Christine Nagel might just have the best job in the world. As the in-house perfumer for Hermès, she’s free to follow her impulses, unhampered by deadlines, market research, or focus groups. She also possesses a custom Birkin with pouches and pockets to hold all her perfume tools.
Nagel’s inspirations are wide and unexpected, from childhood memories to adult phobias. Her profound fear of horses posed certain challenges—given Hermès’s deep roots in the equestrian world—and spurred her to create several unlikely fragrances.
Her latest success is Barénia, a chypre that blends oakmoss, butterfly lily from Madagascar, and patchouli, which tends to be polarizing. “Normally in perfumery, you use patchouli essence, but I discovered a patchouli absolute, called patchouli gaio, that’s more sensual, more profound, more tactile,” she says. She describes the scent as a caress, linking it to Hermès’s finest, most supple leather, also called Barénia. “When you touch Barénia leather, it’s almost greasy. It’s truly very agreeable. And with time, it acquires a patina.”
Barénia Intense, her latest scent, is a warm, provocative chypre perfume that’s entirely unlike all the current sugary, coconutty fragrances on the market. “If you like chypre, you’ll like it your whole life,” she says. “It’s like a tattoo, like your skin.”
IS THERE SOMETHING THAT DRAWS ALL THE HERMÈS FRAGRANCES TOGETHER?
The philosophy of fragrance at Hermès is pure, tactile, suffused with details and the finest quality materials. Before the name or the bottle, the raw materials are always the point of departure. And that’s true of every métier at Hermès.
WHAT’S THE FIRST SCENT YOU REMEMBER?
When I was 10, I was the little maman to my newborn brother. My mother, who’s Italian, used an Italian talcum powder called Borotalco. It has a very powdery smell. For me, it’s a scent of family happiness. My brother hates when I tell this story because he’s a professional. It’s too intimate.
It’s interesting because the scent that’s used for infants is always an adult odor. Nenouco is a Spanish baby cologne with a fleurs d’oranger scent. In the U.S., it’s Johnson & Johnson’s. In France, it’s Mustela. In Italy, it’s Borotalco. And often, in fragrance, there’s a note like this that I love, and I return to this memory.
HAVE YOU TRIED TO CREATE A SCENT WITH THAT?
Armani Chic was very Borotalco, but I don’t think it works in other countries, just Italy.
IS THERE AN AROMA THAT’S YOUR PROUST MADELEINE?
There are odors that remind me of my grandmother. It’s the inside of her handbag. It has a very sweet smell, and it comes from her powder falling out in the bag. Many people of my generation have that smell in their heads.
WHEN YOU TRAVEL, IS THERE A SCENT THAT CAPTIVATES YOU?
My nose is always open. Odors touch me and affect me and stay in my mind. They’re my souvenir.
When I was 30 and arrived in Bombay, the door of the plane opened and I was hit with the odor of India. It was very hot, humid, with a different vegetal smell.
In perfume, there’s always an emotion, and after that, there’s the return to the materials and the work.
IS THERE A SCENT FROM NATURE THAT YOU’D LIKE TO RECREATE?
Many perfumers like the scent of grass. Cut grass. When I was walking in nature last week, I smelled something, and I love this idea that an odor comes to me and forces me to keep it. When you walk in a small forest and there is chamomile, you sense the odor and you look for it through the trees. It opens your eyes to nature. I love discovering nature through my nose.
IS THERE AN EXISTING PERFUME THAT YOU’D LIKE TO RECREATE?
I’m jealous of several perfumes. Bois des Iles de Chanel. I don’t know what it is, but I love it. Opium, I love that. It’s brilliant. The first perfume that I adored was Havoc by Mary Quant. Jean-Claude Ellena created it [Ellena was the in-house perfumer for Hermès for 12 years]. Nobody knows that he made it.
I love the perfumes he made. Honestly, Terre d’Hermès is a monument. Wow! When Ellena asked me to work on a masculine note, after Terre d’Hermès—whoo! It was a big challenge.
I chose a vegetal note for H24 because masculine fragrances are all woody: woody musk, woody fruit, woody floral. The backbone is always woody.
I had a memory of an image from television where a small grain, a germ, was filmed in accelerated time, so you could see it grow and disturb the earth, breaking through it. It was so fragile and also so powerful. That was my inspiration for H24.
WHAT FOOD SMELL DO YOU LOVE MOST?
Italian tomato sauce! With garlic. When you cook the garlic, ah. Or the leaf of fresh tomato. But the tomato sauce—wow!
WOULD YOU EVER MAKE A FRAGRANCE WITH THAT SCENT?
With garlic, no. But the leaf of tomato, in the future, I’ll talk about that.
WHAT FRAGRANCE DO YOU LIKE AND MOST PEOPLE DON’T?
When you become a perfumer, you become very tolerant. We find odors interesting, and for that reason, we’re not precious.
I’ll give you an example. I am very afraid of horses. When I went to Hermès, I asked to visit the equerry for the Saut Hermès in Paris [the Hermès equestrian jumping competition in the Grand Palais]. I met two horses and visited the stables. People in the equestrian world carry a scent on them when they return home. It’s the sillage [the scent’s trail] of the cavalry, the scent of the horse, the hay, the leather, the straw, the carrot, the wood, and the droppings. The manure of the horses didn’t have a bad smell because they’re herbivores; the manure is all cellulose. I captured the odor of this horse with Headspace [a technology that identifies the scent in the air surrounding an object]. I amused myself. There was something very special in that mix of straw, hay, and manure. Axel Dumas [the CEO of Hermès] smelled it and told me he loved it. It’s called Paddock and it’s sold in a few Hermès boutiques around the world. Only Hermès could do it.
IS THERE A SCENT THAT MADE YOU WANT TO BECOME A PERFUMER? It’s not a perfume; it’s a perfumer. I worked in research at Firmenich [the Swiss fragrance and flavor company]. And every day, I could see Alberto Morillas in his office. Two women would come in, try a perfume, and leave smiling.
I wanted to go to school for perfumery, but they told me no, because I was a girl, I wasn’t the daughter of a perfumer, and I wasn’t from Grasse. I became a chemist, but I wanted to be Alberto. There was a happiness that I saw in the people who smelled the scents he made. It’s a métier that procures an emotion.
FILL IN THE BLANK: I WOULD LIKE THE WORLD TO SMELL….
Soft. The world needs softness and tenderness. If I knew what that smell was, I would use it every day. There’s so much unhappiness in the country. But I’m only a perfumer.
WHAT SCENT PUTS YOU IN A GOOD MOOD?
What makes me happy is the smell of the people I love. There’s a psychologist who found that when you’re in love with someone, the first thing you like is their odor. That odor mixes with your aroma to create the scent of the couple. And if you’re attentive to your nose, you can also smell when you begin to fall out of love. It’s super interesting.
HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE INTENSE INTEREST IN FRAGRANCE TODAY, WITH TIKTOK, PERFUMETOK, AND ALL THOSE BOYS WITH FRAGRANCE WARDROBES?
Today, people are making products that are so powerful, you lose a lot of the delicacy and the signature. When several materials are very strong—the caramel, the sugar—the perfume lacks finesse. This isn’t a very good trend.
These perfumes are too expensive, and people want something powerful for their money. But it’s a pity that strength becomes more important than the signature, the delicacy, the elegance.
In the street, when I smell these perfumes, I don’t know which one I’m smelling. They all smell the same. I don’t think this tendency will last. I’m crossing my fingers and touching wood.
When I arrived at Hermès, I met with Axel Dumas, the big boss. He stood up and said to everyone, “I want Christine to be free. If Christine decides that this is what’s going in the bottle, that’s what it will be.” He told me, “I’d rather you make mistakes trying something than make mistakes following others. Continue having this audacity, because without audacity, there is no creation.” Never in my life has someone said that to me. It’s a big responsibility.
Linda Wells is the Editor at Air Mail Look
