The 10 Fragrances Master Perfumers Wish They’d Created
These scents are so genius, the industry’s best experts call them “life-changing”.
Behind every great fragrance is an esteemed perfumer. Everyday beauty fans may not be able to rattle off the names of their favorite fragrances’ creators, but to the enthusiastic fragrance aficionado, perfumers are the artists who breathe life and creativity into scents. “Perfumers are celebrities to the fragrance-obsessed—people who are fans of fragrance as an art,” says Sable Yong, journalist and co-host of the fragrance podcast Smell Ya Later.
Perfumers are a bit like fashion designers, says Yong. Sometimes they work under their own label, or they might brought on by a brand to interpret a scent concept. “It’s only somewhat recently that perfumers have been explicitly ‘signing’ their work for large brands,” says fragrance content creator and brand consultant LC James. “At the same time, certain perfumes become affiliated with a house or brand in the same way certain long-standing creative directors do [in fashion], and the celebration of their work is tied into the celebration of the house,” James notes.
Whether you’re an enthusiastic supporter of cult-status celebrity noses or just a fan of smelling great, we asked 12 perfumers—from the up-and-coming to the most celebrated masters of their time—what perfumes they wish they had created. From ancient Egypt to New England in the ’80s, here are 12 fragrances deeply beloved of 12 famed perfumers.
Related article: Four Gourmand Perfumes Which Are More Delicious Than Dessert
Few perfumers have transformed the modern fragrance industry like Frank Voelkl. “If you look at his body of work, you see a mixture of sophistication and complexity, but also, what I see is a complete lack of pretension,” says James. It’s clear the Firmenich principal perfumer takes joy in what he makes, she adds. Yong echoes that sentiment: “When I see that a fragrance was made by Frank Voelkl, I can anticipate that it will be translucently pretty, universally wearable, and well balanced.”
As for the man synonymous with nearly every current buzzy fragrance, Voelkl is most transfixed by a somewhat recent creation: 2006’s Terre d’Hermès, created by Jean-Claude Ellena. “This scent is unique and memorable in an innovative and timeless way,” says Voelkl. “It has a clear message and expression of feeling grounded, which makes it comfortable to wear,” he adds. “I admire Jean-Claude Ellena as a creator and the addictive simplicity he captured in this scent.”
D.S. & Durga’s Moltz is a self-taught perfumer who is famed for his boundary-pushing—yet wearable—fragrances. Crafting complex narratives and universes around each scent, the brand is known for originality and artistry. But what does an avant-garde perfumer wish he’d created? The one fragrance that epitomizes his childhood in New England: Polo by Ralph Lauren, created in 1978 by master perfumer Carlos Benaim. “That scent encapsulates the world I grew up in,” says Moltz. The “kitchen-sink ingredient list,” as Moltz describes it, should be muddy, but thanks to Benaim’s brilliance, the bold, complex blend of woody, grassy, spicy, and chypre notes is masterful.
But the original Polo in the simplistic green bottle is not just a sensory success, it’s equally a marketing behemoth. “Ralph Lauren invented what we think of as American menswear—with pseudo-British hunting campaigns on epic estates for the modern American man,” says Moltz. The Polo fragrance further bolstered this imagery with a scent that continuously reveals new facets of tweed-toting, hound-owning nobility. “The fact that it was co-opted by every dude in the early ’80s around me in Boston is a lesson in how a perfume can satisfy your aspirations to become who you want to be,” Moltz says. “It is an icon and encapsulation of an era that still inspires me.”
Perfumer, poet, and scent designer Marissa Zappas (considered the “‘cool girl’ indie perfumer,” says Yong) has one of the most interesting and unexpected perspectives in perfumery. Her eponymous line merges her anthropology background with her admiration for 20th-century avant-garde perfumes, resulting in “deeply nostalgic perfumes” that blend “fantasy and the real with the gothic and the modern,” says Zappas.
The scent this visionary wishes she’d created goes back to the iconic Jacques Guerlain and his 1906 floral masterpiece Après L’Ondee. “This enchanted fragrance completely disorients me in the best way possible. Technically, I admire the way it’s subtle, yet still so pervasive. It smells like soft black licorice and nonpareil candies, mimosa flowers, parma violets, vanilla, and powdery heliotrope,” says Zappas. “It’s bewitching and instantly disarming, and one of the few perfumes I still buy.”
Born and raised in Mexico City, Rodrigo Flores-Roux has a plethora of iconic creations under his perfumery belt, including cult classic Clinique Happy and Neroli Portofino by Tom Ford. The Givaudan senior perfumer is not only a creator but also a self-described perfume historian. Diorissimo by Dior is one of Flores-Roux’s favorite perfumes ever created—not only for its ingenuity, but also because of its place in perfume history.
Launched in 1954, Diorissimo was created by famed perfumer Edmond Roudnitska, under the guidance of Christian Dior himself. In fact, the fragrance is incredibly personal to the house of Dior. Diorissimo captures lily of the valley and is a single floral (or a soliflore)—“a mono theme taken to the extreme of perfection,” says Flores-Roux. Dior’s favorite flower was the lily of the valley (he considered it his lucky flower), which was used many times as a motif in the designer’s collections and was the emblem of Dior Couture. When Dior died in 1957, his coffin was covered in lily of the valley, and all of the mourners sported a sprig of the delicate spring floral.
The simplicity of Diorissimo is deceptive, though. The fragrance has subtle notes of jasmine and ylang-ylang, and it features one of the first prominent uses of two molecules in the green universe, says Flores-Roux. “These two green elements are present in green leaves and green fruit (like kiwi and bananas)—they provide a spring, burgeoning, sappy, fresh-cut-grass kind of smell,” he says. “Roudnitska used them to the biggest advantage in this perfume, providing a completely new innovation for a perfume that was already quite innovative because it was very minimalistic in conception. But then the coronation of this beautiful floral harmony was to put this completely new green, very ethereal and powerful dominance to make the fragrance completely new.”
This perfume takes an emotional approach to the brand, but also represents enormous innovation and a quantum leap in the creation of perfumes, Flores-Roux adds. “Diorissimo is a perfect perfume—not only because it’s highly recognizable and absolutely gorgeous, but it also is a keystone in the history of perfume.”
Fourth-generation perfumer Clement Gavarry is swayed by the sentimentality of fragrance. His dream creation is a scent almost everyone knows and loves: the citrus-forward CK One, created in 1994 by Alberto Morillas and Harry Fremont.
Firmenich senior perfumer Gavarry smelled it as a teenager and instantly fell in love. “This fragrance was revolutionary and the first gender-neutral fragrance with a construction that, for me, has everlasting freshness, a beautiful trail, and is memorable,” he says. “It captures all of the aspects that make a scent a classic—to this day it is a modern fragrance that stands in its own category. Truly timeless.”
Related article: BAZAAR Showcase: Cartier Brings Scents Of Art To Perfume Bottles
Upstate New York–based holistic nutritionist and aromatherapist Courtney Somer is focused on creating scents for her line Lake & Skye that are proven to uplift and transform. But what fragrance both uplifts and fills Somer with envy? Chloé Eau de Parfum, created in 2008 by Amandine Clerc-Marie and Michel Almairac. The light and fresh fragrance has notes of rose, peony, magnolia, and lychee that give the scent its signature floral, plus a warm base of cedarwood and amber. “It’s floral but not overly so, and has an airiness and earthy base,” says Somer. “Not only was it my signature scent when I was younger but I loved that it was the perfect mix of bohemian and chic, luxurious and free-spirited.”
Maya Njie is steeped in historic inspirations. As a perfumer, Njie draws on nostalgic scents from her Swedish and West African heritages, and her blends are made in small, fresh batches and bottled individually by hand. Njie’s dream creation is not only nostalgic but also artistic: the 1982 perfume by French-American sculptor, painter, filmmaker, and author Niki de Saint Phalle. Commissioned by Carlo Bilotti, the president of Jacqueline Cochran perfumes, the artist was given carte blanche to create both a perfume and a bottle design—and this treasured objet d’art is the outcome. (The New York Times wrote