Éveìlleur – European brand with Croatian signature

At the end of this summer, a new Croatian perfume brand, Éveìlleur, introduced a small but carefully developed collection of three intriguing and distinct perfumes: I am, Not Innocent, and Dscvr me.

Nathalie Lorson created the white-bottled I am, while Olivier Cresp crafted the rosy Not Innocent and turquoise-blue Dscvr me.

Éveìlleur took an international soft launch – the perfumes were first presented in France and then in Croatia.

Behind the brand stands Dajana Jukić, the owner and creative director, along with her company, La Libellule d.o.o., based in Metković, a small inland town that gravitates toward the worldwide-known Dubrovnik.

The collection is now included in international perfume bases (Fragrantica and Profumino), and the perfumes are globally available online and via Parisien Univere parfumerie.

Although I liked all three creations and they deserve to be presented, I decided to wait with the article until the new brand launches the website and observe the first post-launch steps, which are also important.

Two years ago, during Esxence in Milan, I heard a genuinely impressive perfume story quietly taking shape under the radar in Croatia.

The news touched me more profoundly than I had expected:

Finally, I thought.

French media outlets (Gala, The Fashion Network, Stylist, Kleo, Luxure) extensively covered the Croatian perfume launch this summer.

Croatia now has a brand whose fragrances are signed by the crème de la crème of perfumers. The fragrances are produced in the heart of the perfume industry, DSM-Firmenich.

The Fragrance Foundation France presented Éveìlleur’s Dscvr me alongside the perfumes of renowned brands, such as Kilian and Nicolai.

Dajana broke the ice right where it is thickest.

I spoke with Dajana this summer during the final phase of preparations for the launch. I was met with the openness I had only encountered outside Croatia.

Considering that Olivier Cresp and Nathalie Lorson—icons of modern perfumery over the past 30 years—are involved in numerous major projects and are not easy to engage, it was undoubtedly a significant challenge for a small, new brand from (perfumery-wise) no-name Croatia.

What makes Éveìlleur a good story?

Dajana is also known as Lady Love—a long-standing, active international online perfume community member.

Dajana has a clearly defined personal taste, years of experience smelling and exchanging fragrance insights, and an in-depth understanding of her perfumers’ styles—all of which make an essential foundation for good creative direction.

Equally important is the approach:

Dajana based her concept on the essence—the scent profiles and the character of the perfumes—naturally layering everything else afterwards, such as design and copyright solutions. This approach differs from many project-based brands today, where those elements often come first.

It’s also worth noting that the perfume compositions were developed from scratch. While marketing often tries to convince us this is always the case, it isn’t. In the current market, creating a fragrance from scratch is far less common than modifying pre-existing formulas.

The journey from idea to finished perfume took two years.

During the process, Olivier Cresp tasted rožata, the traditional Dalmatian (Croatian) version of crème brûlée enriched with rose extract, which inspired the gourmand profile of the red Not Innocent.

The delicate, authentic dessert flew to Paris so the perfumer could have an olfactory-gustatory experience and align his mods with Dajana’s vision.

Nathalie Lorson created the bold and extraverted I am. The statement-driven floral character and the beautiful, light-hearted boldness have much to do with Dajana’s concept.

The turquoise Dscvr me centres on immortelle absolute, a challenging material.

“Immortelle is difficult to work with because it’s vertical,” Dajana quoted Cresp. Yet from her clear vision emerged an immortelle unlike any I’ve smelt before, a breezy, light smell of immortelle’s buds. Still, it radiates intensely local Adriatic essence of warmth and smells like an open invitation to the Croatian coast.

In TFF France’s overview of perfumes that embody “sun in a bottle,” Dscvr me is described as “the most original” and “a Firmenich miracle by Olivier Cresp.”

The concept

Every brand has a story – even when it claims not to. Éveìlleur conveys a universal, bright, and optimistic message:

Éveìlleur ( “awakened” in French) is the dragonfly – a gentle, flying insect with beautifully iridescent wings that span the full spectrum of rainbow colours.

In many cultures, the dragonfly symbolises a connection to the spiritual and transcendent realms. It represents positive transformation and self-realisation, born from inner strength and openness to the future.

The concept presented by Éveìlleur may seem like a “patchwork” of diverse ideas, but much like the colours on a dragonfly’s wings, it flows and shifts within the rainbow spectrum.

Through the ideas embodied in the perfumes’ scents (seaside air infused with freshly blooming immortelle, rožata – a local desert, and royally rich floral bouquet) and the imagery and text on its website, Éveìlleur introduces themes and values rooted in Dalmatian soil and culture.

Yet, the perfumes’ names are not directly tied to this context. Instead, they expand the story, shifting it into a realm of personal and spiritual exploration with a touch of cryptic provocation. Later is evident when the names of the triptych are combined into a sentence: Dscvr me, I am, Not Innocent.

This somewhat patchwork-like concept works authentically, thanks to Dajana’s personality. However, perfumes and their presentation couldn’t have been more thoughtfully crafted.

Some of the colours from the dragonfly’s wings are symbolically infused into the fragrances and translated into the colours of the bottles:

Turquoise blue reflects the hue left behind when you close your eyes after gazing at the sea and sky while breathing a mix of immortelle and salty air.

The delicate, rosy hue of Not Innocent mirrors the petals of roses that aren’t exactly red, pink, or deep orange but a blend of all these shades. Is that blush a sign of innocence – or its loss?

Most striking is the use of a non-colour, white, for the statement perfume. White is a blank canvas, much like the declaration I am, if not matched to the person. The colour and the meaning, whatever it may be, are provided by us—just as we provide body and life to the fragrance we wear.

Dajana broke the ice, and Éveìlleur perfumes deserve attention by standards far beyond the local.

I wholeheartedly wish this young Croatian brand success.