How are CREED fragrances made? Are they still truly made by hand?

They are.

All authentic CREED fragrances are made by hand by sixth-generation master perfumer Olivier CREED, his son, Erwin, and a team of just 35 people working in a single location in the French countryside. Messrs. CREED design and compose CREED fragrances entirely themselves. The role of their staff is to bottle and ship the products of Messrs. CREED.

The small CREED team works in what resembles a collection of country houses near one another in the woods.

The small CREED team works in what resembles a collection of country houses near one another in the woods. The rustic buildings house the studio of Messrs. CREED, their offices, cold and warm storage, as needed, for natural ingredients from around the world and large rooms with vats for the blending and later, bottling, of fragrance.

When Olivier CREED starts to create a new fragrance, acting on his creative inspiration, he wears only that fragrance, day in and day out, as a key part of the creative process. He and his son discuss the fragrant composition, adding a note here, subtracting one there, calling upon a worldwide and long-established network of farmers and growers who supply CREED needed ingredients that range from bergamot to sandalwood. CREED fathers and sons have worked this way since 1760.

Even today, CREED has no fragrance production schedules, no timetable of fragrance launches, no scientists or laboratories creating fragrance, no test marketing and no consumer focus groups — all of which are very common elements of the global fragrance industry in 2010. (more…)