Who: Sophie Labbé, perfumer, who has worked at I.F.F for 26 years. Sophie is a highly regarded nose, who has made some of our favourite fragrances, including the excellent Floraiku range we talked about recently. She considers herself lucky to have a job she loves and she is passionate about fragrance. We met her at the recent I.F.F speed smelling event in London.
I only wear fragrance in the evening, when I leave the office. I wear two different modifications of the perfume I am working on, in order to see and smell which is the most powerful and impactful. So today I am testing a new modification on a project, but I can’t say anything because it is secret! Just a clue – it is a very appealing and addictive scent.
It makes me feel both joyful and curious. I am always listening to the comments people can give spontaneously around me, whether they are working in the perfume industry or not!
As you can imagine, fragrance is my everyday life, as well as my passion, so it is really something deep that follows me everywhere, at every moment.
I start to create a perfume through an inspiration. It always starts from a small but clear creative idea. Then, comes the time to build this accord with a lot of signature into a fragrance, with its structure and evolution.
I don’t put on any perfume in the morning, as I want to keep my environment neutral when I work on developments, but I love to have a little ‘perfumed moment’ some days, in the morning, with some Mitsouko talcum powder. It allows me to have a subtle fragrance that I love, as part of a small, quiet moment before starting working.
Sometimes I also allow myself to put a tiny drop of Mitsouko perfume on my wrist, just for pleasure.
During the vacations, I love to wear many different fragrances, in order to test them and to listen to the story they tell. I want to feel like a consumer and to enjoy fragrance like everyone and not like a perfumer. If it is a light fragrance, it can happen that I spray it every time I see the bottle.
I have an infinite perfume wardrobe! But I always come back to Mitsouko.
I love to scent my house with the sophisticated scent of perfumed candles. I also love the clean smell of my laundry that naturally perfumes my house.
Even when I am not in the office and I don’t have the feeling that I am ‘smelling‘, the scents continue to come to me. It is really interesting to be walking in the street and to smell the trends of what people wear and it is funny to guess the fragrance of someone you meet!