The Creation of a Perfume: Where Does the Perfumer’s Inspiration Come From?

The Creative Process: From Dream to Reality

Following the inspiration, months, or even years of work are necessary. It also takes a lot of patience to evaluate (between 30 and 600 trials) until obtaining what was imagined at first. A perfume must correspond to the initial dream.

Let’s unveil some of my inspirations.

1. Nature as Muse

My first inspiration comes from the South of France, exactly from my holiday garden, not far from Saint Tropez. I wanted to recreate in a “non-figurative” way, the smell of blooming mimosas.

You should know that mimosa in essential oil is very disappointing and does not resemble the smell of the flower at all; it is green, almost sulfurous, hard, aggressive, and is far from the delicate smell of the fluffy and tender little balls of mimosa.

The perfume born from this love of the south was Champs Elysées by Guerlain: mimosa balls, wrapped in tender musks, with just a light wind shaking the branches.

Green notes are not my favorite notes; they are lively, fresh, smells of cut grass, crushed leaves, morning dew on a bouquet of spring flowers, but the idea of associating them with their opposite, that is to say the softness and tenderness of musks, seemed interesting to work on.

2. My Holiday Memories

Creating Helicriss, I was inspired by immortelle. This flower little worked in perfumery, a memory of the Corsican maquis, of my holidays in Calvi, was also a starting point.

Another holiday memory is the smell of ylang-ylang that I wanted to transcribe in my perfume Lilylang. Memories of my holidays in the islands that made me travel: Bali, Reunion Island, Mauritius, Maldives where I find the smell of exotic flowers mixed with that of the skin, the sun, and warm sand.

At Guerlain I worked a lot on these exotic solar notes: Mimosa Tiaré from the Aqua Allegoria line, Terracotta perfume etc.

3. Cocktails and Mixology

In the world of perfume, we savor the joys of life, like eating and drinking. Smell and taste are extremely linked. I am very curious by nature and I love discovering new sensory experiences, new places like restaurants, bars that inspire me.

L’Instant pour Homme, was created after tasting arak liqueur (originating from Iran) drowned in fresh water and ice cubes (fresh and anise alcohol) which I wanted to graft onto a darker and gourmand note of patchouli and dark chocolate.

A cold and hot contrast (patchouli by nature already has a chocolate facet). I have a thought for Béatrice Piquet who went to smell the swirls of perfume in heaven.

I drew the idea for Guerlain Homme from one of my memories of Cuba, at the Hemingway Bar, where I discovered a cocktail then still unknown in France, the Mojito. I talked about it to Thierry Wasser who was then at Firmenich, he knew it.
In very few trials we managed to tame lime, mint, and rum to make an accord.

It took longer to transform this accord into a perfume, and not just any perfume, a Guerlain!
With Delphine Jelk thinking of the Brazilian cocktail: the Caïpirinha, we developed Limon Verde in the Aqua Allegoria line.

4. Gourmandise

My friend Randa Hammami, of Syrian origin, introduced me to a sublime Syrian cake based on orange blossom, honey, vanilla: a marshmallow note (guimauve) that I worked on a lot in my career (marshmallow = orange blossom + vanilla).

We dressed it with drier and mystical notes like incense, to give it mystery and depth: Mon Précieux Nectar by Guerlain.

In Angélique Noire from the Guerlain Exclusives, I wanted to reconcile the irreconcilable, two opposite notes: the bitterness of angelica (which reminds me of the candied fruits of my childhood) and vanilla, the raw, the lively, and the soft: an olfactory big bang.

5. Material and Texture

Lace was the starting point of the work I did on Cruel Gardénia with Randa Hammami: Guerlain Exclusives, around gardenia, rose, and white musks, I wanted white flowers not worked in opulence as is often the case, but in airiness and lightness: a lace of flowers.

Orange blossom worked in “naturalness” married to jasmine, with Randa in Olyssia.

I dreamed of a white suede, soft and tender like a pashmina dressed in what I love most: powdery notes, iris, violet, heliotrope, and also vanilla, patchouli, and immortelle, a light feminine leather that I created first for myself with Olivier Polge: my second perfume, Cuir Beluga.

6. My Childhood and Intimate Memories

The soft baths of my childhood, soap bubbles, the smell of the bathroom where my mother collected her cosmetic products, her lipstick, her rice powders, the smell of clean mixed with the smells of beauty products gave birth to Dovana, a musky and tender perfume, like a comfort blanket one could sleep with. Anne Louise Gautier interpreted my memory very well.

L’Heure Bleue has been the perfume of my life, in tribute to this masterpiece, I wanted to take its DNA (orange blossom, iris, heliotrope, violet) I wanted to overdose the violet already present in L’Heure Bleue, make it electric, and bring a fruity touch to it: wild strawberry and the delicious scent of the Météorites pearls perfume.

Insolence was born in collaboration with Maurice Roucel!

In the same register, Florentina, where I overdosed two materials that I like very much vetiver and almond.

My mother used to burn Papier d’Arménie in the house, I wanted to pay tribute to her by dressing this delicious scent of benzoin and spices, with woods and resins: Bois d’Arménie in the exclusives with Annick Menardo. And Osiris, with a honeyed note of childhood, associated with sesame.

7. Reinterpreting a Classic (The Guerlinade)

The Guerlinade: signature of Guerlain perfumes gave me the connecting thread of L’Instant de Guerlain.

I established correspondences: I replaced bergamot with mandarin, more solar and smiling.
Jasmine and rose, with magnolia and sambac jasmine, more solar. Vanilla with benzoin, more solar, and finally patchouli with sandalwood, more luminous and supple.

As you understood, I wanted to breathe sun through the entire perfume pyramid and add a honey note, for its “golden” side. Thanks to Maurice Roucel!

8. My Encounters and Art

In the training sessions I gave, every time I had people smell raw materials, including musk, this white musk scent was always a huge success all over the world.

It was the enthusiasm of the advisors that gave me this click, hence the idea of creating a perfume with an overdose of musks, overdose being one of the characteristics of Guerlain perfumes. I wanted a “musquinade” dressed in rose, almond, sandalwood: L’Instant Magic created with Randa Hammami.

The idea of L’Eau de Lit was whispered to me following a remark by a loyal customer and Guerlain lover: “You don’t have a perfume to go to sleep, to perfume the sheets, it’s a shame!”. She was right, it was a very beautiful idea!

Before my career in perfume, I was a professional makeup artist, so colors are very important to me, I am very “visual,” it is my “most open” sensory channel.

A perfume was born following the viewing of the film: Marie Antoinette by Sophia Coppola, the powdery pink color appeared to me following this film and also the idea of a cherry macaron.

I “used” this idea for a project in the exclusives: La Petite Robe Noire, the obvious choice was to add black notes (patchouli, licorice, black tea, vanilla) to balance the pink color until finding the equilibrium of these two colors. Thanks to Delphine Jelk.

Other inspirations:

• Monet’s paintings for the creation by Jacques Guerlain of L’Heure Bleue.
• Ravel’s Boléro symphony for the creation of Nahéma perfume by Jean Paul Guerlain.
• A novel La Bataille for the creation of Mitsouko.
• The novel Vol de Nuit for the perfume of the same name.
• Jicky, the first name of the young girl Aimé Guerlain fell in love with.