Spotlight On: Susannah Taylor

When launching our brand new fragrances, and our rebrand of Origin, we commissioned esteemed artist Susannah Taylor, of Super Draw, to design our new packaging. We sat down with Susannah to ask her a few questions about her experience working with Medeau.

1. What was your inspiration behind the designs?

"The beautiful scents and the ingredients themselves. Allison the founder of Medeau and I had a chat and we both spoke about our love of botanical paintings, especially De Gournay wallpaper designs which I adore.

Allison sent me the fragrances and described the notes and I picked out some of the key ingredients which all looked very different from Cedarwood to Magnolia, Cherry Blossom and Jasmine. I came up with a few designs, some with softly coloured backgrounds, but knowing the consciously crafted nature of the scents - that they use bio-identical ingredients, are vegan and have amazing eco-credentials - we decided to keep the backgrounds white which I feel adds to the ‘clean' message of the brand.

I painted the final designs in some Japanese watercolours I have which have wonderful pigments."

2. What made you want to work with Medeau?

"If there are three things I absolutely love in life then it’s painting, fragrance and spending time in nature! So to be able to marry these three things is an honour. Medeau and their founders and I have the same values when it comes to our love of protecting the environment, and I love the fact that they have gone to great lengths to do so and not followed the usual fragrance routes.

I feel they are breaking new ground in the world of fragrance so there is an excitement about the brand too. Also, they gave me carte blanche to come up with whatever designs I felt were right for the brand which was amazing."

3. What was your first perfume?

"Coco by Coco Chanel - I remember getting it for Christmas and I literally adored it. I don't wear it anymore, but still love it when I smell it. For me, it's warm and womanly, very glamorous and hugely sophisticated. Quite a power perfume for a 16-year-old!"

4. Which is your favourite Medeau scent?

"I love Cedar Noir - it's a pheromone reactive scent so it changes according to your skin type. I am a sucker for bergamot which is the first note along with geranium and then there is a warm nuzzly heart of cedarwood and vetiver. It’s a fragrance you can’t quite put your finger on but is warm, alluring and just becomes part of your skin. It’s one of those ‘what is that fragrance you’re wearing?’ scents."

Explore our full range of scents, available now on our site, including our Discovery Set, which has also been beautifully designed by Susannah.