ELLA K

Basic Information

Founded: 2017
Founder: Sonia Constant (in Japanese)
Official website: English-language official website (Official Japanese distributor)

As a perfumer, I have always thought of my creations as a way to speak to other people’s subconscious. I awaken their curiosity and invite them on a journey. After the journey, they tell their own stories without my help. They share my memories through scent and make discoveries of their own. My creations are places where everyone can roam freely, true destinations. I do not set the rules. I merely make suggestions.

Sonia Constant

Founding History

In 2017, seemingly following in the footsteps of Patricia de Nicolaï (in Japanese) and Olivia Giacobetti (in Japanese), popular perfumer Sonia Constant founded ELLA K with her partner Olivier Galliardi.

After graduating from the perfume school ISIPCA, Sonia went straight on to build her career at Givaudan. She loves traveling and always carries a Leica camera and a Moleskine notebook, recording fleeting scenes and her feelings so that she will not forget them. These personal experiences inspire the perfumes she creates. ELLA K’s scents are born from her and Olivier’s travels, poetry, and imagination.

Many women inspired the creation of ELLA K, particularly four female explorers active around the turn of the twentieth century: Ella Maillart, the Swiss adventurer and photographer born in 1903; Karen Blixen, the Danish writer of Gothic fiction born in 1885; Alexandra David-Néel, the adventurer and Buddhist born in 1868; and Amelia Earhart, the American aviator born in 1897. They had a profound influence on Sonia. ELLA K is an imaginary heroine born of these women and Sonia’s own experiences of travel.
The letter K comes from Sonia’s grandfather’s name. To her, he was brave, strong-minded, and passionate, and taught her many values.

Ella K is a timeless muse and a universal artist. She lives her life as if she were the author of a novel. Open to infinite possibilities, she nevertheless knows what she wants.

She is one of those beautiful souls who love other people and places, experience and the unknown. She has no preconceptions or fears, and never holds back. Her suitcase is always with her, ready for a new adventure.

Her belief in life enables her to appreciate the true worth of her surroundings, the people, and the places that can touch her heart. Even when it is not obvious, she is always doing something, moving between reflection, inspiration, and creation. Her stimulus comes from the people she meets, the bonds she forms, and her discoveries.

She trusts her desires, intuitions, impulses, and passions. Following in the footsteps of her celebrated explorer sisters, Ella K travels the world in search of beauty, unusual landscapes, and raw emotion. Epupa, Florence, Khao Sok, Pushkar, Ha Long, Altai, Sagano… At every destination, she finds enchantment, a feast for the senses, an olfactory memory, a poem of love.

Sonia Constant

ELLA K’s logo combines the letter K with a dragonfly, a symbol of courage and victory in the Land of the Rising Sun, as a tribute to Japan.

The bottle design is influenced by the Art Deco style of the 1920s and 1930s. Waltersperger, founded in 1916 and a maker of bottles for Tom Ford, Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Male, and Yves Saint Laurent’s Libre, among others, makes the bottles by hand at its Normandy factory. Their engraving is done by Stern, founded in 1836.

Seeking highly skilled artisans for its visual identity, the brand commissioned Kyoto-born illustrator Senjiro Nakata. Influenced by ukiyo-e and nishiki-e prints of the Edo and Meiji periods, Nakata apparently uses traditional ukiyo-e techniques to create illustrations for all the fragrances and their destinations. Each scent’s illustration appears on the case housing its bottle.
The poems printed inside the cases are written by a friend of Sonia’s.

The Paris boutique was designed by Patrick Norguet, who has also designed the In the Pocket watch for Hermès (in Japanese) and lounge chairs for Cassina.

The Perfume Collection

The initial fragrance collection launched with seven scents, and 13 are currently sold. Only seven, including the new Camelia K, are available in Japan. The descriptions below are original to this website.

• Baiser de Florence (Kiss of Florence, 2018), discontinued
  A kiss from iris (in Japanese), dedicated to Florence, the heart of the Renaissance.
• Brumes de Khao-Sok (Mists of Khao Sok, 2018), discontinued
  A sunny scent of spider lily and gardenia, evoking mist drifting over the tropical rainforest of Khao Sok in Thailand.
• Epupa Mon Amour (My Beloved Epupa Falls, 2018), discontinued
  Epupa Falls lies near the border between Namibia and Angola in Africa. Vetiver and hot spices swirl with guaiac wood and tonka bean in a fragrance dedicated to Africa.
• Lettre de Pushkar (Letter from Pushkar, 2018)
  Pushkar is called the king of pilgrimage sites in India. Dedicated to this sacred place are rich spices, precious woods centered on oud (in Japanese), and a bed strewn with roses. It is a letter inviting you to Pushkar.
• Melodie D’Altai (Melody of Altai, 2018)
  The Altai Mountains of Kazakhstan extend across Siberia and Mongolia, and the peoples of Altai communicate through smoke. Amber, styrax, and leather come together to play a smoky melody.
• Pluie Sur Ha Long (Rain over Ha Long Bay, 2018)
  Ha Long Bay lies in northern Vietnam. Dedicated to this bay, whose name means “descending dragon,” the scent brings a beautiful floral rain, centered on dewy notes such as lotus, cyclamen, and magnolia.
• Poeme de Sagano (Poem of Sagano, 2018)
  Head toward Arashiyama in Sagano, in Kyoto’s Ukyō ward, and you will come upon a path through a bamboo grove. Bathed in the morning sun, the bamboo leaves swaying in a light breeze give off a faint scent. Gentle and stripped of everything unnecessary, it is like the recitation of a poem.
• Cri Du Kalahari (Cry of the Kalahari, 2019)
  The Kalahari Desert covers 70% of Botswana, receives more than 250 mm of rain annually, and is lush with vegetation. “This perfume is inspired by the baobab, an ancestral symbol whose thousand-year-old trunk holds all of Africa’s history.”
• Memoire de Daisen In (Memory of Daisen-in, 2019)
  At Daisen-in, within the Rinzai Zen temple complex of Daitoku-ji, a garden of only about 30 tsubo (roughly 100 square meters) employs a variety of dry-landscape techniques. Mineral scents of sand and stone, contrasted with the vitality of plants, envelop you as if reviving the memory of a visit to Daisen-in.
• Reflet Sur L’Okavango (Reflections on the Okavango, 2019)
  The Okavango Delta in Botswana, southern Africa, is formed where the Okavango River flows onto the flat land of the Kalahari Desert. Its waters never reach the sea; they evaporate and disappear in the delta. Seen from above, a huge tree seems to float amid the vast sands of the Kalahari, its countless root-like channels painting a labyrinth in water. Around the water’s surface, plants such as papyrus and acacia flourish.
• Rose de Pushkar (Rose of Pushkar, 2021)
  “A proud, majestic, wild, fiery rose, set ablaze by oud… I wanted to capture that sublime moment when the roses and petals scattered on the water by the day’s pilgrims still float in the twilight, reflected in the sacred lake beneath the full moon.”
• Ghibli (Ghibli, 2021)
  In Libya, North Africa, the dry ghibli wind blows toward the Mediterranean region. It is also the origin of Studio Ghibli’s name. “According to legend, a declaration of love carried on the wings of the ghibli reaches its destination as surely as Cupid’s arrow.” Leather takes center stage, carrying nougat and jasmine that whisper of love.
• Harmattan (Harmattan, 2021)
  The harmattan is a trade wind that blows in West Africa. This dry, moisture-stripping wind carries dust said to travel as far as North America. Its force is evoked by a leather (in Japanese) base recalling African tanneries, married with geranium and Texas cedar.
• Khamsin (Khamsin, 2021)
  A dry, dust-laden wind blows across North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Here, orange blossom and date notes are added to that wind.
• Camelia K (Camelia K, 2023)
  “The camellia blossom nestling against my back is caressed by your fleeting touch, while my hands seek comfort in you. Each reddish petal stirs every fiber of my being and brings color to my cheeks. My whole existence is carried by that ephemeral touch and set free for you. My soul departs, suspended above our all-consuming love.”
• Musc K (Musc K, 2023)
  “Musc K was born in the landscape of Maranhão, where the brilliant white sand of wind-carved dunes contrasts with transparent blues of every shade, from aquamarine and turquoise to the emerald green of the lagoons. Musc K opens its score with a salty breeze of bright, fresh sand lily. Following the rhythm of the wind, arabesques of white pepper on the sand harmonize with a heart of salty iris and mangrove driftwood. A crescendo of sand-grown vetiver and Ambrofix™ supports the fragrance. At the journey’s end, a floating cloud of white musk adds delicate nuances, like the pristine sand of wind-swept dunes.”