Mastering the Art of Fragrance with Chelsey Owen

Scent, often hailed as one of our most evocative senses, possesses a unique power to whisk us away to distant memories, cherished experiences, and beloved places with just a single whiff. For generations, perfumes have held the remarkable ability to encapsulate memories and feelings, perfecting the blend of nostalgia and emotion with every spray. But what exactly goes into those intricate little bottles?

We invite you to enter the dynamic world of fragrance with Chelsey Owen, a renowned perfumer whose journey is as intriguing as the scents she develops. From navigating the vibrant streets of Paris, where the essence of perfume fills the air, to undergoing rigorous training under seasoned professionals, Chelsey's passion for perfumery has evolved into an impressive skillset. Now, as the founder of her own studio in Seattle, Atelier Madrona, she continues to innovate, crafting unique scents that tell stories and evoke emotions.

Join us as we dive into Chelsey's creative process, exploring the intricate relationship between scent and sensation and uncover the chemistry behind her latest collaboration with Can Can. Together, we embarked on creating Can Can's debut perfumes, Le Fight and Le F#@%, where each fragrance embodies a blend of joy, playfulness, and a little naughtiness.

THECANCAN.COM: Our audience would love to learn more about you! What has the journey looked like for you to become a master perfumer?

Chelsey Owen: It's been a long journey. It started with spending a ton of time in Paris, just for fun and personal enjoyment. I became enamored with, and sort of obsessed with, this rite of passage process for women there. Perfume is such a part of the Parisian culture in a way that doesn't really exist in the U.S. What I learned was that when girls turn 16, oftentimes their moms will take them out to perfume stores to find their individual, signature scent.

That was really what inspired my interest in perfumery. I ended up taking a small class just to get myself introduced to perfumery. I quickly realized I was in love with it, and I ended up spending six years training my nose and working under other master perfumers.

The training is really intense; you end up having to memorize 1500 individual olfactive notes. It's like a foreign language. You memorize all these different olfactive notes and then, for the final exams, you have to be able to smell a fragrance and recreate it just from smell. Fast forward to me opening my studio here in Seattle in 2017, so we’re entering our 7th year now.

THECANCAN.COM: Could you describe the creative journey or challenges you encountered during the year-long process of testing and perfecting these fragrances with Can Can? What was it like working with Chris and Fae?

Chelsey Owen: It's a long and complex process. It starts with what I call the creative brief. It's important for me to understand from Chris and Fae what their brand is. What is it that they want people to feel when they think about Can Can's brand?

Then, if we want to evoke those emotions through the scent, what would those emotions be? The first part is just getting us aligned on that. And then, the next piece is fun, which is where I ask them if this scent were a texture, what texture would it be? If it were a taste, what would it taste like or what kind of food would it be? What color would it be? I’m sure you can imagine that Chris and Fae had very creative answers to those questions. Chelsey laughs.

So, I gather a bunch of information from them, and then from that, based on my training and what I know, I decide what they’re describing falls into a specific scent family, which is defined as what's called an olfactive signature. The olfactive signature for their scent is delicious, powdery, and spicy. 

Now I've got a good feeling about their brand. I know what feeling, what emotions they want to evoke, or how someone should feel when they're wearing the fragrance. From there, I developed five unique scents for them that would all fit that description. We decided the perfume would be delicious, powdery, and spicy, but each combination would all smell completely different. Those words can be interpreted in a lot of different ways.  I could go on and on about that, but, from there, we get down to about two or three scents. Then we just go through iteration over iteration of tweaking the ingredients and playing with concentration. 

We tested them on the dancers to see how long it’ll wear on their skin and what the throw is, which is how far the scent travels. This is a unique step in the process of working with Chris and Fae. It all takes months because it takes time to just play with the formulas, test them, and decide what tweaks we want to make.

THECANCAN.COM: Can you elaborate on the initial steps taken when conceptualizing the fragrances for Can Can? How did you identify and refine the primary notes for Le Fight and Le F#@%?

Chelsey Owen: The art of translating a brand into a scent is kind of like my secret sauce. So when you ask how I identified the primary notes–I would say it's part of the art of perfumery, combined with the brand archetypes I use.

Wanting to play into the brand archetypes of the Can Can and the aromatherapeutic effects of specific raw materials, it comes back to evoking specific emotions. They wanted the emotions to evoke a sort of playfulness, sensuality, and confidence. I built the fragrances around those emotions that we're trying to elicit.

 Le Fight sparks a high-energy clash of scents, blending woody, patchouli, and leather-slipper notes with the boldness of passion fruit and exquisite white florals, all wrapped in a seductive cloud of cotton candy. Meanwhile, Le F#@% exudes softness, sensuality, and tranquility, inviting intimate moments. Its blend of sweet, spicy, and warm notes unfolds gracefully with hints of jasmine and freesia, while a base of deep spice and vanilla adds an irresistible allure.

THECANCAN.COM: When crafting these exclusive perfumes, were there specific influences from Can Can's ambiance or theme that you sought to capture and translate into these scents?

Chelsey Owen: When I asked Chris and Fae to describe Can Can as textures, they picked things like red velvet, creamy frosting, and liquid gold. And if it were a color, of course, it wouldn’t be something like red or blue… it’s gold glitter and melted pinks. It shows when you go to the Can Can theatre, it’s both sweet and naughty.

We also created three archetypes that I felt represented them. The primary one is The Jester, which is all about pleasure and fun. Then there are two supporting archetypes which are The Lover and The Magician. The Lover is all about intimacy and passion, and the Magician is all about imagination and inspiring dreams.

I then asked, “Okay, if that’s who they are, then what emotions are tied to them?” And that's where we get emotions like happy, liberated, confident, seductive, playful, sophisticated, desired, and sensual. Once we know the emotions, that's when it's like, okay, how does that translate into fragrance? That's where my training comes in.

THECANCAN.COM: How did you balance the boldness and subtlety in crafting these fragrances to cater to different preferences and occasions? Was it a challenge to create a pair rather than one scent?

Chelsey Owen: Well, they typically just ask for one, but here’s the story of how we actually landed on the two. So, we had done these five assignments, and we narrowed it down to two–Chris liked one, and Fae liked the other one. They both liked them, but Fae leaned toward Le Fight and Chris leaned toward La F#@%. We had decided we were gonna go with Le Fight, but we hadn't named it yet.

While we were developing the scents we were also looking at packaging. What bottle were we going to use, etcetera. We decided we were going to put it in a red bottle with the bright bubblegum pink Atomizer. I'm driving home one day when Chris calls me, and he goes, “Okay, we're going to do both. And we're going to call them Le Fight and Le F#@%.”  And, of course, you know where that comes from. I've been to their shows a hundred times, and the name choice is brilliant. That was really how we ended up on two fragrances. They're different but complimentary. It wasn't a challenge to create them, we were always trying to just create one, but I would say it's their creative genius that we ended up with the two. 

So, what do you think? Do you want to Le Fight or Le F#@%?
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