Julia Rodríguez Pastor grew up in a small town outside Barcelona and pictured herself as a doctor, a scientist or a journalist. Her father worked in the fragrance industry and introduced her to raw materials, and a master's degree in fragrances and flavours took her into the trade. She joined Eurofragance, the Barcelona fragrance house, in 2009 and is one of its senior perfumers, now based in Dubai.
Fine fragrance is her field. Turkish rose, jasmine sambac and orris are the materials she returns to, and her work for the Middle East market brought oud into nearly everything she makes, along with ambergris, pink pepper and incense. In 2020 she won best perfume at the Mouillette d'Argent international perfumery competition and sat on its jury in 2021.
Nick, the founder of Gallivant, chose her for Gallivant Gdańsk because she had a link to Poland, had visited the city and had a feel for amber. The perfume sets plum, honey and saffron over leather, cistus and New Caledonian sandalwood, with tobacco, styrax and a plant-based ambergris note beneath. It is compounded in Barcelona and finished by hand in England.
