Christine Nagel

Christine Nagel (born 7 October 1959) is a Swiss perfumer. She has served as the in-house perfumer at Hermès since 2016. Prior to joining Hermès she created designer perfume hits like Narciso Rodriguez for Her (2003, with Francis Kurkdjian) and Miss Dior Chérie (2005), as well as niche perfume like Wood Sage & Sea Salt, one of 47 perfumes she created for Jo Malone London. She has been recognized with awards from the Fragrance Foundation France, the François Coty Foundation, and the Marie Claire International Fragrance Awards.

Early life and education

Born on 7 October 1959 to an Italian mother and Swiss father, Christine Nagel grew up in Geneva, Switzerland.[1] Her earliest scent memory is of the Italian talc powder her mother bought to care for Nagel's baby brother. (Nagel's brother also grew up to work in perfume.)[2]

Career

Early career

Nagel began her career in the research department of Swiss fragrance firm Firmenich, where she became enchanted with the strong emotional reactions a male perfumer colleague's work elicited from the women smelling it. The perfumer was Alberto Morillas, one of the giants of the perfume industry.[6] Nagel asked to transfer to the perfumery section, but lacking the traditional background was told no and switched to chromatography instead, examining fragrances and their ingredient recipes on a molecular level.[1] Subsequently, this has become a mechanized process but Nagel was one of the few in the world trained to recognize ingredients using only her nose.[6]

Unable to advance any further at Firmenich, Nagel moved to Italy to strike out on her own. Within a year she held 60 percent of Italy's perfume contracts, including work for Fendi and Versace.[1] She moved to Paris in 1997.[7]

Nagel established herself with successful creations in a variety of registers. These include major hits like her 2003 collaboration with Francis Kurkdjian, Narciso Rodriguez for Her,[1] the 2005 strawberry-and-popcorn confection Miss Dior Chérie,[7] and fruity gourmand Armani Sì (2013); luxury lines like Guerlain's Les Élixirs Charnels;[8] as well as niche perfume creations like 2011's "bizarre yet fascinating" Archive 69 for Etat Libre d'Orange, a camphorous rose and incense scent, and Wood Sage & Sea Salt (2014) for Jo Malone, a skin scent of salt lingering on the body after a day at the beach.[4] Nagel also created 46 other scents for Jo Malone,[7] including the more conventional bestseller English Pear & Freesia in 2010.[8]

Hermès

In 2014, Nagel went in-house at Hermès, joining Jean-Claude Ellena who had become the brand's first house perfumer in 2004. In 2016, as Ellena neared retirement, Nagel became the sole in-house perfumer at Hermès and the director of olfactive creations for Hermès Parfums.[4][9] This made her the second woman ever to hold an in-house perfumer position at a major luxury brand (the first was Mathilde Laurent at Cartier).[10]

Two of Nagel's first Hermès releases were Galop (2016),[5] a rose and leather scent inspired by Doblis, a suede-like leather kept in the Hermès cave of archival leather in Paris,[4] and Twilly (2017), a youthful fragrance that added ginger as a twist on a classic tuberose note.[4]

birth date	7 October 1959
occupation	Perfumer
employer	Hermès
notable works	Narciso Rodriguez for Her Miss Dior Chérie Jo Malone Wood Sage & Sea Salt
title	Director of olfactive creation, Hermès Parfums
term	2014–present
predecessor	Jean-Claude Ellena
spouse	Benoit Lapouza
children	3

Early life and education

Career

Early career

Hermès

Awards

Influences

Personal life

References