Cécile Matton: A Hands-On Perfumer Layering Sweetness with Surprise

“I wanted to become a perfumer, so I studied pharmacy in order to become one.”

— Cécile Matton, from an interview in ParfumPlus; translated from the Japanese quotation

Yves Saint Laurent’s Baby Doll, Viktor&Rolf’s Bonbon, and Emporio Armani’s Stronger With You. Cécile Matton’s name is behind these fragrances with their approachable sweetness.

Yet Matton has also worked with the unexpected pairing of fig and caviar, and created fragrances featuring iris and incense. Tracing these beginnings leads to African markets and rain-washed roads before it reaches perfume bottles.

A Life in Perfumery

Memories of Africa

Matton was born in Kinshasa, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and grew up in Africa until the age of eight.

The memories of early childhood are of everyday smells rising intensely in the heat. Fresh peanuts wrapped in newspaper at the market. Pale baguettes in large stainless-steel containers at the bakery on the way to school. Matton says that these memories explain the preference for very white bread even today.

Nor has Matton forgotten the steamy smell of heavy rain falling on hot asphalt. Surprisingly, the earliest olfactory memory named is an anti-mosquito chemical. The smoke of DDT, sprayed from above the village at the time, remained vividly in her memory.

Later, encountering Isobutyl Quinoline, a fragrance material suggesting leather and chypre, brought back those childhood memories. Matton has also spoken of being drawn to the smell of gasoline when Matton’s mother was having the car filled up. From the outset, smells were not limited to flowers and fruit.

The first encounter with perfume was Dior’s Miss Dior, worn by Matton’s mother. This was the original patchouli-centered chypre, not the current fragrance of the same name. Her fondness for green chypres is connected with this familiar scent, too.

Studying Pharmacy to Become a Perfumer

As a teenager, Matton began collecting essences sold at the French homewares shop Pier Import and mixing them together. The results were not successful from the start, however. Looking back, Matton recalls that those early efforts were not very good.

The wish to become a perfumer emerged at around 14 or 15. Matton names Van Cleef & Arpels’ First as the first perfume personally purchased. Before that, Jean Desprez’s Bal à Versailles had also been received as a gift.

The path she chose was pharmacy studies oriented toward industry. It was not a matter of qualifying as a pharmacist and then turning to perfume by chance. As the opening quotation explains, pharmacy was chosen as a route to becoming a perfumer. Matton explains that the fragrance and pharmaceutical industries were closely connected at the time.

During an internship at Biolandes Technologies, Matton studied aromatherapy and essential oils for cosmetics. This experience confirmed the wish to enter the world of perfume.

In 1992, Matton entered the Givaudan-Roure perfumery school in Grasse. After two years of study, Matton spent one year as Jean Guichard’s assistant in Paris.

The first assignments involved adapting fragrances by Nina Ricci and Cartier for creams, soaps, and other products. After gaining this practical experience, Matton began releasing perfumes under a personal creative credit.

From Givaudan to New York, Then Mane

An important early creation was Baby Doll, co-created with Ralf Schwieger. Some sources date its release to 1999, and it became a signature work repeatedly mentioned in profiles of Matton. It is reported to have won a FiFi Award in 2000.

In the 2000s, a wish to work in America took Matton to International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) in New York. After returning to France, Matton joined Mane’s Paris creative team in 2007.

In a 2023 interview with The Fragrance Foundation France, Matton said that the time at Mane was approaching 16 years. As a senior perfumer there, Matton has collaborated repeatedly with Serge Majoullier, Julie Massé, and others.

In 2018, Matton was named Perfumer of the Year at the Cosmétique Mag Oscars. With creations for both major and niche brands, this is a perfumer whose body of work extends well beyond sweet fragrances.

The Perfumery Philosophy of a Maker

Matton is sometimes presented as a perfumer closer to an artisan than an artist. Making jewelry at home, she continues the process of selecting materials, combining them, and giving them concrete form beyond perfume as well.

Asked about favorite smells, Matton names nutmeg, puppies, and laundry drying. Among fragrance materials, it is the smell of Orcanox combined with vanilla. Green chypre is named as the favorite olfactory combination. This curiosity, making no divisions between natural ingredients, synthetic materials, and everyday smells, feels characteristic of her.

One of the greatest joys at work comes when a project developed over a long period is selected. Daily satisfaction, meanwhile, lies closer to hand: being happy with a trial fragrance and feeling that it properly answers the brand’s brief.

“The most important thing is to be proud of what you create.”

— Cécile Matton, from a 2023 interview; translated from the Japanese quotation

Matton says that development can take two to five years. During that time, ideas are exchanged with other perfumers, and the direction is checked with evaluators who assess the fragrances. Rather than ending with one person’s inspiration, the work progresses through finding a shared language.

A Diptyque candle once required the scent of pumpkin. Not American-style pumpkin cooked with cinnamon, however: the brief called for fresh pumpkin just picked from the field. The same word can bring different smells to mind. Bridging that gap and turning it into an actual scent is part of the difficulty of perfumery.

Working with New Materials

In a 2023 interview, Matton said that annual perfume launches had increased from approximately 150 early in the career to approximately 3,000. This was Matton’s own account at the time, but it conveys the sense that both briefs and competition had increased, and that the work now involved presenting several possible directions.

Changes in the available raw materials are another major challenge. When regulations or other factors make established materials unavailable, other ingredients must be combined to fulfill their role. Matton identifies finding replacements and creating new olfactory forms as challenges for the perfumers of the future.

One technology supporting this work is Mane’s Jungle Essence. An extraction method using supercritical fluids, it is described by Matton as more environmentally considerate than traditional methods and capable of capturing a smell closer to the original material.

Colleague Serge Majoullier has used mobile extraction equipment to work with pineapple, gingerbread, green bell pepper, hazelnut, coconut, and other materials. The samples brought back undergo testing for industrial production at Bar-sur-Loup, near Grasse. The work is not only about combining familiar scents, but also expanding the range of materials available.

Major Creations and Their Stories

Baby Doll: The Brightness of Fruit and Flowers

Baby Doll is an essential perfume in any account of Matton’s early work. Co-created with Schwieger, it is dated to either 1999 or 2000, depending on the source.

It moves from bright fruity scents through flowers such as rose and freesia to a woody lingering impression. Because detailed ingredient descriptions vary between sources, they cannot all be treated as a single formula, but the youthful fruity-floral impression is shared.

Alongside the classic chypres that had fascinated Matton since childhood, this work embraces a lighter, more approachable fragrance. It is an early signature creation demonstrating the breadth of Matton’s work.

Womanity: The Sweetness of Fig and the Saltiness of Caviar

For Mugler’s Womanity in 2010, Matton worked as part of Mane’s creative team on a fragrance in which sweetness and saltiness coexist.

In an interview with the fragrance magazine Nez, Matton explained that the starting point was Thierry Mugler’s memory of being beneath a fig tree, surrounded by a sea breeze. To express it, the sweetness of fig was combined with a saltiness recalling caviar.

The caviar Jungle Essence developed by Majoullier helped make this olfactory combination possible. Cistus labdanum supported the salty mineral impression, while pyrazines reportedly added a facet suggesting rice growing in water.

Simply placing unexpected materials side by side does not make a fragrance work. Matton recalls spending a long time balancing the two. Womanity was, for its time, one of the bold attempts to introduce saltiness into a sweet gourmand fragrance.

Bonbon: Turning Memories of Sweets into Perfume

Bonbon, released in 2014 and co-created with Majoullier, addresses sweetness directly. Matton has also spoken of liking its ribbon-shaped bottle.

A source discussing an interview in Marie Claire names the French sweet Carambar as one inspiration. This is the memory of a familiar confection, encompassing not only its caramel taste, but even the jokes printed on the wrappers.

Caramel sweetness connects with fruit, flowers, and sandalwood. Rather than merely reproducing the smell of food, Bonbon is a composition structured as a perfume to be worn on the skin.

37 Rue de Bellechasse: The Light and Shade of Iris and Resins

Yves Saint Laurent’s 37 Rue de Bellechasse, released in 2017, was co-created with Julie Massé.

Centered on iris and layered with incense, oud, musk, and other notes, it has a woody, resinous structure. In contrast to Bonbon’s approachable sweetness, it explores the powdery texture of flowers and the shadows of woods and resins.

Even the creations of one perfumer do not fit into a single olfactory family. Matton’s artisanal approach can also be seen in drawing out different expressions of materials for each brief.

Stronger With You: Developing a Fragrance over Time

Stronger With You in 2017 marked the start of a series with which Matton would have a long involvement. Flankers followed, exploring different facets such as leather, oud, and amber.

Stronger With You Amber, released in 2023, preserves the sweet impression connecting it to the original while bringing forward the enveloping warmth of amber and vanilla.

Rather than always creating an entirely different fragrance, the work can involve transforming one while preserving its original character. Seen alongside Matton’s beginnings in adaptations for creams and soaps, it becomes clear that developing existing fragrances into different forms has continued throughout the career.

Incidentally…

• There is a small jewelry-making studio at home. Sometimes described as a “perfumer who makes jewelry,” Matton values time spent making things by hand outside perfume as well.
• In a 2023 interview, Matton spoke of finding a new passion in knitting and undertaking professional training in knitwear styling. Working with natural materials such as wool, cotton, and linen is reportedly a pleasure.
• When continued smelling saturates the nose, Matton says that a short break is taken and wool is sometimes smelled. An interview answer also describes working on approximately 10 to 20 fragrances at a time.
• Chanel’s Chance is the perfume Matton names as one personally wished to have created. Asked which historical figure would be chosen as the recipient of a bespoke perfume, the answer is Marilyn Monroe.
• The advice for honing the sense of smell is very practical: smell things repeatedly and build up memories. Matton recommends not judging perfume only inside a shop, but trying it in the open air and, if possible, on the skin.

Perfume Creations

The following are major creations listed in publicly available sources. Release years sometimes differ between sources; this list uses 1999 for Baby Doll and 2019 for Stronger With You Intensely. A “―” in the co-perfumer column means that the consulted source names no additional co-perfumer, not that sole authorship is being asserted.

References

• ParfumPlus Magazine — Cécile Matton On Deciding To Become A Perfumer: opening quotation and reasons for choosing pharmacy.
• The Fragrance Foundation France — Nez à Nez avec Cécile Matton, senior parfumeur chez Mane (May 15, 2023): childhood, education, work with Jean Guichard, career moves, creative outlook, Jungle Essence, and craft hobbies.
• The Perfume Society — Cécile Matton: teenage experiences of perfume, favorite smells, creations, and working habits.
• Parfumo — Cécile Matton: cross-checking fragrance names, release years, and creative credits.
• Fragrantica — Cecile Matton: cross-checking affiliation and creative credits.
• Fragrantica — Baby Doll: co-perfumers, notes, and FiFi Award record. The release year differs from other sources.
• Nez — Salty notes, sea spray and tastebuds (October 26, 2022): Matton’s own account of Womanity’s creation and the expression of saltiness.
• Marie Claire — Rencontre avec Cécile Matton: the Carambar and Bonbon anecdote.
• Parfinity — Cécile Matton: The Jeweler Perfumer’s Artistic Journey: birth in Kinshasa, joining Mane in 2007, artisanal character, and 2018 award.
• Agoratopia — Cecile Maton: the 2018 Perfumer of the Year award.
• easycosmetic — Cécile Matton: the 2018 award and the release year of Stronger With You Intensely.
• Parfumo — Armani Privé, Pivoine Suzhou: co-created with Julie Massé.
• Parfumo — 37 Rue de Bellechasse: 2017, co-perfumers, and composition.
• Parfumo — Velvet Incenso: Dolce & Gabbana’s 2018 creation, co-created with Julie Massé.
• Aromo — Cécile Matton: creative credits and release years for Black and United Dreams Together for Him.
• The Perfume Girl — Cecile Matton: 2019 creations and co-perfumers.
• Parfumerie — Biotherm, Eau Fusion: 2019 release and Matton’s creative credit.
• Parfumerie — 4711, Acqua Colonia Cotton & Almond: 2019 release, co-created with Julie Massé.