Daphné Bugey: Following Memory and Composing Fragrance Freely

“My credo is to experience everything and feel everything. That allows me to create from a place of freedom.”

Daphné Bugey

Born in 1976 in Grenoble, France.

How would it feel to discover that the perfume your mother wore and the first perfume you bought for yourself were connected through an olfactory lineage?

Daphné Bugey has made just such a discovery. Tracing her childhood memories led to a celebrated perfume from the early twentieth century. What she received from it would later take a different form in fragrances she created herself.

Bugey is also a perfumer who loves to travel: meditation in Nepal, an organic farm in Japan, a pottery workshop in Portugal. She has valued both learning from great perfumes of the past and immersing herself in worlds she does not yet know.

A Life in Perfumery

Her Mother’s Perfume and Her First 30-Milliliter Purchase

Bugey grew up in Grenoble, southeastern France. Her family did not work in perfumery, but fragrance was familiar from early childhood.

She says she collected miniature perfume bottles and advertisements before the age of ten, captivated not only by the little bottles but also by their boxes. She even followed people in the street, trying to identify the perfumes they wore.

Her mother’s perfumes were especially important: Guerlain’s Shalimar, Mitsouko, Nahema, Jardins de Bagatelle, Parure, and L’Heure Bleue.

In an essay written in 2022 and published the following year in the olfactory-culture magazine Nez, Bugey recalled:

“I owe a great deal to Guerlain. Guerlain is probably at the origin of my vocation.”

Daphné Bugey, from her contribution to Nez; translated from the Japanese rendering.

She later encountered a sample of Oscar, Oscar de la Renta’s first perfume. Rich, complex, and somehow mysterious, it captivated her immediately, and she bought herself a 30-milliliter bottle.

Cacharel’s Anaïs Anaïs was popular with girls of her generation. Her choice was somewhat unexpected in that context, but she was not trying to wear something different from everyone else. She simply loved the scent.

At twelve, she visited Grasse on a family trip. At the International Perfume Museum, she learned that perfumery existed as a profession and realized that loving perfume could lead to a future career.

Discovering the Connection between Memory and Perfume at School

Bugey worked on her chemistry studies in order to learn perfumery. She would later enter ISIPCA, the perfumery school in Versailles.

She chose to combine her studies with practical training at Firmenich. Classes included reconstructing classic perfumes and comparing several fragrances by smell.

There, she discovered something unexpected. At the heart of Oscar, the perfume that had enthralled her, was a trace of L’Heure Bleue, familiar from her mother’s neck.

“Perhaps my olfactory memory had guided that first love for a perfume. Unconsciously, I may have wanted to recover the feeling of being held by my mother: the enveloping, comforting quality of that fragrance, its musk ketone, vanilla, heliotropin…”

Daphné Bugey, from her contribution to Nez; translated from the Japanese rendering.

Even the perfume she believed she had first chosen for herself carried the life she had lived before it. Through this discovery, Bugey realized that fragrances have lineages, with a single theme undergoing variations across different periods.

Yet she did not want to dissect and understand every perfume she loved. She also wrote that she wanted to treasure Oscar as a complete fragrance, afraid that analysis might destroy its magic.

To Geneva, Princeton, and Paris

In 1997, Bugey joined Firmenich. Her first workplace was in Geneva, Switzerland, where she created scents for everyday products including shampoos, creams, and candles.

Two years later, she moved to Princeton in the United States. After spending four years there, she moved to Paris and entered fine fragrance, the field of perfumes worn on the skin.

The interest that began with her mother’s perfume led, through school training, perfuming everyday products, and work abroad, to creating perfumes themselves.

Finding an Even Older Fragrance through Coty Reconstruction

In 2004, Bugey was entrusted with reconstruction work connected to Coty’s centenary. It involved tracing the perfumes left by François Coty through formulas from their time.

With Jean Kerléo’s help, she was able to study formulas preserved at the Osmothèque perfume conservatory.

L’Origan, in particular, became a special discovery for her.

“When I finally completed a first formula for L’Origan, weighed it, and smelled it… I experienced a second shock. L’Origan of 1905 was the precursor of L’Heure Bleue, released in 1912. And L’Heure Bleue had inspired Jean-Louis Sieuzac’s Oscar of 1977.”

Daphné Bugey, from her contribution to Nez; translated from the Japanese rendering.

Her mother’s L’Heure Bleue and her own Oscar: tracing their connection further back led to L’Origan. Jean-Louis Sieuzac, the creator of Oscar, had likewise drawn inspiration from an earlier fragrance.

Reconstruction did not end with simply weighing an old formula. Some materials used at the time were no longer available. Bugey also spoke with older colleagues in Grasse, seeking to understand the character of those ingredients and the methods of composition used then.

What she learned was not limited to similarities between scents. Even when creations inherit the same theme, each has an identity of its own. Taking inspiration is not the same as making an exact copy.

This experience would later connect with Scandal for Jean Paul Gaultier.

Translating Feelings into the Language of Scent

Bugey compares perfumery to verbal communication. Knowing many fragrance materials is not the same as using them to convey a feeling.

An interview with East & West, quoted by the perfume publication Now Smell This, contains these words:

“It is a little like learning how to communicate. Even if you learn thousands of words and expressions, you use only a few of them to express emotion. You always need to refer to memory, where every scent and smell has a name… It is an endless process involving artistic chemistry, precision, and sensitivity. And in the end… you never know how it will turn out.”

Daphné Bugey, from the East & West interview; translated from the Japanese rendering.

To add new things to that memory, Bugey keeps her senses open outside the workplace as well.

She once took a year-long sabbatical, meditating in Nepal, working on an organic farm in Japan, and studying Ayurveda in India. In Italy, she studied the language and visited the creative center Fabrica and the Venice Biennale.

She also enjoys being physically active in nature, including paragliding and kitesurfing. Her opening words about experiencing and feeling everything are not a slogan detached from this way of life.

From Lisbon to the World of Craft

As of September 2026, dsm-firmenich’s official profile presented Bugey as a Principal Perfumer.

Meanwhile, a 2020 Made in Situ interview described her as an independent perfumer based in Lisbon and a consultant to Firmenich with a laboratory in Paris. This suggests that she has expanded the places in which she lives and creates while retaining ties with the company.

“I feel happy and grateful to have the opportunity to live in Portugal.”

Daphné Bugey, Made in Situ interview, 2020; translated from the Japanese rendering.

One creation born of that connection with the country is Soenga. She made an oil-based home fragrance for Barro Negro, a collection of black ceramics by designer Noé Duchaufour-Lawrance.

Bugey visited the potters’ workshop, touched the clay, and smelled the smoke remaining in the kiln. Drawing on what she sensed there, including the surrounding trees and herbs, she brought it together in a woody, smoky fragrance.

Whether tracing perfume history through formulas or touching materials in a craft workshop, her starting point is to experience things through her own senses.

Major Creations and Their Backgrounds

Le Labo: A Rose Open to Men and Women Alike

In 2006, Fabrice Penot and Édouard “Eddie” Roschi founded Le Labo in New York.

Bugey created three of the ten fragrances in its original collection: Rose 31, Bergamote 22, and Neroli 36.

Rose 31, in particular, brought her name to a wide audience. A 2015 interview in AnOther described it as the brand’s bestseller.

“I wanted to create an ambiguous rose scent that both men and women could wear… It is very sensual, and woody spices give it boldness and sexiness rather than prettiness. I felt that the rose should be expressed beautifully and purely, but discreetly.”

Daphné Bugey, AnOther interview, 2015; translated from the Japanese rendering.

Rather than treating rose as a symbol of femininity, the fragrance sought another expression through its relationship with woods and spices. That was the scent Rose 31 aimed for.

There is also a small story about the perfume’s completion. Bugey still wanted to work on it, but Roschi told her that it was already finished and she should stop.

Looking back on that judgment, Bugey has said that knowing when to stop is also a talent: had she continued, she might instead have damaged the work.

The founders were clear about their tastes and expectations and would not compromise on quality. Bugey found satisfaction in working with people like that. Both creative freedom and a sense of when a work was complete were part of this collaboration.

Kenzo Amour: Turning Travel Landscapes into a Soft Fragrance

Also in 2006, Bugey created Kenzo Amour with Olivier Cresp.

The perfume grew from a story of lovers traveling through Asia. Against images of flowers and offerings in Bali, rice, and vanilla, it layers the soft scents of frangipani, tea, and rice.

According to Bois de Jasmin’s introduction at the time of release, Bugey selected the notes and Cresp constructed the formula. Rather than simply dividing their roles into lead creator and finisher, it may be more helpful to see the work as combining an olfactory concept with its realization.

The warm pairing of heliotrope and vanilla is another characteristic of the fragrance. Rather than merely assembling unusual materials from distant destinations, it creates a smooth scent that rests close to the skin.

In 2007, it won the women’s Nouveau Niche fragrance category at the FiFi Awards. Its bottle was also recognized in the women’s Prestige packaging category. The scent and its container each received an award.

L’Artisan Parfumeur: An Imaginary Garden That Does Not Copy Nature

In 2016, L’Artisan Parfumeur introduced Natura Fabularis, a six-fragrance collection for which Bugey was given creative freedom.

Nature was the inspiration. The emphasis, however, was on extending the imagination from nature, rather than directly copying the smells of existing flowers or forests.

The numbers attached to the names in this collection also have meaning. They are the numbers of the trials, or modifications, made along the way to the finished creations.

Violaceum 2 layers shadows of leather and spice over the softness of violet. Mirabilis 60, meanwhile, combines incense with Ambrox and the synthetic fragrance material Volcanolide.

Some creations have small numbers, others large ones. Keeping those numbers in the names also conveys that composition does not follow the same path every time.

Venenum 32 brings together freshly baked bread, spiced tea, and sandalwood. An imagining that began with plants extends to food, temperature, and a sense of place.

In 2021, the collection was reorganized as La Botanique. Obscuratio 25 and Crepusculum Mirabile 63 were added at that time: the former explores depth created by patchouli and other materials, the latter an expression of night-blooming jasmine.

Abyssae 33 followed in 2022. Eucalyptus, rose, Cashmeran, and other materials create a fragrance combining coolness and softness.

At the Fragrance Foundation France Awards in 2023, Abyssae 33 won the niche-fragrance category for brands affiliated with a corporate group. It was reported to have received 43% of the vote in that category.

Letting the imagination expand freely while bringing it together into a coherent perfume: her work with L’Artisan Parfumeur reveals this breadth of Bugey’s creativity.

Scandal: Classical Sensuality Transformed into Honey

Scandal, released in 2017, was co-created with Christophe Raynaud and Fabrice Pellegrin.

Although the perfume is striking for its sweet, rich honey, its conception was connected with the L’Origan Bugey had reconstructed.

“That rich olfactory form gave me the idea of using honey in Scandal. It would give an animalic, sensual, almost disconcertingly carnal aspect, while making the fragrance more contemporary by emphasizing its sweet, gourmand side.”

Daphné Bugey, from her contribution to Nez; translated from the Japanese rendering.

Honey is called on here for more than sweetness. It also brings bodily warmth and a slightly raw, physical sensation.

The composition moves from the brightness of blood orange and mandarin to gardenia, orange blossom, and honey, then to a lingering scent suggestive of patchouli and beeswax.

Rather than reproducing L’Origan in a contemporary style, it translates the richness and sensuality Bugey felt there into another expression: honey. It is an example of the fragrance lineages that interested her in school connecting with her own creative work.

She continued to work on the series with Scandal by Night in 2018, Scandal à Paris in 2019, So Scandal! in 2020, and Scandal Gold in 2021.

For Scandal Intense in 2025, she collaborated with Nicolas Bonneville and Pellegrin. Even within the same series, the team varies from one creation to another.

Dolce & Gabbana: Changing Cherry’s Expression

One starting point in her work with Dolce & Gabbana was K by Dolce & Gabbana, created with Nathalie Lorson in 2019. An eau de parfum version followed in 2020.

In 2023, Bugey presented Q by Dolce & Gabbana. The fragrance layers jasmine, cherry, heliotrope, cedarwood, and musk over the brightness of Sicilian lemon and blood orange.

Q Eau de Parfum Intense, released in 2024, gave the cherry at its center a deeper expression.

“Cherry remains the common theme in the new Q Eau de Parfum Intense. But it becomes a delicious dark cherry accompanied by the warmest, deepest accords. It mingles with heliotrope’s more feminine and intoxicating side, giving the fragrance an almost tactile texture.”

Daphné Bugey, in The Glass Magazine’s introduction to the fragrance, 2024; translated from the Japanese rendering.

K Eau de Parfum Intense, released around the same time, layers fig, saffron, and accords suggestive of wood and leather over citrus.

Q Elixir also appeared in 2026. Preserving the identity of an existing fragrance while changing the way its theme is illuminated and its texture: the K and Q series make it possible to follow this continuing work.

An Aside…

One perfume Bugey herself enjoys wearing is Bergamote 22. In a 2015 interview, she said that because she smells perfume all day at work, she wants something fresh when she is away from it.

Messages about Rose 31 from around the world were also encouraging, showing that a scent she had created had become something special in someone’s life.

She has also described a memorable email from a woman undergoing chemotherapy for cancer, who said that Lys 41, which Bugey created in 2013, had been a great comfort. This is not a claim of therapeutic efficacy, but a statement shared as one person’s experience of wearing perfume.

Just as her mother’s perfume had unknowingly guided her own choices, her creations may become part of someone else’s memories and daily support. Following Bugey’s career reveals that olfactory lineages continue not only from one creation to another, but from person to person.

Fragrance Creations

Selected creations are listed chronologically. “─” in the co-perfumer column means that no co-creator is named in the reference materials. The list does not include every limited edition or flanker.

Both years are shown for Silver Wind Wood and Golden Light Wood, Sex, Roaring Radcliff, and Rose Milano because sources differ on their release years.

DSquared2’s Wood for Him and Wood for Her of 2018 are separate creations from He Wood and She Wood. Introductions at the time of release credit Alberto Morillas and Marie Salamagne, although some publications also list Bugey as a co-creator of Wood for Him.

References

• dsm-firmenich — Daphné Bugey, Principal Perfumer
• dsm-firmenich — Daphné Bugey (French-language profile)
• dsm-firmenich — Major Win List: Daphné Bugey
• Nez — Daphné Bugey : « L’Origan et sa prodigieuse descendance ont, chacun à leur manière, marqué l’histoire de la parfumerie » (written in 2022, published in 2023)
• AnOther — The Woman Behind Le Labo’s Rose 31 (2015)
• Made in Situ — Meet with Daphné Bugey, the creator of the Soenga perfume (2020)
• Scentissime — Portrait de la parfumeure Daphné Bugey
• Now Smell This — Daphné Bugey: Perfumers
• The Perfume Girl — Daphné Bugey
• The Perfume Society — L’Artisan Perfumer’s Natura Fabularis are out and we’re swooning (2016)
• The Perfume Society — Daphné Bugey: related articles
• Designboom — Natura Fabularis collection by L’Artisan Parfumeur (2016)
• The Fragrance Foundation France — Les Fragrance Foundation France Awards 2023 : un nouveau format couronné de succès
• ÇaFleureBon — The Fragrance Foundation France Awards 2023 Winners
• ÇaFleureBon — L’Artisan Parfumeur 25 Obscuratio Review (2021)
• ÇaFleureBon — L’Artisan Parfumeur Crepusculum Mirabile (2021)
• L’Artisan Parfumeur — Abyssae
• Skins — L’Artisan Parfumeur Abyssae
• L’Officiel Singapore — Understanding Master Perfumer Daphné Bugey’s Perspective of Scent (2024)
• Bois de Jasmin — Kenzo Amour: Perfume Review (2006)
• Bois de Jasmin — FiFi Awards 2007
• Kenzo Parfums — Kenzo Amour
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• Lucky Scent — Daphné Bugey, Perfumers Directory
• Dave Lackie — 5 Minutes with Jean Paul Gaultier
• BeautyTheShop — Scandal, the new fragrance by Jean Paul Gaultier
• Numéro Netherlands — The Gaultier Express Present the Scandal Intense (2025)
• Central Indonesia — Q by Dolce & Gabbana
• John Lewis — Q by Dolce & Gabbana Eau de Parfum
• The Glass Magazine — Dolce & Gabbana reimagines K & Q Eaux de Parfum Intense (2024)
• Dolce & Gabbana — K & Q Fragrances
• Dolce & Gabbana — #DGFattoAMano: K & Q (video)
• Instagram — Q by Dolce & Gabbana Elixir (introductory video cited in the source article)
• Brunello Cucinelli — Women’s Fragrances
• Now Smell This — Le Labo Bergamote 22: Fragrance Review (2006)
• Now Smell This — Penhaligon’s Portraits: The Revenge of Lady Blanche and The Coveted Duchess Rose (2016)
• Now Smell This — DSquared2 Wood: New Fragrances (2018)
• New York Post — Dsquared2 launches a woodsy fragrance for men and women (2019)
• Fragrantica — Daphné Bugey
• Parfumo — Daphné Bugey
• Fragrantica — Q by Dolce & Gabbana Elixir (2026)
• LinkedIn — Daphné Bugey