Actor. Director. Screenwriter. Perfumer – Acting legend Richard E. Grant has done it all, but his ventures into the world of luxury fragrance has been a long-standing childhood ambition, which resulted in the launch of his unisex scent JACK in 2014. Originally released as a stand-alone luxury product which has won a variety of fragrance awards, Richard E. Grant has now developed JACK into a thriving fragrance empire.
Emma Harrison speaks to Richard to find out how a simple jam jar was the inspiration behind JACK and how his friend Anya Hindmarch helped make his fragrance dream a reality.
What inspired you to launch a fragrance range?
'I've been led by my nose all my life' - which is the tagline printed on the back of my JACK packaging. I had an American girlfriend when I was 12 years old when growing up in Swaziland and wanted to give her scent for her birthday. My pocket money didn't stretch to that so tried to make it by boiling gardenia and rose petals in sugared water and sealing the concoction in jam jars. So, it's been a lifelong secret passion to create my own perfume.
Please can you tell us how your friendship with Anya Hindmarch helped with the creation of JACK?
Anya and I were fellow house guests in Mustique in 2013 and she took me aside and asked why I missiled my nose at everything in sight. I confessed that I had always wanted to make a bespoke scent and she took me seriously, tapped out a list of contacts in London on her iPhone and encouraged me to pursue making my dream a reality. Her enthusiasm, loyalty and discernment have proved invaluable.
Anya's contact list led me to work with Catherine Mitchell at IFF, suggested by Roja Dove, who has been a real benign Svengali. I met with professional 'Nose', Alienor Massenet who transformed my ingredients list into the formula that precisely matched what I had always imagined - which was JACK – a combination of lime, marijuana, mandarin, clove, pepper and musk.