For a long time, Adriana Lopardo He did what came easy for him. He studied Communication almost by default, without quite knowing what he wanted for his life. But he flowed during his degree, and when he reached his senior year and had to choose his specialization, he opted for Advertising. Not because he was particularly passionate about it, but he believed that he could do it and it was also what his friends were going to choose. In the same way and without considering it too much, she had a job interview to join Grupo América and they took it.
Since then, he began to build a career that included doing press for companies, planning for advertising agencies and even dealing with government management. But she still didn’t think too much about whether that was what she wanted to do. “It was more like ‘he touched me.’ I did it well, I was doing better and better, I had well-paid positions and many benefits, which is why I was in a comfort situation from which it was difficult to get out ”, she recounts. Until she decided to embark on the world of niche perfumery, and all that comfort and fluidity went to waste. What began then, at the moment in which she finally resigned and said “it is now or it is not”, was an incessant search for suppliers and allies in a business that is almost non-existent in Argentina, and in which women do not participate. Thus, a little against all odds, was born Blind Fragrancesthe first perfume house in the country to develop luxury fragrances under the concepts without gender and without rules.
News: What relationship did it have with the world of perfumery?
Adriana Lopardo: None in particular, it was a pleasure, because I was always a consumer. Before resigning, I made time to do courses, a lot of research, a lot of traveling to get to know the niche perfumery industry. And then I began to investigate here what could be done. I found many no, with many “you are not going to sell to anyone”. They did not believe in the project, because there is no perfume industry here. So when you ask a laboratory that you want to make an original formula, different from what is out there and also with premium essences brought in from abroad, they look at you as if you were crazy.
News: Did you ever think about canceling the project?
Lopardo: Never. Everyone told me no, even my family, but I wanted to do it no matter what. Of course, afterwards you have to go negotiating your ideas. For example, he wanted to do everything with national raw materials. And when I started to get into the market, I understood that there is no essence produced here. I had to take my project to the possible with certain concessions. For example, in Argentina not a single glass container for perfumery and cosmetics is produced. Everything is imported from China, and is of inferior quality. Nothing I saw closed me, so I decided to import myself, and now I buy containers from France.
News: Why were you interested in making a perfume without gender?
Lopardo: It’s not something I invented, it’s very developed in Europe and the United States, and it has to do with going back to the roots of perfumery. In an updated way, obviously, but with this idea of a more traditional work that formulates fragrances that are different from what is on the market. And perfumery in its beginnings had no gender, it is a newer invention, as well as the colors for girls or boys. It started earlier, but in the 1970s it became established with an advertising and marketing campaign that never ended. This has to do with going back to traditional perfumery and also with something that is happening in society, this tendency not to label and for everyone to choose where they feel comfortable with their identity.
News: And why Blind?
Lopardo: Blind is blind in English. The sense of smell is the one we use the most, but it has less recognition. We propose to enter this world of the blind, without images, both in the premises and in the choice of containers and packaging, which always tried to be very neutral, so that fragrance and smell take center stage. In fact, part of the niche perfumery proposal is that you put your entire budget on the fragrance and not on the packaging.
News: Do we put on the perfume well?
Lopardo: There are people who like to pass and leave the wake for a block, there are others who like it much more subtle, that they only sit when someone approaches. hThere is a universe that is almost private about how to use it, which has to do with what you like. Because fragrances are like clothes, we choose them to build the identity we want to project. But there are tips, such as that highly hydrated skin retains the fragrance much more than dry skin. So if you want it to last longer, you should first hydrate well.
News: Is a good perfume the one that lasts?
Lopardo: It is one of the characteristics that is evaluated in the perfume, but whether it is a good perfume or not is also a private evaluation. Whoever likes it to last 12 hours and at five no longer feels strong, it won’t look good. And those who last too long may say that it is very strong… Perfumery is divided into categories: eau de cologne, cologne, eau de parfum, parfum, extract. They all have to do with the percentage of essence that you put into the fragrance. And the less percentage, the less it lasts. That’s why a eau de cologne lasts a little while and after an hour it evaporated. But it also has to do with the quality of the scents you use. For example, in Blind we use 25% essence, which according to these scales makes it a parfum, even though we sell it as an eau de parfum. As I am capricious, against all the indications of the suppliers, I wanted to do it that way. My goal is to work on a super premium fragrance. It cannot be done in everything, because it is not profitable, but it is tried with some issues.
News: Do you use other perfumes besides Blind?
Lopardo: I use everything and I mix, also from other brands, because it helps me to enlarge my head. The niche perfumery outside has some incredible things. Of course, I do not copy. My formulations are all original. That is why it is good to know what is there, what is being done and what can be done.
News: Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur or businesswoman?
Lopardo: Still an entrepreneur. Although we have grown a lot, there is still a long way to go, because there is no culture of niche fragrances., then we have to do the double job of teaching what it is and then showing the proposals. Although there is a pioneering brand in the country that has been around for more than 20 years, it was always a project designed for the outside world, with a huge budget, and they did not do the job of teaching people. So unfortunately it fell to me to do it.
News: In 2022 they received the Pure Beauty Global Awards for best niche fragrance for Punto. How did they take it?
Lopardo: It was incredible, it opened many doors. Many orders came from abroad and were interested in investing. Now we are exporting to the United States, for example. At the prize I presented myself to measure ourselves and see where we stood. One thinks they are making a good or very good fragrance, but for someone else to say so, and also in a market as competitive as the European one, it is incredible. In my head I had no hope of winning, so it was very motivating to keep investing and betting.
News: Was it difficult for you to be a woman in this industry?
Lopardo: Very much. Today I think I’ve earned the respect of some, but when you need a new supplier for something, that circuit starts again… I had uncomfortable situations, tolerating people I didn’t feel like working with, and where if I had been able to choose, I would have gone. It’s a very macho industry, I didn’t meet any woman who owns any laboratory, perhaps a single director. There is a long way to open.
