Interview with Stephen Cordina - The Perfumer of Malta

‘The Perfumer Of Malta‘ - a headline that sounds like the title of a 700-page historical novel. And indeed: the southernmost European state is home to the highest density of historic sites in the world, with 2,000 cultural monuments in an area just the size of the German city of Bremen. To top it all off, the entire capital of Valletta is a UNESCO World Heritage Site! Strolling through the narrow, steep streets at the end of January in sunshine and 18° C, it wasn't just my eyes that were amazed, my nose also smelled surprising fragrances. They directed me around two street corners straight to Stephen Cordina's perfume atelier and store. Not only did I get to know Malta's first and so far only perfumer, but also one of the few in Europe who specializes in working with natural fragrances in a highly professional manner. Although noticeably busy, he took time a few days after my first visit and answered my questions in a relaxed Mediterranean manner. To my surprise, Stephen began our chat in German, which he had acquired during his perfumery studies in Switzerland. We then continued the interview in English.

So, Stephen, how did you become the perfumer of Malta?
Well, at first, I never thought I would become a perfumer all! At first it was a big question mark. My father said, ‘This is something for the children of doctors and professors, which we are not. So, no.’ And secondly, it's probably a bit feminine. So the subject was never taken up again and I kept it as a secret in my own heart. Because there was no perfumer in Malta that I could go and talk to and say, ‘Could you guide me?’ We don't have the people who push you to become a perfumer. Because nobody knows in Malta. The internet wasn't like it is today, we're talking about 1997, 1998, you know. School wasn't helpful either. People used to say: a chemist becomes a perfumer. Or a pharmacist.
And I always thought: Is that so? Come on! Then when I found out what it takes and what it doesn’t take, I just said to myself: let me become an aromatherapist. That's the basis of perfumery. I'll hopefully qualify as a perfumer, but I'll keep it a secret from everyone around me. Okay, I've actually travelled to London and Switzerland and France all the time without telling anyone that I'm actually studying perfumery! So in the end, my heart followed the nose.

What a story! And you made it all the way to membership of the ‘Société Française des Parfumeurs‘...
... which was also a challenge for me as a perfumer from a small island state on the edge of Europe. But they said, we'd love to have you. You're an interesting perfumer. Because of my speciality: Naturals. And they gave me the application sheet and I saw you need a seconder, which has to be another perfumer. I was already in the industry 20 years but my reply was: I don't know any perfumer. I knew them by sight, of course, when I went to expos, where perfumers buy the materials, yes, and I admired them. But I could never go to them and say, hi, I'm Steven, can you become a friend? And can you suggest me to become a member? You're not going to say that of course. So the chairman said: ‘my God, I know your work. I will be your seconder.‘ The chairman! Okay. I was like... wow!

Would you say that you have developed a unique style because you haven't had much contact with the perfume scene?
Somehow, perhaps. Which, in a way, is not very good if you don't have an exchange. It's like in journalism. Journalists support each other. They don't share exactly what they're working on. But at the end of the day, they still support each other. And they protect each other. We perfumers are the same: ‘Oh my God, where do you manage to obtain this ingredience? Come on, tell me!’

Yes, Malta seems to me to be more of a small universe of its own.
Which sometimes annoys me. Because there is very little knowledge about perfume and what a perfumer does in Malta. There are people who come here and want a customised fragrance for their hotel. And I ask them: When is the launch? And I think in four or six months. And they say: next week, Wednesday. And I say: What? No, I can't do that. That's impossible, you know. I have to come and study your enviroment, your furniture. How often are the doors open, when are they closed? Because I need to see what smells are coming from outside. And what if there is dampness in the property, downstairs, reaching up. I need to mask this. It's a lot. But they just think like I go there behind my perfume organ, like I go behind a bar and shake a cocktail. And voila.
And then, of course, I tell them the fee. And because they're not used to hiring a perfumer with his time, knowledge, experience and talent they think I'm cuckoo. I tell them, ‘Listen, okay, google how much a perfumer charges for their time to create you a bespoke fragrance, whatever that is. Then you'll understand this industry and know that I'm not cuckoo.’ And after that, they change their attitude. When I tell international brands my fee, they usually say yes. And I'm nowhere near the fee of the top ten master perfumers.

Was it the same with the President of Malta when you created the room and linen fragrances for the San Anton Presidential Palace?
It was an honour to work with the President of Malta. She was so relaxed with me. She admired my work and the achievements of the company and the way I promote Malta at the same time in a luxurious way. So she left me free to do what I wanted. It was a philanthropic act for me, and then she made sure that I got what I deserved for that act. I remember it was a very nice highlight to work on the San Anton Parfum. So, yes, I wish many customers were like that.

I've noticed that many of the stories behind your perfumes go back a long way in history. Does this have to do with the fact that you are Maltese, because when you go out on the street, you can't ignore history?
Well, yes, but there is a plus as well. During my times travelling abroad I went to perfume lectures at expos for the ingredients. I discovered that master perfumers were leading the workshops on the history of perfume and the ingredients and their use. And the audience all sat and listened in amazement. But whatever the lecturers said, it was nothing new to me. Because they talked a lot about the historical process, about old recipes, which for me is what I've been studying and knowing for years. And I thought, wait a minute, there's a big gap. Okay, I'm ahead of them in the naturals, just like they're ahead of me in the aroma chemicals. So I thought, I'm going to work more on the areas where they're still catching up to me. And that's the good thing about bringing aromatherapy and perfumery together: by using aromatherapy and ancient perfumery techniques, like the Kyphi style.

Kyphi style? What does that mean?
Kyphi style perfumes are created without an olfactive pyramid. The pyramid style emerged much later in the 19th century. But the Egyptians were already making perfumes before Christ, but not in with a pyramid structure. For example I use benzoin as a top note, you know. I made the fragrances ‘Osiris’, the Eye of Cyrus, ‘Astarte‘ and ‘Pharaonic‘ without an olfactive pyramid. I have also reconstructed historical perfumes. Taputi was the name of the first female perfumer, at least the first female perfumer in the books of history. She was a lady from Mesopotamia and Cleopatra's personal perfumer. And I managed to reconstruct one of her perfumes that she made for Cleopatra. I even called it ‘Taputi‘. I can let you smell it later.

Oh, I am very curious!
And I made other perfumes, because the word perfume, as you know, is Latin, perfumo. Bakhoor is what is used in the Arab world. Bahhar in Maltese is very similar. Bahhar and Bakhoor, the same word, just a different dialect, means travel. Because fragrance travels. So, my incense is formulated very old, but of course I have also adapted it to the preferences of today - what you smelled outside on the streets, because I burn it in the entrance. This is ‘Kyphi Bakhoor‘. It's very unique, but this is the original perfume.

You said you are an aromatherapist and perfumer. Do you always have the therapeutic effect in mind when creating a perfume?
Usually, I always have the target in mind, the therapeutic aspect plays an important role. I want to make sure that the person using a perfume feels good. Yes, okay, if you smell good, then you already feel good. But essential oils are living ingredients, are active ingredients. Synthetic aromas are not active ingredients. They do give off a scent, but they have no active or therapeutic effect. So I play with both. Where possible, I work only with naturals. But sometimes certain substances are banned. I see what substitutes I can find, but if I can't find any, I have to work with it. But yes, sometimes I just retreat to creativity and forget a bit about the therapeutic effect, just to smell it, to enjoy it, you know. But it's not something that I would sell under my brand. Because I need to remain under the umbrella of aromatherapy by Stephen Cordina, you know.
But at the end of the day, I am a creator and I love to create all the time. Without creating it's as if I don't  have enough air to breathe. So it's in our nature to constantly create. Sometimes the target remains a long way off and you discover other things. Then you put them aside and come back to them later. So, as I always say: even a master was once a disaster as well.

Are there more disasters when working with natural oils than with synthetic aromas?
Oh, believe me, many times I ask myself: Why did I not choose synthetics? Naturals are so dramatic! You know, every batch, every barrel of essential oil doesn't smell the same. They're so complex and to work with naturals takes much longer time than with synthetics because once you mix synthetics it's already final. That's how it's gonna stay. With naturals you have eight months of changing smell. Sometimes you have a great smell for seven hours or for seven months and on the eighth month it can just change again and the target is gone. And sometimes it gets very blurry. But I hate filtering it. If you filter it to make it clear, the best of the essential oil is lost. That's the complexity of naturals. It's even difficult to find teachers who specialise in natural perfumery. You count top natural perfumers on one hand all over the world.

So, what does a typical day look like for you as a perfumer?
(laughs) Oh, it's not exactly how I want it.

Too many interviews?
No, no, don’t worry! I'm just very creative at night. So I'm not an early bird at all. Of all the staff I'm the last to start work but also the last to leave. So I come here in the morning to do all the logic work with my team, answer emails and monitor the business. If something goes terribly wrong, I jump in to prevent an upcoming disaster. I try to answer my employees' questions without making mistakes, because I'm responsible. Whatever you say, it will be final. And you wait for six o'clock when everyone leaves to start your day without doing your job. Even if it's not perfume, it can be a packaging, because I even design my own packaging. Or I decide which bottles I'm going to use. And I even decide on the marketing. Then I go to the gym, work out for an hour, 15 minutes of that is meditation, and then I go to dinner. At 10 o'clock I start working again, until about one o'clock in the morning. Give me the beakers, give me the scales and the whole fragrance library and I'm a happy wizard. Classical music at full volume and I'm in my own film.

Wow! Have there been any other happy moments for you as a perfumer?
Well, the truth would be when the plane takes off when I go on holiday after many years. That's my  favourite one (laughs). Because I crave it. But even when I'm on holiday, there's always work. For example, when I go to Gran Canaria to buy Aloe vera and olive oil in large volumes and send it to Malta, I have to go and see where it comes from, to see the plantation. If I'm in Spain and there's a plantation of any oil I buy from, I have to go and see it. And if I don't visit it, the holiday is not complete. Because that's not work for me. Perfumer is not a profession. For me, it's a lifestyle. And work for me means sitting in the office and answering questions to the tax office.
And the happiest moments? I should say when I met King Charles in Malta. That was very, very rewarding, but no, it wasn't the happiest moment. Sometimes the happiest moment is when a person takes their time. You know, I still ask myself: What is special about me? What is special about my work? Because I live it all the time. So, my happiest moment is when a customer takes the time to write a review, a very genuine review. Do you understand? Or I look at the records and see a person from the US who has ordered the  same shower gel for the second or third time. And I say to myself, holy Christ, I'm doing a good thing. You know what I mean? There are so many great brands out there with so many great products. But they keep coming back to my product from the other side of the world! And the shipping costs are two or three times as much as the product, but they don't care because they want the product. It's not about the number, the figure, you know? It's about the appreciation of the customer.

It sounds like you are happy to be ‘the perfumer of Malta’. So, do you have further plans for the future?
Yes, my dream is to open a shop outside Malta. I have already sold the franchise to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. And it's going very well. But I want a shop outside Malta. And I want to do it with a business partner. Because at the end of the day, I have to keep my hands and eyes on the production. After all,  I'm not just the perfumer, I'm also the chef. The chef has to be in the kitchen!

Oh, it would be great to have you with us in Germany! But first of all, thank you very much for your time!

Fortunately, my time wasn't quite over yet. Because Stephen Cordina actually let me smell Cleopatra's ‘Taputi’ fragrance mentioned in the interview. I immediately realised why Cleopatra was considered the most seductive woman of the ancient world. This deep, warm perfume was incredibly beautiful even on the fragrance strip...

Finally, I would like to share a link. It leads to an interview that the ‘TIMES of MALTA’ did with Stephen Cordina. The way from the son of a policeman on the small rural island of Gozo to Malta's first perfumer was truly as stony as the entire archipelago: https://timesofmalta.com/article/i-know-instinctively-what-ingredients-will-work.705384

You can find Stephen Cordina's website here: https://stephencordina.com