To celebrate Hiram Green’s newest release, Ultra, we are proud to present this interview with Hiram and our founder & owner, Tracy Tsefalas. Read on below and enjoy some insights into the creative process and perspectives of this all-natural perfumer powerhouse!
Tracy Tsefalas • Your treatment of honey in perfumes such as Tryst and Slowdive, reads so true and realistic. How have you achieved this so accurately, and what is it about this material that speaks to you?
Hiram Green • Luck or accident, I don’t know. However, blending resins and floral absolutes together often creates a sweet, honeylike fragrance. I enjoy this effect and continue to develop this fragrance theme in new perfumes.
T • Have you ever done collaborations with other perfumers or creative directors? Is that something that you would consider?
H • I have not yet done any collaborations. I would like to, but unfortunately, I do not have the time. Perhaps someday in the future, I will figure out a way to do this.
T • What are your thoughts on the current state of independent perfumery?
H • It is a very interesting time for independent perfumery. So much has changed in the industry since I first started working. Then, independent perfumery was very uncommon. Nowadays, they have become much more normal. There are many independent perfume brands to choose from. Although it is impossible to predict the future, I hope this trend will continue to grow.
T • Are there any other fragrance brands/houses that you see as innovative or inspiring?
H • I tend not to smell perfumes from other companies. However, I count many fragrance brand owners and perfumers among my friends. This is an industry with a lot of wonderful people who share similar passions.
T • Can you walk us through your early days of learning perfumery?
H • I am completely self-taught. I learned a lot about perfume making from reading books and researching as much information as I could find online. However, gathering information about perfume making is only one part. Learning how to use the materials is crucial, and for this, it is important to smell and experiment with blending. In the early days, I bought many raw materials from wherever I could find them, often from health food stores.
T • Mandy Aftel’s book Essence & Alchemy was one of your early influences. What was it about her approach and methods that you found interesting and helpful?
H • When I started teaching myself how to make natural perfumes, Mandy’s book was one of the only written references I could find for natural perfumes. At the time, she also had one of the only natural perfume brands on the market. She is certainly a pioneer.
T • Among your varied selection of fragrances, was there a fragrance that you found to be the most challenging to create?
H • They were all challenging to create. Each fragrance presents new obstacles to overcome.
T • Your fragrances stand out as lush and complex, not something that has been my overall experience with natural perfumes. How does your approach differ from other all-natural perfume lines on the market?
H • Indeed, it is my aim to create fragrances that are lush and complex, something not normally found in 100% natural perfumes. I believe that one of the main reasons my perfumes smell different is because of my excessive use of floral absolutes. However, a lot is in the mix. I spend a lot of time developing each perfume.
T • Are there any specific materials that you would like to work with that you have yet to be able to procure? Similarly, are there materials that you have worked with and loved but have not yet used in a finished fragrance?
H • I recently came back from a perfume ingredient trade fair in Paris. There, I learned of many new and interesting materials. I am really excited about some of these materials and hope they will eventually end up in future perfumes. I sometimes start creating a perfume based around a material that I really like. In the creative process, it can happen that the fragrance develops in a different direction, and the material I wanted to use no longer works well, so I remove it from the formula.
Explore Hiram Green’s fragrances here