BEST INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AWARD

Karine Deraco

Touching others with perfume

She has been working in the perfume industry for 23 years. A way for this curious woman to make fleeting moments memorable, connecting people, savoir-faire, and territories. “I first joined a small company in Grasse where we developed mass-market chemical products,” explains Karine Deraco. “At that time, I was a bit like the conductor of an orchestra. The bottles came from Asia, the closures from England, the caps from Turkey, the boxes from Spain, the fragrances from Grasse perfumers, and the assembling done in the Drôme.” At that time, what was in the bottles was still a mystery. When her second child arrived, she joined a large company with almost 80 employees: “That’s where I worked on the various possible products in perfumery, from cosmetics to home fragrances, from fine fragrances to laundry detergent and toilet paper.”  With these two experiences under her belt, Karine decided to set up her own business. Thanks to her address book of independent perfumers, designers, regulatory and packaging experts, she now generates 70% of her turnover from 5-star Palace hotels worldwide.

THE SMELL OF AN EXPERIENCE
“Perfume is also a way of touching somebody without necessarily being in physical contact. Each fragrance delivers a message,” continues this dynamic woman, who loves eating fruit salads in the morning and fragrances supercharged with blood orange. During the COVID-19 crisis, she came up with a brand new product for hotels: a small soap without packaging, avoiding the usual shower gels, shampoos, and conditioners in plastic containers. “I try to involve as many local and national players as possible. Apart from the glassware, which comes from Italy, our products are 100% French. For the packaging, we have exceptional printers in Nice and Mouans-Sartoux, and when we can’t use card, I have organic fabric bags sewn up in the Vosges.”

solutionsparfum.com

Localisation : Grasse
Création : 2018 
Activité : créateur de fragrances (parfumeur, designer, fabricant, distributeur)
Dirigeante : Karine Deraco
Capital : 10 000 €
Collaborateurs : 2 

Solutions Parfum

In a little over three years of existence, this young company employing ten or so external staff has managed to attract clients such as the LVMH group. Drawing on the expertise of founder and CEO Karine Deraco, it offers to create customised white-label fragrance products for brands, establishments, and events. A holistic vision of perfumery with the human factor at the heart of the exchanges, making it possible to combine a perfumery with industrial expertise and cost-optimisation while maintaining handcrafted quality. Since January 2021, Solutions Parfums has been presenting its AMENITIZ® brand products. The first made in France, innovative, econological, solid hospitality products for hoteliers and guesthouses. All are produced in the south of France from gentle cleansing agents and non-sulphated surfactants, enriched with hydrogenated and vegetable oils, and designed to meet the demanding needs of customers while reducing plastic waste.