Pascal Gaurin

“I believe brands are a reflection of their creator: Fabrice Croisé’s love for Nature, uncompromising stand for creativity and luxury, and constant quest for innovation can all be found in Scents of Wood. A remarkable achievement and a beautiful journey for a perfumer.”

At 19 years old, Pascal Gaurin radically changed course to follow his dream. Early on, his fascination with craftsmanship was a way to connect with his great grandfather, a sculptor of bronze, and also gave him the certitude that one day he would work with luxury products. While preparing to enter business school, HEC in Paris, Pascal picked up an issue of Vogue and read an article on the perfume industry and had a revelation. There and then, he decided that his single obsession would be to create perfume.

IFF recruited Pascal a year after he completed his perfumery studies at ISIPCA, and sent him to the other side of the world. Working in Hong Kong for two years, Pascal created fragrances for China, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines – a cultural shock that he considered a lesson in humility. Disconnected from everything familiar, Pascal learned Asiatic customs and olfactive tastes. Eventually, he made the New York office his home.

Pascal is most inspired by dense essences, like resins and deep woods. His taste for darkness probably originates from his grandparents’ home in Creuse, France, where the forests are very dark and it always feels like nighttime. “You can feel the vapors of mushrooms, leaves and bark.” he says, and it only takes the smell of a bale of hay, an uncultivated field or a stable to bring a smile to his lips. “I love frontal materials, those you need to tame like a sculptor does stone.” This is where he gets his affinity for “erotic” ingredients like cistus labdanum, patchouli and Cashmeran.®

Pascal cannot live without film and music. Accompanied by music from morning till night, from Radiohead to the Rolling Stones, and Arcade Fire to Pearl Jam, each song provides energy and emotion that he uses to create – so much so that he defines a perfume brief musically before finding the olfactive inspiration, and imagines each of his fragrances as a soundtrack.