Nathalie Gracia-Cetto

Perfumers each have their own style. Some of them prefer working with spices while others are particularly fond of woody or floral scents. Nevertheless, in women's fragrances, it must be acknowledged that the flower remains the primary ingredient. It is precisely from this that the creator Nathalie Gracia-Cetto likes to draw inspiration when composing new fragrances. Let us therefore look more deeply into where this passion for the queens of perfumery comes from.

Nathalie Gracia-Cetto's childhood

Nathalie Gracia-Cetto's olfactory memories go back to her earliest years. Her childhood was strongly marked by floral scents. Born in Grasse, the world capital of perfume, it was not there that Nathalie Gracia-Cetto grew up. Indeed, when she was barely seven years old, her father was transferred to Cairo, Egypt. She thus remembers a childhood steeped in the scents of Provence and the smell of Egyptian jasmine. Likewise, she says she recalls precisely the smell of karkade sold in the streets of Cairo, as well as that of foul, a type of bean, in flatbreads. Moreover, Nathalie Gracia-Cetto states that she has always been strongly drawn to the smell of flowers, and particularly to that of mimosa in the Esterel. At first, however, Nathalie Gracia-Cetto did not think of becoming a perfumer. She wanted instead to move into cosmetics and hoped to make creams. Indeed, she remembers how her parents used butter to clean her feet when she came back from the beach. This is how Nathalie Gracia-Cetto first began studying perfumery. However, although she completed her program, she found it particularly dull. She then turned to a thesis related to the oils used in perfumery. This allowed her to join the Givaudan perfumery school. It was at that moment that Nathalie Gracia-Cetto says she truly found her calling. She found this training far more interesting than the previous one and graduated at the age of 29. From then on, she was hired by the house of Givaudan.

Nathalie Gracia-Cetto at Givaudan

Nathalie Gracia-Cetto is a woman full of joie de vivre, and this comes through in each of her fragrances. Both optimistic and endowed with extreme attention to detail, she continually meets Givaudan's demands. We owe her many world-renowned fragrances such as Quatre by Boucheron, Le Mâle Popeye by Jean Paul Gaultier, and Soleil Blanc by Tom Ford. Yet if Nathalie Gracia-Cetto had to choose just one single ingredient to define her, she says it would be lavender. Although it took her quite some time to fully grasp this Provençal plant, Nathalie Gracia-Cetto has today made this flower her signature. As if to rediscover it anew with each composition, Nathalie Gracia-Cetto is one of those perfumers who liked to leave their desk and go directly into the fields. The creator likes to get as close to nature as possible. It is from there that her boundless creativity emanates. Nathalie Gracia-Cetto's fragrances thus beautifully embody a perfect alchemy between lightness and depth. They embody the contrast between theoretical rigor and poetry.