Jan Ewoud Vos and the World of Puredistance: a Different Way to Create Timeless Beauty

Written by Kristina Kybartaite-Damule

In today’s perfume world, Puredistance is a rare gem. Staying exclusive instead of seeking to sell more each year, with a well-curated collection of twelve perfumes and a holistic approach to luxury, is what makes this brand truly unique. Jan Ewoud Vos, the founder of Puredistance, shares his philosophy with Plezuro|Mag readers.

Jan Ewoud Vos / Photo: personal archive

The name Puredistance could be the epitome of quiet luxury: high-quality fragrances in beautiful, hand-made packaging, available exclusively in fewer than a hundred carefully picked stores in the world, they are “if you know, you know” type of creations. Those who have had the pleasure of discovering Puredistance know that each of their fragrances is exceptional and refined; however, they are not scents you can smell on everyone and their mother.

In over twenty years since it was founded, the brand has managed to stay true to its values and beliefs: less is more, quality over quantity, and respect. And – loyalty to its clients. For example, they haven't changed the prices of their perfumes even once, which sounds unbelievable in today’s world, where prices are rapidly increasing everywhere.

“Since 2007, our perfumes have cost the same in the EU: 175, 295, and 490 Euros (17.5, 60, and 100 ml). We did not raise our prices out of respect for the customer. We felt our retail price is a fair one, considering the high costs of our perfume oil, the fact it is perfume extrait, the beautiful packaging, and the fact we are truly exclusive. Raising the price would make them too costly for some customers who really love Puredistance, so we decided to accept lower profits/margins to ensure these customers could keep buying from us. Because, of course, our costs have gone up in the past 17 years!” says Jan Ewoud Vos, founder and owner of Puredistance.

Puredistance / Photo: personal archive

I was lucky to have a chance to discover their creations a long time ago, and since then, I have followed all the works from this brand. Naturally, I was curious about who stands behind the pretty bottles and the fragrances that take important part in my collection. Jan Ewoud Vos doesn’t give interviews often, so when he agreed to have a conversation with Pleazuro|Mag, needless to say, I felt very honored.

In a talk lasting over one and a half hours, Jan Ewoud Vos surprised me with being very modest and down-to-earth, with how dearly he spoke about his team, the people who work for him, and with the generosity he's offering to other people. In this interview, we delved into the world of Puredistance, talked about how the brand manages to stay relevant in today’s environment with its unusual approach, and, of course, had a sneak peek into what new perfume is coming next – and which ones are leaving the Magnificent XII collection.

I understand that you created the world of Puredistance out of a wish to make the world a slightly more beautiful place. Tell us, what is perfume to you, and how does it make the world a better place?

I think anything that pleases the senses cannot be analyzed and should not be analyzed. I think it’s crucial to enjoy life. Very simple. You can have all the money in the world, you can have a fantastic, brilliant Einstein mind, but if you cannot feel your senses in a direct way, without thinking too much, you don’t live; you’re a robot, you’re AI. Therefore, perfume, wine, a movie, music – these things instantly do something to you, and you don’t know why.

Often people ask me, “Are you a perfumer?” I say, “No, not at all.” And sometimes I say, “I don’t know anything about perfume.” And they think I’m joking. I say, “No, it’s true. I stay away from knowing too much about perfume.” And yet, as creative director, I decide in the end what the next perfume will be. I create a concept, evaluate, and give direction. How can I do it? Well, it’s very simple.

If you meet another person, do you need a study to know if somebody is attractive or beautiful? You don’t; it’s instant. And that’s the same with everything.

When I evaluate perfume, I think I have good taste, inherited from my mother and grandfather. I don’t need formal study to smell something and immediately have an instant feeling about it. While you do need a study to be a perfumer to create it, you don’t need one to evaluate it. I know many people in the perfume world who have studied a lot, but they get lost and, ironically, their taste suffers because they know too much. They start to feel with their brain.

Jan Ewoud Vos / Photo: personal archive

I want to please the senses holistically, starting with the perfume. But then, I want to please all senses. For visual sense, I create a world of visual beauty. If you go to our website, I create all the pictures and videos so there’s visual beauty. The sense of touch is also important. If you touch our gift box, the satin is very soft. If you have the 100 ml, it comes with a soft leather holder. It’s very sensual. So I try to satisfy the need for a good feeling. In the videos, I use music, which is a powerful sense that can evoke emotion. The only sense I don’t address is taste, as there’s no food.

We have various senses, but there’s a sixth sense we can’t quite define. For example, each gift box has a certificate of authenticity. I sign it personally, only a few hundred at a time; otherwise, it’s too much. Every time I sign, I think dearly of the customer, uploading the signature with positive thoughts, because without the customer, there is no Puredistance. It’s very simple.

Similarly, I tell my staff. Everything is handmade. They put the certificate in, assemble the flacons, put them in a gift box, and tie a nice ribbon. I tell them, “Do it as I do the signature, with good feeling and positive thoughts about the customer.” If my staff feels unwell or something happens at home, I encourage them to take a walk or go home rather than work in a bad mood, because the customer, I think, could feel it. My entire team is encouraged to work with love and respect for the process, upholding quality over quantity.

We treat our dealers, customers, suppliers, and bloggers with respect, creating a holistic chain of beauty, high quality, and goodwill that reflects in the final product.

When customers purchase our products, this sixth sense kicks in. There is no scientific rule for it, but I often hear that Puredistance feels different. This difference is partly due to this sixth sense that’s uploaded with positive energy.

In the universe of Puredistance, I aim to keep things simple, pure, ethical, and respectful. When you combine purity and simplicity with an indefinable sixth sense, which might be attraction, romance, or mystery, you have the most beautiful combination. By creating the world of Puredistance, where perfume is the main carrier but surrounded by other senses, I wanted to bring people happiness. Since the early 2000s, this was my goal; I launched the Puredistance I in 2007.

It's a harsh world, especially in recent years, filled with too many horrors. And with technology and the internet, we see and know everything. But in times like these, we need distractions. A good glass of wine, a meaningful conversation, a pizza at sunset by the sea, and a beautiful perfume with the right ambiance can temporarily transport you another world, a nicer world. Other distractions, like addictions, only help temporarily but ultimately hurt. But I don’t know anyone harmed by perfume, or a good book, or meaningful conversations.

So maybe Puredistance is also a message of hope. There is hope, there is beauty. Like Van Gogh’s paintings, though he struggled, it was beauty that kept him going during his short but intense life. 

Jan Ewoud Vos / Photo: personal archive

With such a simple and holistic point of view, how do you manage to stay relevant in today’s often oversaturated fragrance market, where some brands release 5-6, or even 10 fragrances every year?

Our motto is “less is more,” “small is beautiful,” and “quality over quantity.” By truly living by that motto, things get easier. You see brands releasing numerous fragrances without soul or thought. Why? It’s all about selling a lot and making money. It’s very simple. This isn’t unique to our industry; it’s in clothing and nearly every industry. Pure, unchecked capitalism can be harmful.

So we are committed to “less is more” and “quality over quantity,” and I get enormous joy from creating something beautiful. I'd rather have one exceptional perfume every two years than five mediocre ones every month.

Of course, we feel the impact of other brands entering the market. Niche has become mainstream. But we’re content with a small number of dedicated dealers, with sales that are exclusive and authentic. I can't sign hundreds of thousands of certificates, after all. By keeping it small, investing in high-quality perfume oil and packaging, and providing customers with true value, there will always be a place for us.

Our loyal customers know this, and they will share it with others. Just as handmade shoes are treasured for their quality, Puredistance is like that. You can’t buy it everywhere, and not many people know about it, so it feels special.

We stay loyal to our dealers, we don’t use distributors, and we sell only directly. I don’t aim for luxury cars or yachts; my staff enjoys modest salaries but has excellent working conditions. Most of them are mothers, so if a family matter arises, they go home without having to ask. We don’t count hours, and that’s a sustainable business model. Every year, we have sales that satisfy us, but a large company would see it as a missed opportunity, they would say we can do ten times more. Yes, we could, but we don’t want to.

You mentioned sustainability, and sometimes luxury and sustainability seem like two different things. How do you keep the balance?

The most sustainable thing would be to stop consuming everything: only have what you need, one pair of jeans, one T-shirt. That would be the most sustainable, but it’s not realistic. If you look at mankind throughout history, people have always liked beautiful things. You can go back to Cleopatra, you can go back to Julius Caesar. You can look at Asian civilizations, thousands of years ago, and you always see signs of luxury and beauty. So it's deep inside us; we have to live with that.

Puredistance / Photo: personal archive

We have to accept that people need something beautiful every now and then. And we have to accept that because it's also inherent to the human species, there is this hierarchy—like with animals—and we try to be high in the hierarchy. And the way we do it is by showing things. Luxury is a way of showing who you are.

But now, the next question is, where did it go wrong? In the old days, if you had luxury, someone was handcrafting something for a year, so you couldn’t produce a lot, and then it was luxury. But today, machines spit out stuff and millions of people can afford to buy something that is labeled as ‘luxury’.

Mass production got cheap thanks to globalization; we can ship everywhere, and the world is one. So the world has exploded economically, and for many years, we believed that the economy always has to grow. We now see that’s wrong because if we keep growing, we will kill ourselves and the planet.

So I asked myself, what can I do at Puredistance if I see this? Well, first of all, we produce and create something valuable and high quality. All perfumes are perfume extrait only made from a high concentration of
precious perfume oil (25-48%). People only need a little to spray because it’s precious. It’s not cheap. In the end, instead of buying a new perfume every month for 30 euros, people buy one Puredistance, and it lasts very long because you only need one or two sprays. So this is already sustainable: giving people something so high quality that lasts a long time.

Also, something sustainable is giving a gift box that’s multifunctional. You can take the inlay out and now use it. Many people do it. They don’t throw it away; they can use it to collect things, jewelry, or other items.

In the company, we do whatever we can in the production process for sustainability. We reuse all the boxes that raw components come in. We shred the boxes and use them for filling up materials. Nothing is thrown away because we have such a small organization. In big organizations, when there are defects, 100,000 copies are destroyed and not sold. In our case, when we get an order, we make it. We have some stock, but normally we make it, which means we never have to throw away stock. There is no old stock. We produce what is in demand. If we have imperfect versions, with scratches, we give them away to good causes, people who need them, or the staff for Christmas. So zero waste in products. And then, we do the normal stuff—we have solar panels in the office, etc.

This is what we can do in our case to combine luxury with sustainability.

Puredistance / Photo: personal archive

An interesting fact – your office is in a very beautiful building in Groningen, a former church. Is there a story behind that?

I do most things by intuition. Well, when I do my taxes, I use my brain. So I sold my previous company, and, by chance, found an ad for an old church in the center of Groningen. I needed an office for my next ideas, but not a church. But I was curious, so I went there. And my grandfather was a priest, and my mother was a ballet teacher. The church had already been deserted; it was then turned into a ballet school. So I thought, this is a sign, right? My mother, a ballet teacher, elegance.

I’m not religious, but I believe there’s much more than what we see. When I travel, I go to churches because they’re so beautiful, and there’s this solemn, spiritual atmosphere. So I thought, this is magnificent because it combines the elegance of my mother’s ballet with a kind of more spiritual, solemn feeling. So I bought the church, and slowly, year after year, filled it until now it’s completely full with creative departments, stock, and people.

The office of Puredistance in a former church / Photo: from the book ‘The World of Puredistance in Photos’

Can you tell us about your team? You mentioned it's small, but actually, how many people work at Puredistance?

We have a very international team from Estonia, Ireland, Honduras, the Netherlands, and Malaysia. We are eight people, but not all full-time; some of them work part-time. So that’s quite a small team. I also do a lot of things myself—the name of the perfume, the packaging, the colors, the videos, the images, everything that surrounds it. Nearly all creative things I do myself, with the feedback of my team, of course, and that also saves a lot.

Your daughters also work with you. Are they following in your footsteps in perfumery?

No, I don’t think they will. They started helping when they were six years old, and they love to be part of the process in a way, but I never pushed them to take over. I can see that their passions are elsewhere. And I always believe and say, follow your heart, embrace your true self. And true self means who you are—not what your daddy wants, not what your mommy wants, not what the teacher wants, not what your neighbor wants, not what your partner wants. And that’s damn hard for most people to find out.

I believe freedom is the biggest thing, the most valuable thing in life—the true freedom to be who you are. So I always told my children, find out for yourselves what you want.

Jan Ewoud Vos with daughter Iris / Photo: personal archive

How did Puredistance evolve over 20 years? Did something change? What core values did you keep?

This is funny—I can send you a book that I published in 2005, even before we launched Puredistance I, and the book is full of values, and nothing has changed. Values of timeless beauty, true exclusivity, simplicity, etc.—these are values you shouldn’t change because that’s the core of our business.

What changed is that I didn’t know anything about this business, so I learned a lot about how the business functions. We learned who to trust and not to trust in the business. We learned who is a good guy and who is a bad guy, who is honest and who is not. So we learned practical business.

Our Magnificent XII collection is the only kind in the world—we limit ourselves to 12 perfumes. It’s in line with what I started: less is more, quality over quantity, and small is beautiful. So these key values never changed and only got stronger.

And you also talked about the importance of ethics in your business. Can you tell us more?

Very simple. Never lie. If you promise something, do it, and if you don’t do it, explain why. When it doesn’t feel good, don’t do it. And then the last thing, I think, is respect. And if you can’t respect someone because they cheat on you, don’t deal with them. I think these are the basic values that are in every religion, in every belief. When we have bad chemistry, we simply say bye-bye, instead of going to war. So these ethics are universal, but it seems like many companies don’t know how to find them.

Puredistance is like the epitome of luxury. How do you, as a luxury business owner, manage to stay so modest and close to Earth?

I think it’s because I got the right parents and grandparents. No, it’s true. My father was an international businessman, but very modest. My mother was super creative, doing fashion, artwork, jewelry, but she was never arrogant. My grandfather did beautiful things, never arrogant, never telling people how good he was, just enjoying life and what he did. So I don’t come from a ‘fancy’ family.

Jan Ewoud Vos / Photo: personal archive

Then I’m from the north of the Netherlands, which is very rural; we have more cows than people (laughs). It’s very rural, very down-to-earth. A promise is a promise. People don’t show off. So that helps, my upbringing. I don’t come from a fancy place in London or Paris or New York.

Thirdly, already at 15 or 16, I studied philosophy. And one of the things you can learn in philosophy is that modesty is one of the things that can make you happy long-term. If you go too high, you will fall. So at a young age, I knew, I saw, that if people put you on a platform, you can only fall off.

I always say, I'm super lucky and privileged to be where I am because I got the right genes. I was born in the Netherlands, in a free country. I was born from relatively well-being parents, not rich parents, but normal. I got a good education. I was raised in the 60s–70s, which were perfect years, only growth and everything happy. I got good genes from my father, mother and all of the people before them, and what I just mentioned has nothing to do with me. I didn't do anything to be born in the Netherlands, to have good genes, to have these parents – it's all luck.

I really believe that knowing that everything that happened to you that is good is a question of luck, and you feel privileged, you can never feel superior. I can only feel great compassion with people who have less because they were not so lucky and privileged, and try to make their lives better. That's what I have to do – give back.

Let's talk about future, about a new release coming. Can you share something about that?

No secrets. I love languages, I love names, making new names, like Sheiduna, Rubikona, Opardu. I create names with meaning. So for my new perfume, I thought, we need a new perfume that may be a little bit competition to White, because White is such a best seller. I came up with the name Divanché, to me it was super elegant and French sounding. We all know 'diva', 'divine', but it also has the component 'ange', and 'ange' is Angel in French. So it's the combination of a 'diva' with something divine, something heavenly, with angels.

The French have paved the way in elegance and luxury. I love Cartier. I love the good Chanel. So the French accent to me was like perfect saying, this is elegant, this is divine, this is a scent from heaven.

Visual for Divancé

I was in Tokyo, think two years ago. There we have Sachiko, who is our brand ambassador, salesperson in Japan. She is a legend there because she's the authority on perfume and vintage perfumes, and she loves Puredistance, so she started to sell it and import it long ago. And she's a wonderful person, and I love to be with her.

So we are in May, I was strolling the streets of Tokyo, and said to Sachiko that I just I registered a beautiful name. I explained her the name and she said “The most heavenly smell I know is the smell of Japanese or Asian gardenia that is blossoming now.” She said there are plenty of gardenias near her office, and she knew someone who knows how to distill a scent and make perfume butter of it.

So what she did, she went to the office, she picked up the blossoming Asian gardenias. She used a special recipe to make perfume butter of it and sent it to Nathalie Feisthauer. I told Nathalie that I want to have a pure smell. It's like if we talk about the angels, the angels don't wear a lot of complicated stuff. You know, it's very elegant, light, airy, and pure. Then Nathalie nailed it! So we will release Divanché in Spring next year.

By the way, Nathalie is totally original and totally obsessed with perfume, and she always keeps her word, she's an artist, business lady, fantastic character, so it's always a pleasure to visit her and work with her.

Puredistance / Photo: personal archive

And then one question that I have to ask. Which perfume is going out from your Magnificent XII collection?

Next year, there will be two perfumes going out, because in September, I will launch a new fragrance, I keep that a secret now. So what will go to our private collection first is Warszawa.

After that, I think, as far as I can see now, we might put Gold into our private collection.

Because we put them into our Private Collection, loyal customers will still be able to buy them. We're loyal to the customers. We don't discontinue perfumes. We only make them more exclusive. 

Thank you for your time.