What influences you as a designer?
For me, everything is a source of inspiration: visuals (shapes and colors), tactile sensations, tastes (cooking and flavors)… It can also be an atmosphere, memories, or word associations. My creativity is fed by anything that procures an emotion, and then I try to translate that into a fragrance. When I’m working on a project, the brand also has a lot of in-put, they help me focus my experiments.

How can we recognize one of your fragrances? What are, in your opinion, their distinguishing characteristics?
It’s hard for me to say, since I’m so close to them… But I try first and foremost to serve the project or brand, which can lead me to explore unfamiliar territory… and to rein in my ego! I also pride myself on never doing the same thing twice. But I suppose there must be some recognizable features. I like what’s round, gentle, intimate and harmonious. I don’t want things to clash or create discordance. And even if it has to shout, I’d still try to do it with a certain suppleness. In fact, over time I’ve evolved towards less complicated creations: shorter and shorter formulas, but with more lush, natural ingredients whenever possible. And speaking of ingredients, I don’t have much of an affinity for aromatic notes, but I absolutely adore rose and woody-rose accords.

Do you think that being a woman influences the way you create… and if so, in what way?
Maybe. I have a feminine perception, it’s true, so I have to be influenced by that. But how can you isolate that one factor from the rest of my personality? I don’t like working on very rough, macho juices, for example, and I probably tend to project more of myself into the creation of a woman’s scent, although… Then, as a woman, some brands’ images suit me better than others. But at the end of the day, I think it’s essentially a question of individual sensibilities, and there can be as much difference between two women perfumers’ work as between a man’s and a woman’s.

What other designer’s fragrance(s) do you wish you had created? And why? Declaration by Cartier, for its new interpretation of woody-spicy notes, and for its highly distinctive, top-of-the-line signature. Flower By Kenzo: it’s a lovely reinterpretation of a classic floral-powder scent, like a sort of Guerlain’s l’Heure Bleue revisited. I would also have loved to have created Dior’s Hypnotic Poison or Guerlain’s L’Instant. They are such pure pleasures: voluptuous, enveloping, instantly recognizable, and with a strong identity, just the way I like fragrances to be. How do you envisage the future for fragrances? Do you have any hopes for the future? I think there’s a growing awareness of the huge (excessively so?) number of fragrances currently available. That should encourage a certain refocusing on products with more character and identity, as, I’m convinced, the growth of elite fragrances for consumers who really want to stand out. Nowadays, consumers are better and better educated about fragrance, therefore more and more demanding. Plus, the emergence of new markets, (Russia, China, Latin America) will undoubtedly influence trends and maybe even the very conception of fragrances themselves…

The fragrance Kate by Kate Moss