Jijide launches Riso and Grano at Esxence 2023
On occasion of its first attendance to Esxence 2023, Jijide, the up-and-coming Italian perfumery brand, announces the launch of two new fragrances as part of a new stage in its path to embody an innovative promise in the world of artistic perfumes.
At the same time, Jijide renews its commitment to inclusivity and sustainability, and also stays true to the original inspiration behind the brand: a history of friendship and cultural exchange. The fragrances, named Riso and Grano, have been designed with an experiential approach, with the idea to gather the feeling of finding a comfortable shelter on a rainy day, that feeling of inner warmth that anyone, anywhere can retrieve just by closing their eyes. Riso and Grano are conceived to enhance the beauty of such perceptions through a multicultural interpretation. Both perfumes are designed to be gender-neutral, as a first statement to celebrate individuality and challenge traditional labels. “We believe that a fragrance should be an expression of a person’s uniqueness, that’s why we work to promote inclusion and multiculturalism” noted the founders. With these values in mind, Jijide invited two talented emerging female noses to create the fragrances, Zimo Luo from China, and Nour Akoum from Lebanon. The noses, who are friends from their studies at the prestigious ISIPCA in Paris, were asked to work on the idea of friendship and get together, the feeling of comfort and fun one feels whilst having a good time with friends. Their unique backgrounds and expertise allowed them to capture the essence of two very different cultures and transform them into two appealing and complementary fragrances that fully represent Jijide’s DNA. Jjide’s ongoing commitment to quality and sustainability, was also a matter taken into consideration by both noses in the creation of Riso and Grano. For Jijide, sustainability means a responsible production, privileging non-toxic natural local ingredients, but also turning to chemical ones when this means avoiding the exploitation of natural resources or the increase of carbon footprint. Even the packaging is designed with recycling and creative re-use in mind: the perfume bottles, only produced in the 50ml travel-friendly size, can be fully dismantled and is made of 100% recycled glass. A serigraph was preferred to the traditional paper label to reduce waste even further. For the external packaging Jijide chose innovative materials produced by corn and rice waste, as a further commitment to Jijide’s never ending research for a low-impact product.
Riso: an authentic deep dive into Chinese’s hustle and bustle.
Rice, riso in Italian, is China’s signature food. Its fragrant smell immediately connects to Chinese daily life and homes. Whilst creating this fragrance for Jijide, Chinese nose Zimo Luo kept the Chinese term for the daily “seven necessities”: rice, firewood, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea. The fragrance was thought as an open invitation for foreign friends into Chinese life, recreating the feeling of good time spent together. The bustle of the streets during a festivity, a kumquat snack always at hand, the steamy fragrance of Babao rice being carried in the alleys. A true feast for the senses, sweet and salty, rich and complex and yet highly harmonious, Riso sits into the Gourmand family and Zimo Luo’s intent was to avoid all stereotypes connected to oriental perfumes ideated by western noses to create an authentic link between East and West. Like Jijide, Zimo Luo is highly committed to sustainability and for this fragrance she mostly used local essential oils produced in China.
Wheat, “grano” in Italian, is the undisputed protagonist of Italian and European culinary tradition. Starting from the irresistible smell of a fresh dough just taken out of the oven, Lebanese nose Nour Akoum imagined the feeling of an urban walk far from rush hour with the streets wet from a recent rainfall. The delicious smell is the trigger to enter a Parisian bakery and order a warm croissant or a baguette. An inestimable pleasure that sparks emotions - like Proust’s Madeleine - and can’t be ignored. Just like the magical baking process that turns simple uncooked materials into something delicious, Nour Akoum created a pyramid that starts with a moist, fresh character, then moves into an enticing sweetness and finally explodes into a buttery rich ending. To achieve the result, she created a highly detailed, harmonic mix of natural raw materials and responsible synthetic ones, committed to Jijide’s mission to sustainability.
