Bridging the Senses
Blending the timeless ritual of the tea ceremony with the art of perfumery, STATE OF MIND is a brand for the synesthetes and pays tribute to the phenomenon of synaesthesia, an involuntary association of different sensory modes. Here, we caught up with Founder Catherine Laskine-Balandina to learn more about this unique concept and company.
Perfume, beyond being a symbol of pleasure, elegance and wealth, has a strong influence on a person’s state of mind. Similarly to perfume, tea also brings people to a joyful state, energises or calms you down and helps you discover your personal image and awakens your artistic skills.
Bringing all this together is STATE OF MIND, a brand founded by Catherine Laskine-Balandina, who through the emergence of artistic perfumery, was inspired to create her own brand, one that as an experience raises the choice of perfume to the status of a ceremony, almost as if it was a Tea Ceremony.
“The primary idea behind the company is the very state of mind expressed through a perfume and tea composition. When creating, I do not rely solely on an ingredient or a chord, but rather on the representation of a certain state and its embodiment through ingredients in tea and perfumes.”
Born in Versailles, a city with a rich history of perfume, luxury and French Art de Vivre, the headquarters and first shop of STATE OF MIND is situated in an eighteenth-century building in a district of antique shops.
“Tea was my first love from childhood,” says Catherine, whose grandmother passed on her love and passion of tea and the philosophy behind it. “After spending 15 years in the perfume industry, I decided to create my own brand and the bissociation of taste and smell gave me one of the facets of the brand’s concept. The second facet was to interpret different states of mind through perfume, tea and other categories and how well-chosen ingredients help us to express these differing states.”
We move on to ask the founder if the luxury world was ready for a multisensory experience like this and she replies by highlighting that perfume, as a product is often sold as a commodity and requires you to use your imagination. Catherine goes on to say that the purchase of perfume can be compared to that of travel; you project yourself in a new state. Perfume becomes the media of non-verbal communication along with your outfit, manners or gestures.
So what the business offers to its guests is a calm atmosphere of a tea or coffee degustation to take time to make the right choice. They first describe the states of mind and then explain how the ingredients will be building this state of mind. They apply their fragrances on the scented fans in order to walk visitors through their first acquaintance and then to the skin, to take the necessary time to appropriating one perfume.
Much more than a perfume brand, STATE OF MIND offers an experience. There is even a tea and perfume with the name OPEN MIND, reminding guests to keep exactly this when embracing the company.
“Our business attitude very much follows the tea philosophy: For Japanese master Sen no Rikyū, the perfect guest is one who receives the host’s heart. By following these rules of behaviour – born of respect, presence and gratitude – the guest completes the circle of the ceremony. Their refined conduct is, in itself, the greatest gift they can offer back to the host,” explains Catherine.
This physical experience is very driven by the interactions with their guests and the subtle accord with his or her mindset for the choice of tea or fragrance.
“Following again Sen No Rikyū’s metaphor for flawless hospitality, the host anticipates all possible needs, even the most unlikely ones (such as lending an umbrella when the sky is blue), so that the guest never has to suffer from discomfort.”
In a world where so much luxury is moving online, Catherine feels sensory retail experiences are becoming even more important. She says that online commerce is about availability, scaling and the direct sales eventually generated by robots and that a physical retail experience is much more difficult to create, therefore it is a precious commodity.
As we move onto expansion of the brand, Catherine comments that the business has a solid group of regular buyers who visit the Olfactory Tea Room in Versailles often to buy different types of merchandise and use the tea room for meetings, bringing with them new customers to appreciate the calm luxury on offer.
“The refinement of the place comes from the ‘home feeling’, whilst some people say from the ‘soul’ present in the products and the Olfactory Tea Room design. Of course there is a bible of franchise defining the codes of creation of such an atmosphere, where the human is the centre and the philosophy of the tea adds the comfort,” says Catherine.
For someone experiencing STATE OF MIND for the first time, the founder concludes our time with her by saying she would hope people entering the world of STATE OF MIND feel honest work that is made with love and that she would like to take the concept to markets in Asia, the Middle East and Europe in the months and years ahead.
