Natural Perfumery at Paris Perfume Week: A Field in Transition

The day unfolded slowly—coffee, light, footsteps through old passages … and then an entry into the world of scent.

Paris reveals itself like a perfume. Not all at once, but in layers—through atmosphere, movement, and small, unexpected encounters.

At Paris Perfume Week, this experience becomes more concentrated. For a few days, you are surrounded by people from different parts of the world, working with different materials and approaches, yet connected by a shared focus: scent as a form of expression.

There is a particular clarity in such moments—the feeling of being exactly where you are meant to be.

Beyond the Exhibition

In recent years, perfumery events such as Fragranze in Florence, which I have attended several times, and Esxence in Milan have become important meeting points for different parts of the industry. Paris Perfume Week builds on this idea, but in a way that feels more layered and immersive.

What makes this event particularly valuable is its structure: it is not only an exhibition, but also a space for dialogue through lectures, masterclasses, and olfactory journeys.

At the talk The Omani Rock Rose, I encountered one of the most exquisite roses I have ever smelled—an Omani rose growing at 3000 metres above sea level, with an unusual metallic, almost wet-earth facet that immediately expanded my understanding of what rose can be.

The curated exhibitions added another dimension. Scent of Italy felt like traveling through Italy by smell—an olfactory journey shaped through place, atmosphere, and cultural associations.

I was particularly drawn to The Legacy of the Masters, a retrospective of influential perfumers presented as a journey through perfume history. Moving from Paul Parquet, the creator of Fougère Royale, to Jean Kerléo, founder of the Osmothèque, I experienced perfume as something both contemporary and deeply rooted in history.

This dialogue between past and present continued in a more unexpected form. I had tasted a cocktail inspired by the historic De Laire base Ambre 83—a composition we had previously smelled. Reinterpreted by mixologist Romain de Courcy, the formula was translated into a sensory experience where notes of vanilla, benzoin, labdanum, neroli, tonka, and sandalwood unfolded much like a fragrance.

A Clear Development: The Presence of Natural Perfumery

Whenever I visit a perfume event, I find myself actively searching for natural perfumes. In the past, this usually meant discovering only a small number of brands. This time was different—I encountered several new names working seriously in this space.

What I found particularly interesting emerged through conversations with founders. Again and again, a similar idea came up: people are not necessarily looking for a natural perfume as such—whether for reasons of “clean” fragrance or to avoid synthetics. They are simply searching for a scent they connect with.

This marks an important shift.

Natural perfumery is no longer approached primarily as an alternative, but is increasingly perceived as an equal and credible direction within niche perfumery.

Several brands are working with high-quality natural materials and developing compositions that are both technically coherent and artistically refined. The focus is not on limitation, but on possibility—on what can be achieved within the specific characteristics of natural materials.

This was particularly evident in the work of perfumers such as Hiram Green, whose compositions demonstrate how natural materials can be developed with both technical precision and artistic clarity. At the same time, newer brands like Voyages Imaginaires and Parfumeurs du Monde are contributing to a broader and more diverse landscape of natural perfumery.

Conversations in the Field

Some of the most valuable insights at the event emerged through direct conversations.

In a discussion with a representative of 100BON, she mentioned that a student from ISIPCA was surprised to discover that a 100% natural fragrance could exist at all. I found this striking, given the growing presence of natural perfumery observed throughout the event.

When I attended a summer program at ISIPCA, we were explicitly told that it is not possible to create a perfume using only natural materials.

This contrast between what is taught and what is practiced is still visible, even if the gap is gradually narrowing. What becomes evident, however, is that the question is not whether natural perfumery is possible, but how it is approached in practice.

A more detailed insight into this approach emerged in the masterclass with Hiram Green. His process begins with a single material—studying its facets in depth, and then building the composition through extensive experimentation. The development process can involve hundreds of trials, sometimes up to 500, before a perfume is finalized. The focus remains firmly on natural materials, not out of opposition to synthetics, but because their complexity already offers a rich field of exploration.

One such example was the scent of narcissus absolute presented during the masterclass—rich, green, and deeply textured—which later reappeared as the central theme in Ultra, a new fragrance by Hiram Green, demonstrating how a single natural material can be developed into a complete composition through careful modulation of its facets.

A conversation with Camille Goutal, founder of Voyages Imaginaires, revealed another important aspect: cost. The price of raw materials used in their perfumes can reach around 800 euros per kilogram, compared to a much lower standard range in conventional perfumery.

This attention to material quality and nuance is reflected in their compositions, where the focus lies less on structure in the classical sense and more on atmosphere and sensory impression.

At the same time, initiatives such as Parfumeurs du Monde show how natural perfumery is also developing through collaboration—working with established perfumers such as Bertrand Duchaufour to create compositions that place natural extracts at the center of the creative process.

A different, more concept-driven approach was visible in the newly launched brand Amniens. Their collection is built around the effect of scent on mood, with fragrances designed to support states such as focus, joy, energy, and calm—moving beyond traditional aromatherapeutic blends toward compositions that function more clearly as perfumes.

Even perfumers who do not work exclusively with natural materials are shifting their approach. In a conversation with Adrian, co-founder of Tobba, he explained that his intention is to guide visitors toward their own sensory experience—focusing on how a perfume makes them feel, rather than on what it is supposed to represent or which fragrances are bestsellers.

What connects these conversations is not a single direction, but a shared movement toward a more conscious and perceptually driven approach to fragrance—where the focus shifts from what a perfume is to how it is experienced and what it evokes.

Closing Thoughts

Not everything is changing—but something is shifting.

The language of perfumery is expanding, slowly and quietly. And within that expansion, there is increasing space for approaches that are more material-focused, more perceptual, and more nuanced.

It will be interesting to see how this develops further.