Hermes’ ‘nose’ offers a peek into the mysterious world of perfume creation

CHRISTINE Nagel has possibly one of the nicest jobs in the world.

As Hermes’ “nose”, or perfume artist, Nagel is responsible for concocting scents for the French luxury brand. Not only that, she has what she describes as the “most beautiful office” on the top floor of a building near Faubourg Saint Honore, Paris’ famous shopping street.

Her penthouse perch overlooking the City of Lights also holds her lab, and only two others have access to it – her assistant and Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the artistic director of Hermes.

As one of the world’s most influential perfumers, Nagel has free rein to create scents for the storied brand, although that freedom comes with responsibility.

“Because very often, fragrance is the first thing that a person is going to buy that represents the brand,” she says.

How it begins

Nagel has two options: either she discovers an ingredient that she likes, or she encounters something that touches her.

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“I have this capacity of keeping everything that touches me in my memory and that can be the starting point of an inspiration,” says Swiss-born Nagel.

Unlike many noses who hail from the world’s perfume capital of Grasse in southern France, she is a chemist who trained herself to figure out the ingredients that go into a scent.

Given that smell is the strongest and fastest memory inducer, Nagel’s ability to recall and recreate a smell is a special gift, though she is also aided by her sense of curiosity and over 25 years of work experience.

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“Humans have an olfactory sense that is extremely developed, but no one actually uses it,” she says. “You learn to draw, listen to music, taste – but do you ever teach kids to smell? It’s a centre that’s forgotten.”

Creating a new scent from scratch is not difficult for Nagel. The toughest moment is when she decides it’s ready.

“It’s not easy because it’s not an intellectual moment – it’s an instinctive one,” she explains. “My heart will tell me ‘it’s now ready, it’s finished’.”

Thereafter, the two most important milestones are when the perfume is presented to Dumas (who has yet to reject any of her creations), and when it arrives on the market.

“When I’m creating it, it’s my perfume, but when it’s in the market, I’m giving it away,” she says. “The question is: Is it touching people or not?”

Scents and sensibility

In Nagel’s view, we would probably learn more about people’s personalities if we take the time to smell the scent they wear instead of just looking at them.

“It’s easier to follow trends, such as what is in fashion,” she says. “But when you put a fragrance on your skin, it’s very personal and intimate.”

This means one may try the scent from “a marvellous brand”, but easily drop that for a less famous one if the latter is a better fit.

Nagel sees perfumes as being gender-neutral. She recalls meeting a male violinist who was wearing Nahema, a very famous perfume from Guerlain.

“It was a woman’s perfume, but it was not feminine because it represented him,” she explains. “So it is not a question of gender, but of olfactory signature. It’s how you wear it – the allure.”

A Greek garden

About 30 years ago, unisex perfumes such as CK One were very popular. A decade later, sweet scents became a favourite. All perfume houses would market test their completed formulas to choose a winner, and if there was a caramel scent, it would test well.

But Hermes eschews the practice, and Nagel relishes the freedom to be as creative as possible.

A case in point is her latest scent for the maison, Un Jardin a Cythere.

The seventh in the Hermes’ Parfums-Jardins eau de toilette collection, it was inspired by a garden on the Greek island of Kythira on the Peloponnese peninsula that she visited about 20 years ago.

But instead of the green, floral notes that typify garden scents, this is a parched, sun-drenched garden inspired by scents from the island’s olive wood, dry blonde-coloured grass and fresh pistachios.

It was all the more remarkable that Nagel recreated these notes purely from her olfactory memory, as she could not return to Greece during the pandemic when the fragrance was being created.

Yet, when presented with it, Dumas – who has deep familial roots in Greece – responded with: “Christine, I feel at home.”

Once the borders reopened, Nagel returned to Greece to ensure that her garden scent was “correct” and was delighted when locals recognised it as being “so Greek”. One shop owner even insisted it had to be sold in Kythira.

Nagel likens her work to that of a painter, who might sit in front of a landscape and paint it, or study it intensely and return to his atelier to paint from memory.

“Likewise, when I create from memory, it’s perhaps not perfect, but it’s created with a lot of emotion. And it’s better, because perfume is a question of emotion.”

Un Jardin a Cythere eau de toilette is priced at S$228 (100 ml).