Mathilde Laurent

Perfumery is a very masculine world. Yet this does not prevent certain women from excelling in the art of mastering scents. In this respect, Mathilde Laurent is considered one of the most renowned noses in our country. We owe her numerous successes such as l'Envol, La Panthère, Baiser Volé, L'Heure Promise or Déclaration d'un Soir by Cartier, as well as Shalimar Eau Légère or Aqua Allegoria Herba Fresca, Pamplelune or Rosa Magnifica by Guerlain.

The career of Mathilde Laurent

Mathilde Laurent was born in 1970 in Neuilly sur Seine, France. She began by earning a scientific DEUG before joining the institut supérieur international du parfum (ISIPCA) in Versailles in 1992. Coming from a family where everyone had studied at the Beaux-Arts, her vocation was very well received. It was at ISIPCA that she had the defining encounter of her life. One evening, while there was a school party attended by Jean-Paul Guerlain, she explains, she downed a glass of champagne to give herself courage and asked him to take her on as an intern. This is how she joined the house of Guerlain just a few months later. She stayed at Guerlain, in Paris, from 1994 to 2005 and left that house to join Cartier. Since that day, she has been the official nose of the house, and her creations have earned her numerous awards. Among other things, she won both the specialists' prize and the perfumers' prize at the Grand Prix du Parfum in 2010, for the fragrance Treizième Heure. Likewise, her perfume Déclaration d'un Soir won the Grand Masculin prize in 2012, while Mathilde Laurent was honored by French perfume enthusiasts at the Olfactorama in 2013.

Mathilde Laurent's uncommon sensitivity

Mathilde Laurent is a young woman with a strong temperament, whom her peers describe as rebellious and sensitive. Edmond Rostand said of her that she is an opening onto the world, a field of possibilities, a book, […] An encyclopedia! She is one of those who reject outright all products that are overly marketed and standardized. She detests the archetypal vision of modern perfumery and champions the expression of unlimited creativity. Her inspiration most often comes from her childhood, and more particularly from her grandfather's garden, in Corsica. Thus, above all else, she loves fig milk, not especially for its scent but for the story it evokes for her. Moreover, Mathilde Laurent detests olfactory descriptions. She far prefers the narrative behind the creation of a perfume. Thus, each of her fragrances carries a soul.

In other words, Mathilde Laurent is a whole woman, an artist above all, seeming largely guided by instinct. She finds herself fully reflected in one of Proust's famous lines: A delicious pleasure had invaded me, isolated, with no notion of its cause[…]. This essence was not in me, it was me.