important private collections of Baccarat crystal perfume bottles, "Each bottle and name captured a moment in time perfectly", he remarked as part of his collection was presented for the first time to the public at the Baccarat boutique in London's Bond Street.

However, this is by no means all. Roja is a perfumer, creating his own fragrances, but like the true original he is, even this is different. Launched at a charity event at Christie's Auction House in London, Roja creates bespoke fragrances for a very exclusive clientele. These fragrances, the equivalent of Haute Couture, are all housed in Baccarat crystal flacons and are of course the very pinnacle of the perfumer's art,
being as they are made from the finest, rarest, most expensive raw materials in the world. Will Roja divulge his client list? "No," he smiles, because you know, he knows, you know who some of them are.

Perhaps the almost inevitable next stage was for him to open his own perfumery - The Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie - the world's most luxurious, rarefied perfumery opened in October 2004. Nestling amongst the black lacquer and crystal are a thousand bottles, each one full of the finest, the most creative, the best that the world of fragrance has to offer; famous names vie to shine out in such elated surroundings.
It has become the benchmark for true luxury and opulence, for everything that is perfect in the world of fragrance.

Dove's bespoke fragrance work, and the demand in the Roja Dove Haute Parfumerie for quality fragrances, both convinced and inspired him to start to create, what he hoped would be, a great fragrance in each of the three main fragrance styles.
Nearly three years later the trilogy of Roja Dove's first commercially available fragrances was launched - Scandal, Unspoken, and Enslaved.

Roja continues to pass on his unsurpassable knowledge at prestigious charity events across the globe and at culturally important lectures from The Barbican or Victoria & Albert Museum in London, or across the Atlantic to the Museum of Fine Art in Boston, mesmerising his audiences wherever he goes, whilst also enthralling the readers of the publications that he is commissioned to write for - always with his individual style and a personal touch.

Click here to go back to our summer scents special and see what fragrances Roja recommends