A fragrance, once registered on the senses, can linger forever in the memory. It might evoke the warmth
of a grandmother’s affection, a yearning for a lost or unrequited love, or a fondness for an old friend. For every bottle of perfume made, a million memories are thus created – moments shared, hearts broken and adventures had. For Nick Smart, co-director of boutique fragrance emporium Libertine Parfumerie, herein lies the magic. For the shelves of his boutiques in West End and New Farm are not simply lined with bottles of perfume. They contain distinct moments in history – be it Grace Kelly’s wedding or Napoleon’s fervour for violets (and Josephine) – captured in liquid form as divine fragrances that allow such moments to remain eternal.
Invigoration of the senses is what elicits fire in the heart of Nick Smart – property lawyer, fragrance connoisseur and inveterate traveller. In particular, it’s the moments of sensorial stimulation whilst in a foreign city that inspire his passion and creativity. “I really draw inspiration from travelling. I’m very sensory and that’s why I travel a lot,” he muses, his blue eyes sparkling as he leans casually on the beautiful counter that watches over the Libertine Parfumerie boutique in New Farm. “I love Paris. I know it’s a cliche. I just like walking through the streets of a city – whether it’s in Italy, France or wherever – and pondering the fact that there have been 1300 years of people walking on that particular cobblestone path. You go to a place and it can be because of a building, a scent or a meal, but you’re just transported away to a different place. I’m really creative and I find my mind is consumed by everything that surrounds me – be it food, or wine, or fragrance, or fashion or 500-year-old churches. I can’t help but be inspired.”
After wandering the world, being endlessly stimulated and inspired by the confounding bouquet that accompanies the experience of travel, Nick has now channelled such inspiration into an elegant emporium of sensory delights. Just over 12 months old, Libertine Parfumerie (which Nick runs alongside co-directors Jason Carlton and Joel Morehu-Barlow) has found its way into the olfactory palates of discerning denizens of Brisbane, as well as acolytes in Sydney and Melbourne.
Like any tale of success in history, the birth of Libertine came down to a particular moment in time – a crossing of fates – which, fittingly, involved the experience of travel. But in this particular story, it was not Nick who was doing the travelling, but rather an editor of Vogue Living. It was 14 years ago, and Nick was studying law at the University of Queensland. To make ends meet, he began selling essential oils on the weekends at the Riverside Markets. On one fortuitous day, an editor of Vogue Living happened to be wandering through the markets whilst holidaying in Brisbane. Enamoured by Nick’s fragrant wares, she snapped a photo of the products and they subsequently appeared in the pages of the magazine soon after. The business then began to grow and Nick was soon selling his products throughout the world and had set up a manufacturing company that made products for retailers under their own brand (such clients include Wheel and Barrow, Harvey Norman and the New South Wales Prison System).
Upon finishing his law degree, Nick began practising as a lawyer and became one of Queensland’s youngest law practitioners when he opened Smart Legal at age 29. Then, two years ago when searching for a new locale to house the practice, Nick discovered a charming little shopfront in West End that was a 100-year-old tailor’s nook. “I said to my business partner at the time that we couldn’t put a law practice in the front of the building because it was so beautiful,” he recalls of the moment. “That’s how Libertine was born. I’d travelled the world for years sourcing products, packaging and fragrance, or I’d go to the south of France buying fragrance for the people we manufactured for. A lot of the fragrances you could access overseas just weren’t available here and you’d have to get a friend to pick them up for you while they were in New York, Paris or London.”
Seizing the opportunity to fill a void in the market with his own passion, Nick set about establishing a distribution company, Agence de Parfum, as well as the French-inspired fragrance boutique that now sits proudly on the upper end of Hardgrave Road. The key, he knew, was to obtain the exclusive wholesale distribution rights to brands that so many fragrance lovers coveted but that few were able to get their hands on in Australia. But with no reputation to speak of that might tempt such elusive brands, Nick faced the challenge of convincing them to relinquish their product into his hands. Again, it was the course of fate that played its inscrutable hand. “Years ago when I used to go to New York, I shopped at Barneys and I discovered they had a niche counter. I loved Costume Nationale Scent Intense,” he intones. “I’d buy it every time I went to New York – you couldn’t get it anywhere in Australia. So when we were searching for brands to start up our own distribution company in Australia, I told my directors that it would be a coup to get Costume Nationale.”
Impossible, they told him.
“It’s an amazing high-end fashion label and everyone told me that there was no way that we’d get the rights,” he recalls. “That was an obstacle we faced from the start – we wanted the exclusive rights to sell these in Australia, and we were based in Brisbane, which obviously nobody had ever heard of in Paris or Italy. But it was almost like it was meant to be. You know, those moments in your life when you realise that there’s some kind of greater purpose – you know things are greater than the decisions you’re making. I had the affinity with Costume Nationale because I loved it so much, but people said ‘you won’t get Costume Nationale, that’s like getting Chanel’. So I basically just went to Italy and said ‘I love your product. No one loves it more than I do. I’ve worn it for years and I will nurture it and look after it in Australia.’ They were the first company to sign up with us.”
There’s no doubt that Nick’s palpable passion for the fragrances he sells, evident in the ardent enthusiasm that abounds whenever he speaks of them, was infectious when it came to convincing the decision-makers of some of the world’s most esteemed perfume houses. Agence de Parfum now holds the exclusive distribution rights to ten brands including Lubin, Creed, Rancé and Jean-Charles Brosseau. And each brand, as Nick will eagerly convey, has a unique tale of its own.
“A lot of the fragrances that we’ve brought into the store have been steeped in history. Creed made fragrances for people like Cary Grant and Jackie Onassis and Grace Kelly,” he enthuses. “Fragrance is everybody’s personal choice, but the olfactory senses are so powerful and we like to provide something that’s a little bit different. To me, fragrance is about your emotion – it’s a recreation of your memories. I know that the clients we have at Libertine will come back to Libertine. They won’t buy fragrance at the chemist or department store, because they know they can come here, have a glass of champagne and discover something interesting – and someone will take the time to tell them about it.“
As to whether or not he is successful, Nick believes such things are determined internally. “I think I’m successful because I live my life with integrity and I’m humble, grateful and honest. Everything we have is invested into our businesses – I don’t take a wage from the manufacturing side of it and I never have. Even if tomorrow the organisation falters and collapses, there are still lessons to be learned. If you’re honest and you do things with integrity and gratitude, it’s hard for things not to work. If you come from a great place internally, you’ll go far. We’re not driven by money and I’m really humbled by how many people know about Libertine.”
Still, the next year promises to be a fruitful one for Libertine, following the successful launch of an exclusive fragrance counter in David Jones in Melbourne’s Bourke Street as well as helping to create a new concept ‘Scent Room’ soon to be launched in the Myer store on the same street. “We’ve also just come out with our own range of soaps and lotions, called Napoleon’s Triumph,” Nick shares. “Napoleon was known as ‘Corporal Violet’ because he was obsessed with violets. We just launched it and already we’re about to export it to Japan.”
Where things go from here, Nick is happy to leave to the whim of the fates that have brought him to this point. His main objective is to simply enjoy the journey. “I think it’s really just about living your life by a set of principles,” he says serenely. “We love what we do at Libertine and we take pride in that.”
Interview and photography by Mikki Brammer
