Mark Buxton Perfumes: The Scent of Emotion Embodied in Molecules

“Perfume is emotion transformed into molecules.”
— Mark Buxton​

Basic Information

• Brand name: Mark Buxton Perfumes
• Founded: 2008 (originally named “By Mark Buxton”; renamed to its current name around 2011–2012)
• Founder: Mark Buxton
• Based in: Paris, France​
• Official website: https://markbuxton.com

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The Founder and the Brand’s Origins

Early Life: Born in Britain, Raised in Germany, Settled in Paris

Mark Buxton was born in Derby, England. With an English father and German mother, he grew up with two cultural backgrounds. His family moved to Germany when he was eight, and he spent most of the rest of his boyhood there.​

From an early age, Buxton spent time in the kitchen, becoming familiar with cooking aromas. Herbs, spices, and freshly roasted chicken: these culinary smells still deeply influence his fragrance-making today.

Buxton also recalls another childhood memory:

“I remember clearly how, when I was about five, my father used to buy my mother Chanel No. 5 every Christmas. One day, I tried to take the bottle from the shelf by the washbasin, dropped it, and broke it. The bathroom remained saturated with the scent of Chanel for years afterward.”​

It is an intriguing episode: his earliest memory of perfume was imprinted through the powerful combination of punishment and scent.

A Turning Point: A Television Variety Show Changes His Life

Buxton initially aspired to fashion design, but after being rejected by the design department at the University of Hamburg, he began studying geology at the University of Göttingen. In time, he and a friend devised a bold plan to appear on the popular German quiz show Wetten, dass…? (“Want to Bet?”). Their wager was that they could identify every perfume on the market.​

To prepare, they traveled around German perfume shops, collecting about 600 samples. As they repeatedly compared them by smell at university every day, Buxton independently discovered that perfumes shared certain “families,” or scent groupings, and began developing his own classification system.​

“I did not know words such as chypre or fougère, but I noticed groups with things in common, and made categories of my own. I also realized that I could remember a scent after smelling it just once or twice.”​

During the actual recording, nerves and the excitement of the live event caused his friend’s memory to go blank, and they lost the bet. A few weeks later, however, a representative of Haarmann & Reimer, then Germany’s largest fragrance company and now part of Symrise, approached him with an opportunity.

“I had no idea that the profession of perfumer even existed. But it sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a try.”​

Thus, at 21, Buxton entered a three-year perfumer-training program.

To Paris, and Life as an “English Underground Perfumer”

Just before he finished training and was promoted to junior perfumer, Haarmann & Reimer sent him to Paris for three months. That was in 1988, and he has remained in Paris ever since. He also worked with the fragrance company Luzi there.

He subsequently composed fragrances for global luxury brands including Givenchy, Versace, Van Cleef & Arpels, Paco Rabanne, Lagerfeld, Burberry, Cartier, and Chopard. He produced so much work within the industry that he described himself as an “English underground perfumer.”​

“I was like an English underground perfumer!”​

The Encounter with Comme des Garçons: A Career-Defining Turning Point

The decisive turning point in Buxton’s career was the first Comme des Garçons (in Japanese) fragrance, which he created in 1994. Combining complex spices and resins such as labdanum, styrax, cedarwood, cardamom, and cinnamon, it propelled the fashion house into the world of niche fragrance and was praised for “a sensual accord evoking a Moroccan souk.”

Karen Wheeler of the Financial Times wrote:

“Although Buxton’s name is widely known within the industry and among perfume enthusiasts, he is best known for the many avant-garde fragrances he created for Comme des Garçons. Of these, the original is regarded by many as his masterpiece.”​

He went on to create several more celebrated fragrances, including Comme des Garçons 2 (1999), Comme des Garçons 2 Man (2004), and Series 3 Incense Ouarzazate (2002). He also composed Le Labo’s Vetiver 46, which has likewise become a much-loved staple.

The Decision: Leaving Big Business and Choosing Freedom

After more than 25 years creating fragrances for major brands, Buxton had gradually become disillusioned with their creative processes.

“The briefs in the prestige market were always the same: ‘She is 30, a career woman, and drives a convertible. What is her next perfume?’ I became tired of creativity with its edges cut away like that. Then came test after test, until everything ended up smelling the same.”​

As he turned 50, Buxton decided to stop depending on major companies and become entirely independent.​

The Brand’s Birth: Reclaiming His Name and Rights to Start Again

In 2008, Buxton’s partners initially launched a brand using his name, “By Mark Buxton.” At that time, the fragrances were sold in colorful bottles.

He later took over management of the brand himself. With entirely new packaging and two fragrances carried over from the old collection, Wood and Absinth and Black Angel, it was formally rebranded as Mark Buxton Perfumes around 2012.

“I kept the two bestsellers from the old collection, added four new creations, and changed the whole look. That was how I established my own company, Mark Buxton Perfumes. That was the beginning of everything.”​

The Brand’s Commitments

A Fragrance Philosophy: Short Formulas and Emotion Turned into Molecules

At the heart of Buxton’s fragrance-making is his strong commitment to “short formulas.”

“A short formula is more direct. I compare the structure of a formula to music. A short formula is like a jazz trio or quartet. When Miles Davis moved into free jazz, he said that the larger the gaps between the notes, the more listeners could fill those gaps with their imagination. Perfume is the same. In a formula with only 15 ingredients, each person smells something slightly different. But a long formula with 50 ingredients is like a large orchestra: it takes away the imagination.”​

This idea of “translating emotions into molecules” is also the brand’s core message. He believes perfume should not simply mask odors, but should crystallize sensations that the wearer can connect with a fleeting experience in their own life.

The Creative Process: Starting Abstractly from a Blank Page

Buxton consistently starts with a blank page, rather than combining existing formulas.​

“I always tell clients to give me as little information as possible. The more they give me, the more creativity is restricted. Rather than a lengthy description of a specific customer, a painting, a color, or a song title is enough. From there, we can find our own flow.”​

He currently works with his partner, perfumer David Chieze, using an approach in which each proposes an independent interpretation of the same brief. He also says that his wife is a perfumer, and that he sometimes shows his work to her when he gets stuck.​

A Commitment to Ingredients: The Quality Materials Made Possible by Niche Perfumery

One of Buxton’s major motivations for moving from big brands to niche perfumery was freedom in the use of ingredients.

“When you work with major brands, they might tell you the ingredient budget is €23 a kilo. But in niche it can be €200, €300, €500, and sometimes as much as €700. It is completely different. Even if you want to put in a full 10 grams of rose absolute, you cannot do that for a major brand. In niche, you can.”​

Materials Buxton particularly enjoys include Haitian vetiver (in Japanese), rose oil, incense (frankincense), orris root (iris root) (in Japanese), and Indian sandalwood (in Japanese). Of sandalwood, he says: “It is like a blanket that gently wraps around the whole perfume. It gives natural sensuality and depth.”​

Bottle and Packaging Design: A Baroque-and-Punk Aesthetic

The Black Collection’s bottles combine a distinctive oval silhouette with a contemporary metal stopper.​

The Freedom Collection’s bottles are described as expressing “a spirit in which baroque and punk coexist,” reflecting the rebellious rock-and-roll attitude running through the collection.​

Buxton himself is also an antique collector with a love of Art Deco, and this aesthetic sensibility finds its way into the bottle designs.​

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The Fragrance Lineup

Mark Buxton Perfumes consists broadly of two collections and special projects created through outside collaborations.

The Black Collection: Fragments of Emotion in Scent

The collection at the brand’s origins. Embodying the philosophy that “perfume is emotion transformed into molecules,” it aims to capture in scent the fleeting moments of life that everyone has experienced.​

Built around the two fragrances Buxton retained for himself when he first went independent, Wood and Absinth and Black Angel, it currently consists of eight fragrances in total. All are 100 ml eaux de parfum.​

Fragrance Name	Key Characteristics and Inspiration
Black Angel​	A woman encountered in a New York nightclub, like an “angel dressed in black.” Ginger and mandarin top notes; a jasmine and orris heart; a base of styrax, amber, and patchouli
Wood and Absinth​	The contrast between warm woods and absinthe, a bitter herbaceous herb
Devil in Disguise​	“A dangerous divine wind.” A purple silk dress and heavy summer wind. Blackcurrant bud, ginger, rhubarb, magnolia, and patchouli
Spiritual Healing​	Originally named Sexual Healing (2012). A floral-woody fragrance
A Day in My Life​	An introspective journey into everyday routines
Dreaming with Ghosts​	Included in the collection. Detailed primary information could not be verified
Message in a Perfume​	Inspired by a holiday in the Maldives. Neroli, magnolia, jasmine, ambergris, and sandalwood
Emotional Drop​	Included in the collection. Detailed primary information could not be verified

The Story Behind Black Angel

The episode Buxton himself recounts about Black Angel in an interview is particularly memorable.

“I still remember her. In a New York club filled with cigarette smoke, a woman in a black dress walked toward me. I wanted to turn the intense beauty and elegance of that moment into a scent. That is why it has those provocative, spicy notes: ginger, cardamom, and gingerbread, followed by warm, sensual amber.”​

Incidentally, Buxton says he gave his mother Black Angel, his own creation, and that she wears it from time to time.​

The Freedom Collection: Liberation and Music

The latest collection, developed jointly by Buxton and David Chieze. It consists of four fragrances inspired by Queen’s song I Want to Break Free, all offered in 50 ml sizes.

Three shared materials, vetiver, ambergris, and davana, appear in every creation, lending the collection a cohesive balance. Designed with a unisex approach, it reflects the idea of “masculine and feminine merging.”

Fragrance Name	Creator	Characteristics
I Want​	David Chieze	A fruity-chypre fragrance. Top notes of red fruits and blackcurrant with a white-floral heart
To Break​	Mark Buxton	A woody-musky fragrance of cedar and ambergris. A sense of liberation
Free​	David Chieze	A woody-oriental fragrance built around incense and amber. Labdanum, patchouli, and birch
Why Not a Cologne​	Mark Buxton	An airy, lively fragrance in a cologne style

The latest addition, Wild Wild Wood, also belongs to the Freedom Collection. It has fruity top notes of apple and pineapple, a heart of magnolia and rose, and a woody drydown of amber and musk. Buxton himself calls it “a declaration of love for woody materials.”​

By the Way…

• The Grand Budapest Hotel and an Elusive Perfume Limited to 1,000 Bottles: Mark Buxton Perfumes also has ties to cinema. L’Air de Panache was composed by Buxton at the request of Paris niche-fragrance shop Nose to promote Wes Anderson’s 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel. Conceived as a fictional perfume appearing in the film, L’Air de Panache is the favorite fragrance of its protagonist, concierge Gustave H. Buxton laughingly recalls receiving the call at 8:30 on a Saturday morning while wondering, “Who is Wes Anderson?” Creation took just a few days. During a business trip to Istanbul, he watched only the trailer and noted down a formula, then completed it immediately upon returning home. A total of 1,000 bottles were produced, never sold commercially but distributed to the press at the Berlin film-festival premiere.

“I still have the formula, so do not worry. [Laughs]”​

• A Cofounder of Nose in Paris: Buxton is also one of the cofounders and investors of the Paris niche-fragrance boutique Nose. Opened in the Montorgueil district in 2012, the shop carries at least 500 perfumes and more than 50 niche brands. Buxton himself developed its distinctive olfactory classification system and categorizes all the fragrances on a weekly basis.

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