Olivier Polge: Giving Inherited Fragrances a New Resonance

“I realized that music and perfume speak the same language. You compose, writing formulas made up of notes and accords.”

Olivier Polge, The Perfume Society’s account of his remarks in Chanel’s film I Am a Nose

Born on July 30, 1974, in Grasse, France.

He had not intended to follow his father’s profession. A young man who loved music, studied art history and was drawn to making things with his hands would eventually become Chanel’s fourth in-house perfumer.

Olivier Polge’s journey is not a simple story of inheriting a family trade. He learned away from his father and created fragrances such as Dior Homme and Flowerbomb before returning to Chanel. What to inherit and what to change himself: he continues to explore the creative space between the two.

A Life in Perfumery

Closer to Music and Painting Than to Perfume

His father is Jacques Polge, who led perfume creation at Chanel for many years. When Jacques became the house’s third in-house perfumer in 1978, Olivier was four.

Small perfume samples stood around the house, but fragrance did not dominate family conversation. Painting was often discussed, and he remembers the smell of turpentine in artists’ studios. Ordinary smells, such as damp stone and rubber buoys on holiday, were also part of his childhood landscape.

His first passion was music. Although he dreamed of becoming a pianist, he felt he was not skilled enough to make a living that way and turned to art history. He was also interested in bookbinding and work involving paper. He wanted to make something, but had not yet settled on perfume as the medium.

The Hands-On Work of Weighing Materials Changed His Direction

The turning point came during an internship while he was studying art history. In the laboratory where his father worked, he gained experience weighing materials such as sandalwood essential oil.

Essential oils, resins, powders: each had its own weight and viscosity, connected to plant harvests and seasons. Perfumery, which he had observed from a distance, was a more tangible manual craft than he had imagined. His interests in music and art suddenly connected with the materials before him.

When his son said he wanted to learn perfumery, Jacques chose not to teach him himself. Instead, he sent him out to learn from other people. Olivier later reflected that he inherited not just technique from his father but a foundation of sensibility and taste.

He trained at Charabot in Grasse and then ACM in Geneva. His apprenticeship included exercises reproducing the principal accord of a classic perfume using no more than five ingredients. What must remain for a scent to be recognizable when using only a few materials? That question stayed with him in his later work.

Establishing His Own Work at IFF

In 1998, he joined IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances). In New York, he encountered the work of Carlos Benaïm, Sophia Grojsman and others, gaining experience in the international perfume business.

In 2003, he returned to France while remaining with the company. He describes this homecoming as a reunion with a perfume culture closer to his own sensibility.

For Dior Homme in 2005, he worked directly with designer Hedi Slimane to create an iris-centered men’s fragrance. Powderiness recalling cosmetics coexists with wood and leather facets in a scent that does not fit neatly into masculine and feminine categories.

“Very few ingredients, presented in a carefully finished form: that was what I wanted to achieve.”

Olivier Polge on Dior Homme, Prix International du Parfum laureate interview, 2009

With a clearly asserted presence of iris, it offered a new option in men’s perfumery at the time. This 2005 original is a different fragrance from later creations bearing the same name.

Viktor & Rolf’s Flowerbomb also appeared that year. A perfume of abundant flowers and sweetness, it grew from collaboration with Carlos Benaïm, Domitille Michalon Bertier and others.

Lancôme’s La Vie Est Belle (2012) was co-created with Dominique Ropion and Anne Flipo. Development, layering the sweetness of praline and vanilla over iris, is reported to have taken three years and 5,521 trials. It is important to understand it as the work of three collaborators rather than reducing it to Olivier’s formula or idea alone.

In 2009, he received the Prix International du Parfum. The musician William Christie presented the trophy at the October 21 ceremony. It must have been a memorable milestone for a perfumer who loves music.

Working Alongside His Father, Then Becoming the Fourth

In 2013, Chanel announced Olivier’s arrival, and from September that year he worked with his father Jacques and research and development director Christopher Sheldrake. In 2015, upon his father’s retirement, he took over leadership of perfume creation.

Ernest Beaux, Henri Robert, Jacques Polge and Olivier: this is the succession of four people who led Chanel’s perfume creation, not a claim that only four perfumers have ever worked for the company.

Olivier’s task was neither to remake his father’s creations nor to abandon history and introduce only scents of his own. It was to understand an immense accumulation of formulas and materials and, from within it, conceive fragrances meaningful to Chanel today.

Misia and Gabrielle: Flowers Inspired by People

Misia (2015) was Olivier’s first creation released at Chanel. It takes its name from Misia Sert, Gabrielle Chanel’s friend and a patron of artists.

Its powdery scent, recalling violet, rose and iris, carries images of ballet backstage and theatrical makeup. Rather than painting a person’s portrait directly, he creates a perfume from the culture and atmosphere of places surrounding that person. It was a way to continue the story of Les Exclusifs de Chanel through his own sensibility.

In Gabrielle Chanel (2017), he combines jasmine, ylang-ylang, orange blossom and tuberose from Grasse to depict an imaginary white flower. It was presented as a new pillar of women’s perfumery, the first since his father’s Chance (2002).

Finding New Ways to Wear Fragrance, with N°5 at the Center

Being Chanel’s in-house perfumer is not only about making new creations. The role also involves safeguarding existing fragrances such as N°5, along with the quality of their raw materials.

The partnership with the Mul family, ongoing since 1987, supports that work. Flowers are grown in Grasse, harvested and extracted for perfumery. Materials such as iris, which require long cultivation and drying periods, are also involved. Both fields and laboratories are needed to bridge nature’s variability and a perfume’s unchanging impression.

For Chanel N°5 L’Eau (2016), he sought a lighter expression while preserving the original perfume’s character. He reconsidered the floral and aldehydic framework, connecting it to the brightness of citrus, woods and musk. Inheritance means not only preserving the past but also considering a form that people today can wear.

Making Perfume Rather Than Reproducing Nature

Even while valuing Grasse’s flowers, the aim is not a faithful copy of a flower. Olivier repeatedly explains Gabrielle Chanel’s request for “an artificial perfume.”

“We always try to move away from the smell of nature itself and make something more abstract.”

Olivier Polge, Persolaise interview at the launch of Comète, 2024

Combining rose and jasmine to make something unlike either individual flower resembles shaping the silhouette of a dress from different fabrics. Good materials alone do not make a perfume. The perfumer’s work lies in what to combine and what form to give it.

That thinking also appears in Boy Chanel (2016). Beginning with the traditional fougère of masculine perfumery, it turns attention to its appeal when worn by a woman.

“I was not trying to make a perfume in between. I was trying to make a very masculine perfume, because the person wearing it gives it its gender.”

Olivier Polge, Out’s account of his remarks in Women’s Wear Daily, 2016

Comète: A Scent Like Powder and Like Light

The visual starting point for Comète, introduced in 2024, was the diamond jewelry Gabrielle presented in 1932. He sought to translate the sparkle of a comet-shaped necklace into scent.

“I began with the impression of radiance and stardust. I found it interesting to bring together powdery notes while keeping everything very luminous.”

Olivier Polge, interview with The Gloss

Iris, heliotrope, musk: although it has a softness recalling almonds, this is not a scent that simply heads toward confectionery sweetness. It creates warmth from floral impressions, bringing powderiness and light together.

Olivier is drawn to iris because it does not fit into just one category of flower, wood or powder. Within a single ingredient, he sees possibilities opening in several directions.

Toward an Even Deeper Expression of Bleu

Olivier has also added new chapters to Bleu de Chanel, which his father introduced in 2010. He released the Parfum version in 2018 and L’Exclusif in 2025.

In L’Exclusif, he gave sandalwood, which can seem creamy, a darker and smokier expression. Rather than simply increasing intensity, the work brings different forces within the fragrance into contact.

“There is no such thing as a perfect perfume. A perfume’s character comes from tension.”

Olivier Polge, interview with Bustle, 2025

Using fewer materials does not mean making something monotonous. These words convey why minimalism and rich expression are not contradictory for him.

An Aside…

His interest in music has remained unchanged since choosing a career in fragrance. He visits museums, galleries and concerts, and also finds emotionally stirring smells in morning coffee and freshly baked bread.

In a 2025 interview, he said that he normally wears no fragrance while working, keeping his surroundings neutral. Yet he also named Chanel’s Pour Monsieur as a fragrance he enjoys wearing. Rather than someone who never wears perfume, he appears to distinguish working days from time spent enjoying scent.

Asked what advice he would give his younger self, he suggested not being in too much of a hurry. His motto is “to be happy.” We glimpse an attitude that accepts responsibility for a historic house without losing room to enjoy creating.

Fragrance Creations

Records of co-authors sometimes differ between sources; these cases are noted. “—” means that no co-perfumer is listed alongside the creation in this catalogue.

Major Creations Made During His IFF Years

This table also includes creations released after he moved to another company.

Major Creations at Chanel

References

• Wikipedia — Olivier Polge
• The Perfume Society — Chanel perfumer Olivier Polge shares his musical passion
• Prix International du Parfum — Le Lauréat 2009: Olivier Polge
• The Fragrance Foundation UK — Olivier Polge
• The Glass Magazine — Glass meets Olivier Polge, Chanel’s perfumer
• Men’s Folio — Olivier Polge Shapes Chanel’s Olfactory Universe
• Persolaise — An Artificial Perfume: Olivier Polge on Chanel Comète
• The Gloss — Starman: An Exclusive Interview with Olivier Polge
• Bustle — Olivier Polge on Bleu de Chanel L’Exclusif
• A&E — Olivier Polge on Gabrielle Chanel’s Legacy
• Out — Welcome Boy Chanel
• Chanel — Gabrielle Chanel, creation and perfumer
• Lancôme — Meet Our Perfumers
• IFF — Fine Fragrances, Flowerbomb 2005
• IFF Scent — Flowerbomb’s twentieth anniversary, co-creators
• Persolaise — Paris-Édimbourg, 2021
• Fragrantica — Jimmy Choo, 2011
• Fragrantica — Repetto Eau de Parfum, distinguished from the original 2013 eau de toilette
• Parfumo — Olivier Polge list of creations