Illuminum London — British niche fragrance house
Founded in 2011. Twelve fragrances built around specific raw materials — oud from Laos and Cambodia, Taif rose, Indonesian patchouli — are composed for character rather than crowd appeal.
A NICHE HOUSE, NOT A BRAND
A NICHE HOUSE, NOT A BRAND
Founded in London in 2011, Illuminum is an independent British fragrance house — twelve fragrances, each built around a specific raw material with a clear source.
What makes Illuminum a niche house
The Art of Collaboration
Exploring the creative intersections of scent, design, and culture
ILLUMINUM 95%
Illuminum London proudly straddle the worlds of art and fragrance, pushing the boundaries of how we experience scent and altering our pre-conceived perceptions of smell itself. Having collaborated with many artists, designers and architects over the years, it seems only natural they should now be working with chefs and exploring that vital link between food and fragrance. Illuminum invited innovative chefs Jackson Boxer, Yuki Gomi and Tom Wolfe to create three distinctive fragrances that explored the interfaces of this connection, playing with our notions of what we think our nose knows.
Illuminum say: ‘Outside the world of perfume, it is chefs who use their sense of smell on a daily basis to spark or guide their imagination. For Illuminum, this cross-disciplinary collaboration with three thoughtful practitioners, each with a clear view of the role and potential of scent, is a unique opportunity to transcend the borders of experience, expectation and practice in order to fashion the new.’
Formulated in partnership with expert perfumers, the three new scents demonstrate the brand’s ethos of carrying a passion for perfume into fulfilling realms of shared experience, including the worlds of art and culture. For Illuminum, fragrance is an art form in its own right.
BRUNSWICK HOUSE
‘Founder of the Brunswick House restaurant and bar in London’s Vauxhall, Jackson Boxer brings his individuality to bear on every facet of the guest experience. Here, within a unique architectural emporium, the antiques themselves are for sale as part of a spirited homage to good taste.’
“For Yuki Gomi, master of Japanese cooking, teacher, and founder of Yuki’s Kitchen, the ‘95 Percent’ series collaboration is an opportunity to reconnect with a childhood spent in the foothills of Mount Fuji, home to all the subtlety and poetic suggestiveness of Japan’s culinary tradition.” For Yuki’s scent, the notes osmanthus, green tea, tangerine and vetiver are entwined to entice the senses...
YUKI GOMI
TOM WOLFE
“London-based Tom Wolfe pioneered the fusion of food with art and product design, carving out a uniquely flamboyant niche in the capital’s culinary landscape. This collaboration with Illuminum is a chance to show off his dazzling talent for drama, story, spectacle and cultural allusion.” Tom Wolfe #234 twists fennel infused with bergamot, geranium and neroli and a base of pine tree with amber to intrigue...
PERFUME X ARCHITECTURE
BY ANTONINO CARDILLO
Italian architect Antonino Cardillo has created a multi-sensory space for experiencing and buying fragrance by coating a room inside an old London building with volcanic ash.
Antonino Cardillo was invited by British fragrance company Illuminum to redesign its London store, which occupies a 28-square-metre room inside a Georgian building on Dover Street. Described by the architect as an “Appollonian and Dionysian grotto”, the single room has been coated with a rough f inished plaster made using ash from Italy’s Vesuvius volcano and putty lime.
Behind a portal on a Georgian street in London, lives a small grey grotto. Its rugged walls, imprinted with gestures of the mason’s trowel reveal the eroticism which was conveyed in the act of construction by the ancients.
The pozzolanic ash echoes the volcanic topography from where it was quarried. As ‘chambers of light’ the three tall openings facing the street orchestrate the light and shadow. Onto a rough wall: the backdrop for a sweeping semi-circle of thirty-seven irregular glass forms each suspended by a black thread. Enclosed are colours. Invisible colours revealed only by the nose.
“This mineral dust was widely used in ancient Roman for building the largest constructions of the late ancient era,” said Cardillo. “The most famous one is the dome of the Pantheon in Rome.”
ILLUMINUM SCENT DINNER
BY HARRY HENSMAN
British Vogue: What happens at a scent dinner? Beauty and health director Nicola Moulton sniffs for her supper.
“It’s a translation from one human sense, smell, into another, taste,” says Burr, as we take our seats for dinner. “And the reason it’s so fascinating is that 95 per cent of what we think we’re tasting is actually smell anyway.” The food for the evening is being prepared by the talented young head chef Harry Hensman - but not until we’ve tried to guess the “notes” in the first course.
I always imagine that, should the desire to take a sip of my favourite perfume (Chanel No. 19) get the better of me, it would taste exactly like gin and tonic. Crisp, clean, sort of green-ish. And delicious. Chandler Burr, the one-time New York Times scent critic, has had a similar thought, and his far-from-idle musings have resulted in a new phenomenon that has become quite the thing in the perfume world: the scent dinner. Last week, he held one in Venice for Tom Ford. Some months ago, he held one in Miami for Armani. There was a Clinique one in London last year, and last night he was back in London for the young and exciting perfume company Illuminum, which has a “fragrance lounge” on Dover Street. The idea is as simple as it is intriguing: you take a perfume, select some of its most interesting notes, and ask a talented chef to create edible interpretations of the smells.
HARRY HENSMAN
London-based chef and Director of Harry’s Kitchen, established over 20 years ago. The company is famous for their fresh & tailored approach to catering: from a deluxe curated cinema food and wine experiences, to a corporate canapé and cocktail party at the National gallery for 500 guests.
CHANDLER BURR
Chandler Burr is the former New York Times scent critic, writing the Times’ Scent Notes column. He is author of two non-fiction books, The Emperor of Scent and The Perfect Scent. The latter began as an article Burr wrote for The New Yorker called “The Scent of the Nile.”
SYNAESTHESIA SCENTS WORKSHOP
Have you ever wondered what the senses might look like? Imagine that a sound, touch, smell or taste may be visualised. Following our gallery installation theme ‘Colour as a Narrative’, Illuminum team explored a unique phenomenon called Synaesthesia, whereby two or more of the five senses that are normally experienced separately are being interconnected.
A renowned occurrence in psychology, though only few of us have the ability to experience the phenomenon. A synaesthetic person can often picture sounds, smells, f lavours or tactile feelings as they experience them. The kind of sense visualisation process induces visions of vivid colours, arrays of shapes and textures. Merging of the senses enhances affected person’s inner imagination resulting in the appearance of artistic impressions.
We are immensely fascinated by this extraordinary way of experiencing the surrounding world. Intrigued by the idea of hyper sensation and the ability to connect senses, we hosted the event with Philippa Stanton.
5ftinf is Philippa’s largely popular self-expression project, where she lets her imagination flow in daily still life table top shots. She finds and organises simple objects, like cups of tea, flowers, twigs and other pretty treasures in harmonic patterns reflecting her feelings.
Held in the gallery, our workshop offered an insight into the multi sensorium perception guided by Philippa who has a first hand understanding as she is a synaesthete herself. Her abstract paintings represent her individual synaesthetic impressions of f lowers, food, drinks and people’s voices. The workshop invited participants to think deep about how things feel, sound, smell and look, inspiring them to connect with deepest senses and spark their inner imagination.
SYNAESTHETIC ART BY PHILIPPA STANTON, CAMELLIA STAFFORD AND AMY KEY
Have you ever wondered what the senses might look like? Imagine that a sound, touch, smell or taste may be visualised. Following our gallery installation theme ‘Colour as a Narrative’, Illuminum team explored a unique phenomenon called Synaesthesia, whereby two or more of the five senses that are normally experienced separately are being interconnected.
As a synaesthetic artist, Philippa Stanton sees or identifies sounds, tastes and scents in colours, textures and forms, a perceptive shift that allows her to create unique portraits of voices, foods, drinks and other subjects.
Amy Key is the author of Luxe (Salt, 2013) and Instead of Stars (tall-lighthouse, 2009). Her poems have appeared in magazines including POETRY, The Poetry Review and Riposte, and in anthologies including Best British Poetry 2015 (forthcoming from Salt), Poetry Please: Love Poems (Faber & Faber, 2015) and The Poetry of Sex (Penguin, 2014).
REMI ROUGH
Masters of fine fragrance, Illuminum have teamed up with celebrated artist, Remi Rough to transform their Dover St space in Mayfair into an interactive space, to celebrate the launch of their limited edition, midwinter scent – White Oud – we can’t wait to see (and smell) it!
‘My inspiration for the Illuminum interior artwork is the Oud itself, the ‘heartwood’ of the Aquaria and Gyrinops evergreen trees. Intense, dark raw material, much like the essence of my painting. Everything has a heart and my artwork will try and place a beating heart within the space itself.’
Launching 11th December, the pop-up will be open to the public in December and January, and we’re told that Rough will be using the whole space as his canvas.
KEIKO NISHIYAMA
The Scent of Curiosity is a collaboration between two prestigious labels Keiko Nishiyama and Illuminum London. The week-long exhibition was staged to announce the collaboration of Keiko Nishiyama’s SS16 Collection and the unique fragrance collection of Illuminum London. The artistry of Orié Inoué combined fashion and fragrance to present us with an enchanting experience.
Established in 2014 by Keiko Nishiyama, the brand is based in Tokyo and London. She works, with highly ornate textiles and draping, which combines elements of Europe and Tokyo.
Keiko is an MA graduate from the London College of Fashion and presented her collection at London and Paris Fashion weeks. Production is located in Japan where a local company processes her digital prints onto the garments, made from Belgian, French, and Italian fabrics. Finishing touches are added in her London studio.
ILLUMINUM 95%
Illuminum London proudly straddle the worlds of art and fragrance, pushing the boundaries of how we experience scent and altering our pre-conceived perceptions of smell itself. Having collaborated with many artists, designers and architects over the years, it seems only natural they should now be working with chefs and exploring that vital link between food and fragrance. Illuminum invited innovative chefs Jackson Boxer, Yuki Gomi and Tom Wolfe to create three distinctive fragrances that explored the interfaces of this connection, playing with our notions of what we think our nose knows.
Illuminum say: ‘Outside the world of perfume, it is chefs who use their sense of smell on a daily basis to spark or guide their imagination. For Illuminum, this cross-disciplinary collaboration with three thoughtful practitioners, each with a clear view of the role and potential of scent, is a unique opportunity to transcend the borders of experience, expectation and practice in order to fashion the new.’
Formulated in partnership with expert perfumers, the three new scents demonstrate the brand’s ethos of carrying a passion for perfume into fulfilling realms of shared experience, including the worlds of art and culture. For Illuminum, fragrance is an art form in its own right.
BRUNSWICK HOUSE
‘Founder of the Brunswick House restaurant and bar in London’s Vauxhall, Jackson Boxer brings his individuality to bear on every facet of the guest experience. Here, within a unique architectural emporium, the antiques themselves are for sale as part of a spirited homage to good taste.’
“For Yuki Gomi, master of Japanese cooking, teacher, and founder of Yuki’s Kitchen, the ‘95 Percent’ series collaboration is an opportunity to reconnect with a childhood spent in the foothills of Mount Fuji, home to all the subtlety and poetic suggestiveness of Japan’s culinary tradition.” For Yuki’s scent, the notes osmanthus, green tea, tangerine and vetiver are entwined to entice the senses...
YUKI GOMI
TOM WOLFE
“London-based Tom Wolfe pioneered the fusion of food with art and product design, carving out a uniquely flamboyant niche in the capital’s culinary landscape. This collaboration with Illuminum is a chance to show off his dazzling talent for drama, story, spectacle and cultural allusion.” Tom Wolfe #234 twists fennel infused with bergamot, geranium and neroli and a base of pine tree with amber to intrigue...
PERFUME X ARCHITECTURE
BY ANTONINO CARDILLO
Italian architect Antonino Cardillo has created a multi-sensory space for experiencing and buying fragrance by coating a room inside an old London building with volcanic ash.
Antonino Cardillo was invited by British fragrance company Illuminum to redesign its London store, which occupies a 28-square-metre room inside a Georgian building on Dover Street. Described by the architect as an “Appollonian and Dionysian grotto”, the single room has been coated with a rough f inished plaster made using ash from Italy’s Vesuvius volcano and putty lime.
Behind a portal on a Georgian street in London, lives a small grey grotto. Its rugged walls, imprinted with gestures of the mason’s trowel reveal the eroticism which was conveyed in the act of construction by the ancients.
The pozzolanic ash echoes the volcanic topography from where it was quarried. As ‘chambers of light’ the three tall openings facing the street orchestrate the light and shadow. Onto a rough wall: the backdrop for a sweeping semi-circle of thirty-seven irregular glass forms each suspended by a black thread. Enclosed are colours. Invisible colours revealed only by the nose.
“This mineral dust was widely used in ancient Roman for building the largest constructions of the late ancient era,” said Cardillo. “The most famous one is the dome of the Pantheon in Rome.”
ILLUMINUM SCENT DINNER
BY HARRY HENSMAN
British Vogue: What happens at a scent dinner? Beauty and health director Nicola Moulton sniffs for her supper.
“It’s a translation from one human sense, smell, into another, taste,” says Burr, as we take our seats for dinner. “And the reason it’s so fascinating is that 95 per cent of what we think we’re tasting is actually smell anyway.” The food for the evening is being prepared by the talented young head chef Harry Hensman - but not until we’ve tried to guess the “notes” in the first course.
I always imagine that, should the desire to take a sip of my favourite perfume (Chanel No. 19) get the better of me, it would taste exactly like gin and tonic. Crisp, clean, sort of green-ish. And delicious. Chandler Burr, the one-time New York Times scent critic, has had a similar thought, and his far-from-idle musings have resulted in a new phenomenon that has become quite the thing in the perfume world: the scent dinner. Last week, he held one in Venice for Tom Ford. Some months ago, he held one in Miami for Armani. There was a Clinique one in London last year, and last night he was back in London for the young and exciting perfume company Illuminum, which has a “fragrance lounge” on Dover Street. The idea is as simple as it is intriguing: you take a perfume, select some of its most interesting notes, and ask a talented chef to create edible interpretations of the smells.
HARRY HENSMAN
London-based chef and Director of Harry’s Kitchen, established over 20 years ago. The company is famous for their fresh & tailored approach to catering: from a deluxe curated cinema food and wine experiences, to a corporate canapé and cocktail party at the National gallery for 500 guests.
CHANDLER BURR
Chandler Burr is the former New York Times scent critic, writing the Times’ Scent Notes column. He is author of two non-fiction books, The Emperor of Scent and The Perfect Scent. The latter began as an article Burr wrote for The New Yorker called “The Scent of the Nile.”
SYNAESTHESIA SCENTS WORKSHOP
Have you ever wondered what the senses might look like? Imagine that a sound, touch, smell or taste may be visualised. Following our gallery installation theme ‘Colour as a Narrative’, Illuminum team explored a unique phenomenon called Synaesthesia, whereby two or more of the five senses that are normally experienced separately are being interconnected.
A renowned occurrence in psychology, though only few of us have the ability to experience the phenomenon. A synaesthetic person can often picture sounds, smells, f lavours or tactile feelings as they experience them. The kind of sense visualisation process induces visions of vivid colours, arrays of shapes and textures. Merging of the senses enhances affected person’s inner imagination resulting in the appearance of artistic impressions.
We are immensely fascinated by this extraordinary way of experiencing the surrounding world. Intrigued by the idea of hyper sensation and the ability to connect senses, we hosted the event with Philippa Stanton.
5ftinf is Philippa’s largely popular self-expression project, where she lets her imagination flow in daily still life table top shots. She finds and organises simple objects, like cups of tea, flowers, twigs and other pretty treasures in harmonic patterns reflecting her feelings.
Held in the gallery, our workshop offered an insight into the multi sensorium perception guided by Philippa who has a first hand understanding as she is a synaesthete herself. Her abstract paintings represent her individual synaesthetic impressions of f lowers, food, drinks and people’s voices. The workshop invited participants to think deep about how things feel, sound, smell and look, inspiring them to connect with deepest senses and spark their inner imagination.
SYNAESTHETIC ART BY PHILIPPA STANTON, CAMELLIA STAFFORD AND AMY KEY
Have you ever wondered what the senses might look like? Imagine that a sound, touch, smell or taste may be visualised. Following our gallery installation theme ‘Colour as a Narrative’, Illuminum team explored a unique phenomenon called Synaesthesia, whereby two or more of the five senses that are normally experienced separately are being interconnected.
As a synaesthetic artist, Philippa Stanton sees or identifies sounds, tastes and scents in colours, textures and forms, a perceptive shift that allows her to create unique portraits of voices, foods, drinks and other subjects.
Amy Key is the author of Luxe (Salt, 2013) and Instead of Stars (tall-lighthouse, 2009). Her poems have appeared in magazines including POETRY, The Poetry Review and Riposte, and in anthologies including Best British Poetry 2015 (forthcoming from Salt), Poetry Please: Love Poems (Faber & Faber, 2015) and The Poetry of Sex (Penguin, 2014).
REMI ROUGH
Masters of fine fragrance, Illuminum have teamed up with celebrated artist, Remi Rough to transform their Dover St space in Mayfair into an interactive space, to celebrate the launch of their limited edition, midwinter scent – White Oud – we can’t wait to see (and smell) it!
‘My inspiration for the Illuminum interior artwork is the Oud itself, the ‘heartwood’ of the Aquaria and Gyrinops evergreen trees. Intense, dark raw material, much like the essence of my painting. Everything has a heart and my artwork will try and place a beating heart within the space itself.’
Launching 11th December, the pop-up will be open to the public in December and January, and we’re told that Rough will be using the whole space as his canvas.
KEIKO NISHIYAMA
The Scent of Curiosity is a collaboration between two prestigious labels Keiko Nishiyama and Illuminum London. The week-long exhibition was staged to announce the collaboration of Keiko Nishiyama’s SS16 Collection and the unique fragrance collection of Illuminum London. The artistry of Orié Inoué combined fashion and fragrance to present us with an enchanting experience.
Established in 2014 by Keiko Nishiyama, the brand is based in Tokyo and London. She works, with highly ornate textiles and draping, which combines elements of Europe and Tokyo.
Keiko is an MA graduate from the London College of Fashion and presented her collection at London and Paris Fashion weeks. Production is located in Japan where a local company processes her digital prints onto the garments, made from Belgian, French, and Italian fabrics. Finishing touches are added in her London studio.
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