Nathalie Lorson: Searching for Gold Nuggets for Someone Beyond the Scent

“I am like a miner searching for gold nuggets. There is plenty of gold dust to find, but not so many nuggets!”

Nathalie Lorson

Lalique’s Encre Noire and Yves Saint Laurent’s Black Opium: a scent of quiet woody depth and one that plays on the contrast between coffee and white flowers. They make very different impressions, yet Nathalie Lorson was involved in both.

Le Labo’s Another 13 and Poivre 23, Givenchy’s Gentleman, and Mugler’s Alien Goddess are also part of her work.

For someone who works with so many brands, creation is not about putting herself on display. It means entering a brand’s world, thinking about someone who will use the fragrance, and persistently searching for a memorable combination.

Perhaps she compares herself to a gold miner because she knows that daily process of trial and error. Even after major successes, her approach to the work remains quiet and sincere.

A History in Perfumery

Growing Up in Grasse, Learning Scent through Play

Lorson grew up in Grasse in southern France. Her father was a chemist at Roure, a fragrance company that would become part of Givaudan, so scents had been familiar since childhood.

Her earliest scent memory is of mimosa spreading across the hills of Tanneron, where she walked with her parents. Both the world of raw materials encountered through her father’s work and the natural smells experienced outdoors accumulated within her.

The first perfume she remembers buying was Yves Saint Laurent’s original Opium. There is a curious connection in the thought that, much later, she would help create Black Opium.

1980: Entering a Profession with Few Women

After the baccalaureate, Lorson entered Roure’s perfumery school in Grasse. She dates her admission to 1980 and recalls it as a challenge at a time when few women aspired to become perfumers.

Learning materials, studying combinations, and checking the impressions they create: she compares that basic training to practicing the piano.

“Like a pianist practicing scales, I memorized many scents and learned how to combine them.”

Nathalie Lorson

Acquiring technique alone does not complete a perfume. One must also develop a sense of what harmonies to create between materials and where to find beauty.

Even after a long career, she sees perfumery as work in which one keeps learning every day. The learning does not end at school; it continues all the way to the next creation.

From IFF to Firmenich

After training at Roure, Lorson gained experience at IFF. Profiles date her move to 1987; she then worked there until 2000.

The perfume she names as her first fine fragrance is Romeo for Romeo Gigli. A fresh, clean floral, it is recorded as launching in 1991. She recalls creating it in the late 1980s, suggesting a period between the initial idea or composition and the launch.

During this period she also encountered the work of Sophia Grojsman, Jean-Louis Sieuzac, and others. Bvlgari’s Pour Femme, from 1994, is known as a collaboration with Grojsman.

She moved to Firmenich in 2000. Her work expanded across brands of different character, including Lalique, Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Paul Smith, and Boucheron.

2016: Becoming a Master Perfumer

In 2015, she was named Perfumer of the Year in France and Italy: a Cosmétiquemag award in France and recognition from Accademia del Profumo in Italy. Black Opium also won fragrance awards in several countries that year.

In December 2016, Firmenich awarded her the title of Master Perfumer. Recognizing years of creation and contribution, it is a distinction granted to only a limited number of the company’s perfumers.

She now works in Paris as a Master Perfumer at dsm-firmenich.

In 2018, Altaia’s Tuberose in Blue was also recognized in Accademia del Profumo’s artistic-perfumery category. Such honors reflect a career spanning both fragrances that reach large markets and distinctive niche works.

Perfumery Philosophy and Style

Like an Actress Playing a Brand

Lorson also compares her work to that of an actress.

“I am a little like an actress. I try to put myself in the brand’s place and enter into the project.”

Nathalie Lorson

Her own sensitivity inevitably enters a perfume. But that does not mean the result always resembles her personal taste. Even a creation far removed from her everyday self means a role well played if it feels true to the brand.

This offers a clue to the breadth of her work. Rather than applying one favored kind of scent to every brand, she changes the way she uses her skills to suit the other party’s world.

Working with several brands in parallel is therefore an important stimulus. In one interview, she spoke of having 10–15 projects on her desk, though not all were at the same stage. Moving between different kinds of work, she says, opens up her perspective.

The Simpler the Formula, the Less It Can Hide

Lorson’s perfumery emphasizes the quality of materials and the fine adjustment of their proportions.

“The simplest formulas are the most difficult to make. But they can also become the perfumes with the most distinctive character.”

Nathalie Lorson

More ingredients do not necessarily make a fragrance complex and good. Even a few can produce a deeply resonant scent if their quality and proportions are right. Conversely, the choice of one material or a small change in quantity can become evident throughout the composition.

She often refers to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s idea of perfection as the point when nothing remains to be removed, rather than when nothing remains to be added. These are the writer’s words, not an original maxim of Lorson’s, but they closely reflect her attitude to formulas.

Subtraction is not about making the scent thinner. It is about making what it conveys clearer.

Having Favorite Materials, Yet Venturing Beyond Them

She likes working with rose, musk, vetiver, patchouli, vanilla, and pepper, and seems particularly drawn to smooth, expansive sensuality.

In a 2007 interview, she expressed reservations about animalic, dirty notes. Her view at that time was that sensuality could also be expressed in a more modern, subtle way.

But a list of favorite materials alone cannot explain her work. New ingredients, unexpected combinations, colors, and conversations also stimulate her, and she says she wants to move beyond familiar uses of materials.

Within calm, harmonious fragrances there is also a curiosity that searches for the unknown. Perhaps that is what keeps her creativity moving.

Signature Works and Their Background

Encre Noire: Writing Vetiver’s “Wood”

Encre Noire, from 2006, is a work to which Lorson feels deeply attached.

Vetiver was already widely used in men’s fragrances, often in cologne-like combinations with citrus. She turned instead to another aspect: its wood-like depth.

“I wanted to do something different. I wanted to use vetiver for its woody side.”

Nathalie Lorson

The structure is vetiver and musk. According to Lorson, she layered several facets within the same material, also reinforcing the grapefruit-like aspect of natural vetiver.

The simplicity of the formula makes material quality and proportions decisive. Lalique gave her freedom in selecting and exploring ingredients, allowing her to use high-quality materials that were ordinarily difficult to work with.

Alongside the perfumer’s choices was the client’s courage in choosing a different kind of scent. The conditions in which it was made are also part of why she values this work.

She later created Encre Noire Sport in 2013 and Encre Noire À l’Extrême in 2015, exploring the same theme from different angles.

Black Opium: Black Coffee and White Flowers

Black Opium, from 2014, was co-created by Lorson, Marie Salamagne, Olivier Cresp, and Honorine Blanc.

At the core of the initial idea was a coffee accord by Lorson. She was seeking an appeal that would make one want to smell it again, different from the sweetness of praline and vanilla already popular at the time.

“There were already many sweet, attractive scents on the market, such as praline and vanilla. So I was searching for something truly original.”

Nathalie Lorson

She focused on the aroma rising from a cup of coffee. Orange blossom and jasmine were layered over it to contrast black with white, darkness with light. Vanilla, patchouli, and cedar support the dark side, while pear and pink pepper act on the brighter side.

Development lasted about four years. In an interview, Lorson explains that the perfumers did not make separate pieces and simply add them together at the end. They smelled together, brought their trials to one another, and further refined the selected ideas.

A team can find solutions one person would not imagine. Yet the more people involved, the easier it can be to lose sight of the initial idea. This project involved both experiences.

Lorson has also described the rapid pace of her work with L’Oréal in general, with modifications requested daily. A fragrance intended for a large market is not completed by a good idea alone. It involves a process of repeated testing, explanation, and reconsideration.

Gucci and Le Labo: The Same Concentration in Different Worlds

Gucci’s Flora by Gucci and Gucci Première are also cited as signature works by Lorson. They translate the house’s glamour and refinement into olfactory impressions.

For Le Labo, meanwhile, she created Poivre 23, Another 13, Cuir 28, and other fragrances. In interviews she has discussed the pleasure of working with a small group in direct contact and having freedom to explore materials.

Different brand sizes and philosophies mean different ways of making perfume. Yet both kinds of work matter to her. Experiencing these differences may help develop the eye with which she approaches the next brand.

Alien Goddess: Adding a Sense of Sunlight to White Flowers

Alien Goddess, from 2021, was co-created with Salamagne.

Combining bright bergamot, the presence of jasmine, and the warmth of vanilla and woods, it sought an impression of being enveloped in sunlight. It takes white flowers a little beyond their usual floral framework.

In Black Opium, the light-dark contrast of coffee and flowers defined the impression. Here, light, warmth, and the sensation of enveloping the skin come forward. Even with the same co-perfumer, a change of brand changes the fragrance’s destination.

Sillage de Mer: Taking Perfume from Skin into Space

In 2023, when the Musée national de la Marine in Paris reopened after renovation, Lorson created its interior scent, Sillage de Mer.

“Creating an olfactory signature for a national museum is a truly special commission. It is, of course, an honor, and a first for me!”

Nathalie Lorson

Here, the recipient of the fragrance is not one person but a space. The task requires considering not only how scent changes on skin, but how it surrounds visitors and contributes to their experience of the displays.

Seaweed absolute, the marine fragrance material Calone, ambergris-like Ambrox Super, and other ingredients were combined to express the sea. The announcement also highlighted the use of upcycled materials.

This olfactory museum experience was created in collaboration with Studio Magique and others. Even outside the realm of perfumes for sale, her work remains about reaching someone’s emotions and memories.

Line 618: Scenting Time and an Endless Line

In 2026, Amouage released Line 618 in its Essences collection.

The central inspiration is an endlessly continuing line or horizon. Smoky, resinous frankincense is layered with fruit including pineapple, peach, and plum, as well as pine and heliotrope; sandalwood and leather extend into the depths.

The collection uses a dual process: fragrance concentrate is matured with Australian sandalwood chips, while the alcohol used for dilution is separately aged in oak barrels. The brand states an aging period of six months.

Beyond combinations of materials, how can time be brought into scent? Lorson’s work extends to such methods of creation as well.

A Special Relationship with Maison Violet

Maison Violet is a historic perfume brand founded in Paris in 1827. After a long dormancy, it was revived in 2017 by three young people.

Lorson supported that revival through scent. In works such as Sketch, Tanagra, and Pourpre d’Automne, she creates perfumes that evoke the atmosphere of an old house while suiting contemporary skin.

The powdery texture of iris is one key to understanding that world. Yet the works cannot all be grouped together as the same sort of iris perfume. Flowers, fruit, leather, amber: each has a different expression.

When the brand presents Lorson as its perfumer, that does not mean she works for no other brands. She collaborates with many houses while employed by a fragrance company. Among them, Maison Violet is a partner with which she has developed a shared world over time.

By the Way…

Asked about favorite smells, she names sand, freshly cut grass, and Christmas trees as well as rose and vanilla. Scents in daily life and landscapes, not just those in material bottles, evidently matter to her.

Perfumes she wishes she had created include Flower by Kenzo and Dior’s Hypnotic Poison. She is drawn to beautifully powdery floral expression and sensuality with a distinct identity.

The perfumer she would have liked to work with is Edmond Roudnitska, whose Eau Sauvage she greatly admires. It is memorable that she laughed that, if he saw today’s busy laboratory, he would be astonished at the pace of work without even enough time for maturation.

Her relationship with Grojsman also has a warm anecdote. Speaking about their shared Bvlgari Pour Femme, Grojsman said:

“That was entirely Nathalie Lorson’s work! I only made a very small adjustment.”

Sophia Grojsman

These are the words of an accomplished senior colleague candidly acknowledging a younger perfumer’s talent.

For Lorson herself, the happiest moments apparently come when she realizes that a stranger in the street is wearing one of her perfumes. She has little desire to create a private fragrance solely for herself. What she wants to make is something for another person on the other side of the scent.

“I am not a film star, or a painter posing beside a painting. I am more like a writer who disappears behind the words.”

Nathalie Lorson

Someone can love a fragrance without knowing the perfumer’s name. Perhaps that is enough for Lorson. The perfume, not its maker, comes to the fore. That attitude sustains many works with very different faces.

Perfume Creations

Major works are listed chronologically. Different formulas or concentrations sharing the same name are noted where needed. A blank co-creation cell does not establish that every such work was composed alone.

References

• dsm-firmenich：Master Perfumer Nathalie Lorson
• dsm-firmenich: Nathalie Lorson major creations
• Fragroom：Nathalie Lorson Interview — Exploring Beyond The Limits
• Auparfum：Nathalie Lorson — Je suis un peu comme une comédienne
• Persolaise：Nathalie Lorson On Lalique, Le Labo & L’Oréal
• The Perfume Society：Nathalie Lorson
• The Perfume Society：Perfumer Profile — Nathalie Lorson
• The Fragrance Foundation France：Nathalie Lorson nommée Maître Parfumeur
• Firmenich：Nathalie Lorson Named Perfumer of the Year in France and Italy
• LOOKFANTASTIC：Behind the scenes with the creator of YSL Black Opium
• The Perfume Society：An interview with the perfumers behind YSL Black Opium
• Bois de Jasmin：Happy Birthday, Sophia! Happy Women’s Day!
• BW Confidential：Signature scent for Paris’ Marine Museum
• Amouage：Line 618
• Amouage: Line 618 product information and aging process
• Oman Magazine：Amouage Essences — Geometry of Time
• Maison Violet：La Maison
• Le Monde：Le parfum de nostalgie d’un trio rêveur
• Indigo Perfumery：Violet
• Interparfums：Montblanc Explorer Platinum
• Interparfums：Montblanc Collection Vétiver Glacier
• Fragrantica：Jil Sander Sensations
• Fragrantica：Angel Schlesser Essential
• Perfume Intelligence: Romeo fragrance information
• Now Smell This: Nathalie Lorson fragrance list
• Parfumo: Nathalie Lorson fragrance list
• ItaliaImballaggio: Accademia del Profumo 2018 winners