Portraits of Perfumeurs

Urs Castelletti creates fragrances that reflect his personality: precise, balanced, and deeply harmonious. A perfumer at LUZI since the late 1980s, he favors an olfactory style in which each ingredient naturally finds its place. His creations eschew spectacular effects in favor of building a lasting emotional impact, carried by woody, amber, oriental, or floral accords of great fluidity. His career path—which began in the laboratory before he became a perfumer—has given him a technical...

Lauriane Guignon has a unique background. She is a perfumer, winemaker, and producer of perfume plants. She practices these three professions at Mas Ricardenque, a family estate in Callian, in the Grasse region, where 8,000 Centifolia rose bushes grow alongside 2.5 hectares of organic vineyards. She comes from a century-old lineage of winemakers and perfume flower growers, and her creations are born from the terroir before they reach the bottle. Each fragrance she creates for her own brand...

Born in 1985 in the province of Milan, Claudio Zucca grew up in a home where scents held a special place, thanks to his mother’s love for the world of fragrances. This informal education shaped an olfactory sensibility that his career as an architect would only refine, without ever extinguishing it. It was during a personally challenging period that he shifted from architecture to fragrance creation, through a self-taught process marked by late-night experiments, the study of raw materials,...

An art journalist turned self-taught perfumer, Miguel Matos is one of the most distinctive figures in European niche perfumery. As editor of Fragrantica since 2013, he brings the analytical rigor of a critic to his compositions: his fragrances do not seek immediate beauty, but rather fertile imperfection, sharp edges, and the imbalance that captures the attention. A two-time winner of the Art and Olfaction Awards—for “Young Hearts” in 2020 and “Tabacco Smeraldo” in 2023—he creates...

Eve Miralles came to perfumery through rigor. Through a desire to understand what molecules do to emotion. And with a particular curiosity, typical of scientific minds, which means never being satisfied with a superficial answer. Now Senior Perfumer at Cosmo International Fragrances in Barcelona, Eve Miralles is one of those designers who work in the shadows of the big brands, far from the spotlight of mainstream perfumery, but who imagine fragrances that travel on the skin of thousands of...

Clément Gavarry was born in Paris in 1977, the heir to a four-generation family line from Grasse. At first, as a teenager, he refused to take up the tradition, as sailing attracted him more than laboratories. An internship in New York in 1998 changed his course. He discovered the profession outside the family sphere and realized that this was what attracted him. Trained at ISIPCA and then IFF, he graduated in 2004 and moved to Manhattan. Senior perfumer at Dsm-Firmenich since 2024, he has...

Sébastien Cresp, son of master perfumer Olivier Cresp, trained at the Grasse Institute of Perfumery after an initial course in cooking. Senior perfumer at Atelier Fragranze Milano, he draws inspiration from his Grasse roots and his gastronomic sensibility. His olfactory style combines modern audacity with technical rigor. An adept of innovative perfumery, he creates striking creations (Margiela, Kayali) that shake up codes. P or him, each fragrance must arouse strong emotion through original,...

Born in Constantinople, Ilias Ermenidis developed a passion for perfumes at a young age while doing summer internships at his father's flavor factory in Istanbul. This vocation led him to study perfumery in Paris, where he made history at Firmenich by becoming the first apprentice perfumer ever to be recruited there. His professional career reflects his international outlook, having lived in Paris, Geneva, and New York. Deeply influenced by art and opera, his creative process favors abstract...

Pierre Negrin has deep roots in perfumery: born in Grasse, his two grandfathers were traders in plants and perfume products. Although he initially turned to photography and studied physics and chemistry, an internship with a friend who was a perfumer sparked his creative side. He realized that he could express himself just as intensely through scents as he could through light. For him, creating a fragrance is a form of alchemy where the value of a work does not depend on the rarity of its...

A sophisticated Parisian and lawyer by training, Philippine Courtière made a radical career change when she decided to become a perfume creator. During this transition, she benefited from the guidance of renowned masters such as Francis Kurkdjian, Michel Almairac, and Jacques Cavallier. Her career took her from Paris to Geneva, then to New York, a city whose energy and bold fragrances have left their mark on her creative signature. Now dividing her time between Paris and Dubai, she draws on...

Alberto Morillas is a major figure in perfumery, being the first perfumer ever to receive the prestigious Fragrance Foundation Award of Excellence. With his encyclopedic knowledge of the history of perfumes, he stands out for his ability to blend innovative natural techniques with revolutionary synthetic molecules, which he sometimes helps to create himself. His inspiration comes from direct contact with his ingredients. His creative mind is perpetually alert and focused on the future, to the...

Marie Salamagne composes from precise memories, often predating words. The smells of raw materials, enclosed spaces and everyday gestures shaped her imagination from an early age. This sensory memory still guides her work. She creates as she would paint, in successive strokes, seeking color balance and the right tension between clarity and depth. Her style favors emotional legibility, with clean structures and sensuality. She favors controlled contrasts, expressive materials and...