Perfumer Nuria Cruelles says she feels very lucky because she lives and feels every minute. Long before becoming Loewe's nose, the Catalan, which was born and raised in the Ebro Delta, in San Carlos de la Rapita, she and she was aware that her aromas were his thing.
Perhaps the fact of living in the middle of an idyllic natural park , between rice fields, flamingos, salt flats, sea and mountains... contributed to exacerbate her senses. She “she collected perfumes, without knowing that this was going to be a profession. It is true that this is a very closed world and closely linked to man, She didn't help being from Spain either. and not from France, where perfumery is more recognized, ”she recalls.
After studying Chemistry – “a perfume is a chemical poem”, she points out – doing internships in a perfumery company near her town and taking her first steps as molecule Designer, she jumped to Loewe, with whose transformation project – towards singularity, simplicity and craftsmanship – she fitted in perfectly.
“Now I am an urbanite but I come from a town where people live more peacefully and things are tasted differently. In addition, I am very sensitive, emotional... I live a lot from the senses, ”she explains.
Lavender fields in Brihuega.
Nuria invites us to follow her on a journey through the aromas of our country. “We have to stop, feel, leave our routine of being in front of a computer or a mobile. We are missing a lot of things. This tour of the jasmine of Grenade, the lavender of Guadalajara... for me it's about this, to stimulate the senses and get carried away, also by the visual spectacle".
“In Spain we no longer give importance to certain things, but if someone comes from northern Europe and is in Seville at night with the explosion of the orange blossom... Or with the daffodils of the Ebro Delta. I am in love with this flower, because it grows spontaneously, which is also my character, it belongs to the lily family”.
"Daffodils are free. You're walking around and suddenly you come across a yellow blanket. Many people will not know it but this flower, which grows where there is a lot of water, belongs to the the olfactory family of jasmine or tuberose, although with a sweeter, narcotic side, that makes you fall in love”.
After sharing her beginnings at Loewe with Emilio Valeros, Nuria went on to replace him at the head of the perfume section of a firm that values her past and looks to the future with a clear penchant for the natural, the green, the fresh. "Neither do we have to fear chemical products," explains the creator. If we want to use pink, we can combine it with facets of synthetic molecules, which saves a lot of water in the process, for example, and get a different balance. Of course, when I create a perfume I have to feel it here”, she says while she puts her hand to her heart.
Wild flower in the Ebro Delta.
“I try to recover ingredients that are either classics from the past, to modernize them, as I did with the green note galbanum in Paula's Ibiza, or they are not so common. When talking about summer perfume, people usually think of citrus, bergamot... and I say, no, gentlemen, let's do something that appeals to that freshness from another perspective. I like to introduce new smells and facets”.
For the new member of the Solo family, Loewe Solo Atlas, Nuria has recovered mastic, a shrub-like plant that grows spontaneously in Mediterranean areas and she usually goes unnoticed, looking for balance but also contrasts.
“All the Solos have them and in this last one we have combined warmth and freshness. The first comes from a mastic note from Morocco, which evokes the desert, contrasted with sea salt, that gives freshness. They are pairings of contrast, as they say in gastronomy", points out Cruelles, who is also a sommelier, and to whom he is fascinated by how wines can speak of your story.
Loewe Solo Atlas contains a green (mastic), floral (orange blossom) and marine (salt note) accord.
The chords of Solo Atlas also take us to the colonies of our childhood... “Because of the orange blossom, of course! We have grown up around Nenuco. That is the magic of perfume, it transports you, It reminds you of someone you love."
"Many people talk about lavender and have never smelled it naturally. If you go to Brihuega, where there are about 1,600 hectares of lavender, and you live that moment, it will always remain in your memory. When you smell it later, it will take you to that place”, suggests Nuria, who always has a pending trip and, when she travels, she tries to make a stop to discover an ingredient. “Before the pandemic I was on the island of Java in search of vetiver. I was struck by how it is collected, it is done by couples, it is like a ritual. The husband pulls out the root, which smells of smoked earth, pulls it out and it is the woman who cuts it. Every place has its history.
And each time, has its aroma, what would be the one of our times? “We live in a very hectic world. There is risk, uncertainty... We cannot say what is going to happen, we are building and that is reflected in the art, concerns and perfumery. The new generations lean towards genderless fragrances –which coincides with the spirit of Loewe garments–, they seek freshness and get out of their own myths and patterns, a bond with nature, feel part of the land. From simplicity to make art".
Seville has a special smell…
“Why did we launch a tomato leaf candle (from the Home Scents line, which also has coriander and oregano)? It is a green note, which refers to feeling, to the urban garden on the balconies. People seek to escape, while closest ingredients.
"You don't have to go far," emphasizes Nuria. it is spoken of the beauty of the grasse fields, but in our borders we have idyllic places like rockrose crops in Andévalo, Huelva, where entire families dedicate themselves to harvesting this plant with an addictive aroma”. A pending trip, in short.
This report was published in the number 147 of the Condé Nast Traveler Magazine (Summer 2021). Subscribe to the printed edition (€18, annual subscription, by calling 902 53 55 57 or from our website). The Condé Nast Traveler issue is available in its digital version to enjoy on your preferred device.