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Ane Ayo’s personality is a beautiful mix of European cultures. After her childhood in Spain, she studied in the United Kingdom, stayed in Germany and has been working for many years in France. This multiculturalism taught her to draw inspiration from what the world offers her. From her childhood in Bilbao, she cherished her memories of freedom. Already interested in perfumery at a very young age, her dad gave her a perfume organ: a game named Olfanova. Developing scents was entertainment in her youth.
Ane first turned to pharmacy studies, before discovering an article about Alberto Morillas in a Spanish daily newspaper. She then understood that her passion could become a profession. Ane pursued an MBA in perfume and fashion business management before joining the Grasse Institute of Perfumery.
She completed her training with a Grasse perfumer, Philippe Romano, who conveyed his sensitivity and attachment to natural raw materials. For Ane, perfumery is a profession of trust and sharing, and a passion too, which allows her to express her aestheticism and her personality, while opening new doors to the world around her.
Born in a village near the pretty town of Laon, Anne’s mother, half French half Italian played an important role in her life. Insisting on a demanding, but somewhat isolating school environment, focusing on the classics, arts and sport, she also held the view that girls had as many opportunities as boys, if not more.
Looking for more freedom Anne decided, against her parents’ wishes, to attend ISIP. Learning how to smell was second nature, trained by very distinguished perfumers. Her insatiable hunger for freedom drives her constantly. Poetics, a key word for this prolific perfumer with historic perfume successes. Despite her almost mathematical rigor and individualism, she has learnt to enjoy working with other perfumers.
“My greatest ambition: transmission.”
Born in Tangiers, Carlos grew up a young artist. He moved to Nice to study and Toulouse to do a chemistry degree as he wanted to be a scientist. A series of life coincidences meant that chemistry and perfumery started to combine into one for Carlos.
After travelling Europe, he settles in Canarias. It was his beloved father that showed him a job opportunity to enter the world of perfumery. However, it was in the USA with a perfume maestro he developed as a perfumer, always relying on his inherent artistic skill of paining to help construct his fragrances. Pure sensation is key for this now master perfumer who has an impressive list of perfume greats.
“Materialising the creation of the world, with its intense rhythms and harmony but without anxiety or concern; offering a form of paradise, zest for life, an endless dance, a reconciliation.”
Delphine was born in Paris having both Spanish and Italian ancestors. Following her father she studied medicine, but after reading an article about perfumers one day in the library, it was that article and the excitement of the unknown that made her change her career path to becoming a perfumer.
Having studied at a prestigious perfume school, Delphine believes in teamwork. A move to USA opened her eyes to a different perfume world, questioning everything she had learnt. Having worked for various perfume houses her experience and triumphs are numerous. Texture is the key word for this incredible perfumer, who is fond of mysteries, secrets and hidden things.
Simplicity, sobriety, extreme brevity: “When everything is a necessity, when everything is there for a reason and cannot be taken out… aesthetics, simplicity, speed, the essential.”
Ilias was born in Constantinople, where he spent his childhood and then moved to Athens. He studied perfumery in Paris, but his fascination with fragrances was unleashed much earlier, in his father’s flavor and fragrance factory in Istanbul, where he interned every summer. He attended the ISIPCA perfumery school, and then his training continued by joining Firmenich in 1986. The rich multicultural vision of Ilias Ermenidis developed naturally during his childhood; having lived in so many different countries, he is a true citizen of the world and has a remarkable command of languages. The Greek heritage of this charming perfumer permeates all his pores; he lives life and enjoys it immensely.
In this time, he has earned the respect of both the industry and fragrance fans with his technical and creative skills finely honed in a variety of genres.
Born in Born in France, Jean-Christophe and has a particular relationship with time. He sees his perfumer profession as a lengthy path from his childhood. As a teenager his father, head of production for a bottler in Grasse, gifted him a fragrance which changed is life and love for fragrance, without knowing why, but always dreaming.
Fortunate to meet the perfumer of his beloved fragrance, he explained his desire to be a perfume, and his emotional connection with perfume. Rather than guide him he offered to train him, which eventually took a four-year wait, but Jean-Christophe is patient and plays the long-game well. An open mind is key for this very believable perfumer, a dreamer who has seriously made his mark with his perfume successes.
“To create a new olfactory family.”
As a child, Nicolas lived in a tiny village of twenty inhabitants near Provins. During that time, smells were part of his landscape, he was surrounded by them; the farm, the roses, the garden, the spices in his mother’s cooking…
He would spend his days traveling in order to smell; smelling was his livelihood. One day he realized that he was ready to take the next step, to become a perfumer. He was employed in the quality control department of IFF, where he learned to master scents. After presenting them, he won IFF’s in-house perfume-making competition. That was when he discovered the two realms of perfume creation: perfumes for hygiene, home and beauty, and fine fragrances.
He understood that his talent would depend on two qualities – rigor and thinking outside the box – in addition to a sort of resilience. Nicolas is passionate about what he does “ I like to put my heart and my talent into giving people pleasure, making sure that my love of sharing is accessible to all sorts of people.
Born in Barcelona, Ramón belongs to Spain’s most important family of perfumers, who were appointed as suppliers to the Spanish Royal House. His life-long love of art, literature and architecture is further compounded by his proud Spanish roots and his love of his family, culminating in a truly passionate, artistic creator.
As a fourth-generation nose, Ramón has studied with some of the greats in Geneva, Grasse and Paris. Fascinated with design, and the conceptualization of science and art, Ramon also studied architecture following another of his great passions. Literature, an important key word for this illustrious perfumer who masterfully translates the written word into fragrance, with so many memorable perfume-story triumphs.
“Turning words into notes, phrases into chords, stories into compositions.”
Fascinated by ancient civilizations, particularly Asian and African, Caroline harbors numerous secrets about the mythical ingredients used in unusual formulas when it comes to perfume. Her method of creation reflects her ambition: creating a formula is a way of traveling through the history of perfume, projecting the past into the future. This journey takes her to beautiful destinations, resulting in wonderful, quintessentially 21st-century perfumes that, like her, are emotionally intense—rooted in the distant past yet magically modernized. “I work with history. It’s what I do every day—day in and day out”.
It all began with her grandmother. Her family, originally from Syria, settled in Paris. Her wealthy, highly cultured grandparents were the very embodiment of Parisian art de vivre. For Nelly, happiness is perfume—capturing sensory impressions that fade too quickly, the marvellous experiences that form the essence of life but are over all too soon. Travels are not only profound encounters with nature, but also opportunities to immerse oneself in cultures, embrace craftsmanship, and gather inspirations.
