Thomas Kosmala

Some perfumes are driven by emotion, while others are highly technical. This is not meant to detract from their abilities, of course, but in the case of Thomas Kosmala, we are talking about an alchemist (as he at least describes himself), mixing different ingredients and scents. The result is, of course, both astonishing and fascinating. Working with raw materials, Thomas Kosmala was born in Poland. By the time he decided to pursue perfumery, he already had a degree in chemistry and had worked in the essential oils industry. He gained his training in perfumery through several private lessons with Alice Daita of Cinquième Sens. She taught him about creation, composition, and all the other things needed for technical perfumery. He trained at her institute for two years in Paris, trying to connect raw materials with colors, shapes, and textures - which is, in fact, what creativity is all about. He also learned quite a lot about synthetic materials, believing that they are just as important as natural ones. After two years in Paris, he set up a laboratory in the south of France, where he continues to experiment with different raw materials to create something special and enchanting. From then until today, Thomas Kosmala has been considered something of a rock star in the world of perfumery, and his fragrances - which he blends himself - are among the most exclusive and expensive in the world. His customers come mainly from the Middle East and wealthy people in the Gulf. Thomas Kosmala - finding his niche. Kosmala is aware that in the commercial world, there always have to be trends because that is what the mass market mainly buys. So he decided to focus on niche perfumery. In his words, niche is synonymous with freedom: instead of following trends, you create art and movements, without taking commercial input into account. What's more, customers who buy the perfumes are looking for something unique, which they can easily find in niche perfumery, a diverse and soulful world. He tends to use Ood extensively in his perfumes, an ingredient that Europe, he says, discovered only recently. It is a scent that has been part of Middle Eastern history for a long time. In the Middle East, Ood was used as a form of relaxation, and to welcome guests. But while major commercial perfume houses use synthetic Ood in their production because natural Ood is especially difficult to obtain in large quantities, Kosma prefers and loves to use this natural ingredient in his perfumes, partly because he wants to keep the tradition alive. His first creation - pure Ood. Kosmala says of his first creation: "This is my vision of the purity of oud. In the top notes, you have lots of flowers: rose, magnolia, gardenia, Jasmine, Peony ... There aren't many fresh citrus notes at the top; although there is Bergamot, the perfume goes straight to the flowers. One thing was really difficult for me - how to connect the flowers with the base notes of oud and very soft amber." To overcome this obstacle, he decided to see what others were doing and found that flowers could add to the scent of oud. "And if you keep it on your skin all day, it will become a soft, musky amber base with oud. That's the main part of the fragrance, and the reason I created it was for a relaxing afternoon atmosphere, to create the purity and caressing softness of oud, not particularly Chayati," he adds. In contrast to white oud, Thomas Kosmala created black oud. This is a different story altogether; in fact, it is the opposite fragrance, because it contains an overdose of Ood oil. It's darker, more mysterious. Only its top notes have the signature notes of the previous perfume. In his later creations, Kosmala turned to the European market and developed a collection suited to it.