Christine Nagel: Stepping beyond Memory with Assured Technique

“This technique gave me tremendous freedom. Like a dancer, I accumulated a great deal of experience and practice.”

Christine Nagel, interview published by Persolaise, 2018

Born October 7, 1959, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Christine Nagel, who creates fragrances for Hermès, is a perfumer who values memory and emotion. Warm leather, freshly ironed fabric, wind stirring dry grass: she remembers sensations that pass unnoticed and one day makes them the starting point for a fragrance.

That freedom is supported by analytical skills developed over many years. Wanting to create perfumes did not mean that she was immediately given a place in creation. Beginning with the work of deciphering existing fragrances, Nagel turned knowledge of materials into the power to expand her own expression.

Perfumery History

Her Younger Brother’s Powder and Her Grandmother’s Workplace

Nagel grew up in Geneva with a Swiss father and an Italian mother. She was neither from Grasse, the center of the perfume industry, nor born into a family of perfumers.

Her childhood scent memories include the Italian Borotalco powder her mother used while caring for her younger brother. Since her brother later entered the perfume business too, she jokingly asked an interviewer not to spread this story too widely.

Another memory is her grandmother’s workplace, where she did tailoring: the smell when a hot iron touched damp cloth, a sensation of metal mingling with wool. Then there was the soft scent lingering inside her grandmother’s handbag. The sensitivity to fabric and leather seen in Nagel’s later work overlaps with these everyday memories.

Smiles beyond the Window Changed Her Work

As a young woman, Nagel wanted to become a midwife. She later turned her attention to organic chemistry and joined Firmenich with the aim of working in research.

One day while working in the laboratory, she saw a perfumer through the window having women smell trial fragrances. Their faces lit up the moment they perceived the scents. That perfumer was Alberto Morillas.

“I saw them smile and felt that joy. At that moment, I became certain that a profession capable of giving people so much was the profession for me.”

Christine Nagel, interview with Front Row Edit, conducted in 2017 and republished in 2019

Yet when she asked to become a perfumer, the answer was no. She recalls that being a woman, not being from Grasse or a perfumery family, and having studied chemistry were barriers at the time. It may seem surprising from the perspective of perfume education today, but a literary background was then sometimes considered the ideal.

Nagel sought another way in: technical work smelling existing perfumes, identifying their materials, and translating them into formulas. Recognizing a citrus scent was not enough. Was it lemon or orange? If orange, from which origin and of what quality? She learned to distinguish those differences by smell.

Work involving chromatography, a technique that separates and analyzes components, is not the same as training to reconstruct formulas with the nose. In her case, however, both deepened her understanding of materials. Before creating freely, she thoroughly learned why a fragrance smelled the way it did.

Under Almairac: From Analysis to Creation

At Créations Aromatiques, she helped establish the analytical department and met Michel Almairac. He became Nagel’s mentor and supported her first creations.

Having spent so long in technical work, she entered creation late. Yet that experience was precisely what enabled her to attempt bold uses of materials. This relationship between technique and freedom is what Nagel likened to a dancer’s training in the opening quotation.

After also working with Italian brands, she accepted an invitation from Quest International in 1997 and moved to Paris. In 2000, she joined Givaudan. Hermès’s official biography describes her career in this sequence.

A period of internationally recognized creations followed: Cartier’s Eau de Cartier (2001), Narciso Rodriguez’s For Her (2003), and Dior’s Miss Dior Chérie (2005).

In 2008, she moved to Fragrance Resources to succeed Pierre Bourdon. In 2011, she became creative director and head of the perfumery school at Mane. Her work came to encompass creation, raw-material research, and developing young talent.

Getting to Know the Craftspeople of Hermès

Nagel joined Hermès in March 2014. She worked alongside Jean-Claude Ellena for about two years, taking over in 2016 as director responsible for perfume creation and the house’s olfactory heritage.

Hermès gave her more than time to create fragrances. She also had opportunities to see its leather storage areas, workshops, and the work of various craftspeople. Within a house that had appeared poised and classical from outside, she discovered color, boldness, and playfulness.

Nagel treasures something the artistic director Pierre-Alexis Dumas told her.

“It is better to make a mistake by daring than to make a mistake by following others.”

Christine Nagel recalling the words of Pierre-Alexis Dumas, Vogue Singapore, 2023

Rather than moving closer to existing successes to avoid failure, she could step forward with her own ideas. That room to act was what Hermès meant to Nagel. She has also often discussed an approach to work that does not let consumer panels or market testing determine creative direction.

Preserving Memories Is Not the Same as Repeating a Scent

Nagel thinks of fragrance materials in relation not only to smell but also to color and touch: the softness of cashmere, the temperature of leather, the sound of dry grass. Sometimes she considers a fragrance’s texture through the clothes of Véronique Nichanian, who designs the house’s menswear.

Even when recreating a memory, she does not merely copy it. Combining two materials produces a third impression. Like mixing paints, she is interested in the possibilities that combinations open up.

She also keeps her distance from dividing perfume by gender. Men may wear rose or patchouli, and women may enjoy scents described as masculine. Her approach values how a fragrance feels on the skin over whom its advertising targets.

For Her and Miss Dior Chérie

For Her (2003) was a collaboration with Francis Kurkdjian. Around the musk that Narciso Rodriguez cherished, they combined floral, amber, and woody elements. The eau de toilette in the black bottle must be distinguished from the eau de parfum in the pink bottle added later.

Musk that seems to draw close to the skin, yet a presence that reaches those nearby: combining the two made For Her an enduring signature of the brand. After its launch, it received recognition at fragrance awards in the United States and France, and in 2012 a French award selected it as the women’s fragrance emblematic of the preceding twenty years.

Miss Dior Chérie was released in 2005, when John Galliano led Dior’s creative work. A fruity chypre layering patchouli over impressions of wild strawberry and caramel popcorn, it brought youthful, free-spirited sweetness to the poise of couture.

Today’s Miss Dior and Nagel’s 2005 version cannot be treated as the same formula. Within a series that has undergone repeated name changes and reformulation, Nagel created the early eau de parfum known for its popcorn impression.

Galop and Twilly: Other Faces of Leather and Scarves

Galop d’Hermès (2016) brought together rose and the soft Doblis leather she encountered at the house. She understood leather not merely as something rugged, but as something delicate that touches the skin.

For Twilly d’Hermès the following year, in 2017, she looked at how younger people freely tied scarves and changed the ways they used them. Rather than making sugar or caramel the star because the fragrance was aimed at the young, she chose ginger, tuberose, and sandalwood. Respecting the house’s traditions while shifting them slightly sideways: both creations express that attitude.

H24: A Small Shoot’s Power to Push through the Soil

H24 (2021) was a major new men’s fragrance for Hermès, its first since Terre d’Hermès (2006). Nagel imagined a small seed pushing through the soil to sprout.

“Something so small and fragile has the power to break through the earth. I wanted to express the strength of sap and its fluidity.”

Christine Nagel, AnOther interview on creating H24, 2021

She combined clary sage, narcissus, and rosewood with the distinctive texture of Sclarene. This material moves from a fresh, vegetal impression toward a warm, metallic sensation. It also connects with her memory of irons and fabric in her grandmother’s workplace.

To make the most of narcissus’s powerful character, she also worked with Robertet on refinements to distillation. Giving form to a sensory idea through raw-material technology is characteristic of Nagel, who does not separate chemistry from creation. It was this eau de toilette that won the Men’s Prestige category at the US Fragrance Foundation Awards in 2022.

Un Jardin à Cythère: Creating an Inaccessible Place from Memory

Un Jardin à Cythère (2023) was created from memories of the Greek island of Kythira. Beneath an olive tree she had visited, the wind had carried a scent like wild grasses and grain. That experience remained with her for a long time.

During the period when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented free travel, Nagel created from memory: dry grass, olive wood, raw pistachio. Though a garden, it is not a lush green one full of flowers. It is a golden landscape illuminated by the sun.

“My memory had followed the right path.”

Christine Nagel on creating Un Jardin à Cythère, interview with Vogue Singapore, 2023

As soon as travel became possible, Greece was the first place she returned to. There, she rediscovered the garden she had been creating from memory. Memories are not simply records of the past; they can also become materials for returning to a distant place.

Barénia: A Chypre Nurtured over Ten Years

Barénia (2024) is a perfume named after a Hermès leather. From around the time she joined the house, Nagel had been nurturing her own idea for a chypre. Separate from the work of answering formal briefs, she gradually developed trials whenever she encountered a new material.

Presented by Hermès as its first chypre, this creation combined impressions of butterfly lily and miracle berry with patchouli and oakwood. While working within a classical framework, she gave each material an element of surprise.

“Ten years is not a long time. It is just the right amount of time.”

Christine Nagel, interview with CNA Luxury, 2024

Behind a glamorous launch lies an exploration that does not take shape immediately. This work, continuing into Barénia Intense in 2025, shows the importance of time spent waiting, experimenting, and getting to know materials.

Incidentally…

One pioneer Nagel admires is Germaine Cellier, a woman of strong character who created fragrances such as Bandit and Fracas at a time when there were few women in perfumery.

When discussing the work of other perfumers, she prefers naming creations rather than people: Chanel’s Bois des Îles, Féminité du Bois, and Bulgari’s Black, created by Annick Ménardo. These fragrances move her so much that she wishes she had created them herself.

Her husband, Benoist Lapouza, is also a perfumer, and they collaborated on Kenzo’s Once Upon a Time. Among the scents she names as comforting are her own garden in Normandy and the skin of her children and loved ones. She finds the value of scent not only in fine fragrance materials, but also in memories of those close to her.

Fragrance Creations

Major creations are listed chronologically. This is not a comprehensive list of every reformulation or limited edition. “—” indicates that the sources consulted here do not list a co-perfumer.

References

• Hermès：Christine Nagel official biography (PDF)
• Wikipedia：Christine Nagel
• Olfastory：Christine Nagel
• Front Row Edit：Five Minutes with Perfumer Christine Nagel (2017 / 2019)
• Persolaise：The Moment of Doubt — An Interview with Christine Nagel (2018)
• LUX：Christine Nagel on the Emotional Power of Scent
• AnOther：The Story Behind H24 (2021)
• Vogue Singapore：Un Jardin à Cythère (2023)
• CNA Luxury：Hermès Barénia interview (2024)
• OniriQ：A Conversation in Scent — Christine Nagel
• The Fragrance Foundation：2022 Winners
• Wikipedia：Narciso Rodriguez for Her
• Wikipedia：Miss Dior Chérie
• Now Smell This：Christine Nagel list of creations
• Now Smell This：Les Elixirs Charnels (2008)
• Now Smell This：Hermès Oud Esma (2025)
• Persolaise：Oud Alezan and H24 Herbes Vives (2024)
• Parfumo：Christine Nagel list of creations