Christine Nagel, head perfumer at Hermès Parfums on her journey as a perfumer, the inspiration behind the new Tutti Twilly D’Hermès and more

In an exclusive interview with Harper's Bazaar India, Christine Nagel gets candid about her journey as a perfurmer, the emotions that a scent evoke in her and more. 

Harper’s Bazaar: You have been a perfumer for long. What made you select it as a profession? Could you please take us through your journey?

Christine Nagel: It’s quite difficult to summarise my life’s journey and passion in just a few sentences. But the main thing to know is that I discovered my calling relatively late, through the emotion and indescribable pleasure that fragrances evoked in those around me. Then I couldn’t rest until I had become a perfumer, constantly learning, experimenting, and perfecting my knowledge. I wasn’t afraid to take risks. And some wonderful encounters have marked my life. And I must say that the best of these was the most recent: my encounter with Hermès. Hermès’ values are full of humanity, freedom, and diversity. They nourish my everyday work and creativity. And I’m exactly where I should be!

HB: Ginger as a spice has many virtues. Why did you select it as the primary note for Twilly?

CN: I worked with ginger to satisfy my unbridled love of its flavour. The explosion of fresh ginger notes gave me the boldness I needed to use it abundantly, unreservedly, for the first time in Twilly. But ginger has a multitude of facets: it’s spicy in Twilly Eau Poivrée and candied in Twilly Eau Ginger. I really thought I’d explored every aspect of it. But then I discovered ginger blossom, in a totally unexpected way—hearing a pastry chef talking about his passion for ginger piqued my curiosity and set off the urge and the very idea for this new composition. The blossom tastes undeniably like ginger, but with a softer, gentler flavour that is perhaps more refined. Once I’d found it—and that wasn’t easy—I reconstructed it in my mind from a floral perspective, and ended up with something that was as surprising as it was exciting.

HB: The combination of ginger and lychee is a bit unusual. Who did you have in mind when you were perfecting this perfume?

CN: I only work with what I love, and I love lychee. Its hard shell protects its sweet flesh full of water, which trickles out willingly when bitten into. Its fruity, rose-like scent and its fleshy, tender and full-bodied aspect is a wonderful metaphor for these young girls, who I find so inspiring. Though I don’t create for a fixed, predefined kind of person—because the fragrance exists in itself and not in relation to its destination—I do imagine a vibrant and joyful personality.

HB: Tutti Twilly shares a story of sisterhood. How does the fragrance capture that?

CN: Perhaps more than the notion of sisterhood that had guided me until then, while I was creating it, I thought of the generations of young girls that come one after another—an endless story to which we ourselves, our mothers and our daughters all belong. These unique yet somehow similar stories are brimming with paradoxes, with insouciance and discipline, with lightness combined with a keen sense of the issues of the future, with pure joy and meaningful choices. These stories are so inspiring through time.

HB: What was the main inspiration behind the Tutti Twilly collection?

CN: The boldness of youth is a major source of inspiration for me. Like its predecessors, Tutti Twilly is inspired by the young girls of today, these creative and mischievous young girls whose femininity is emerging and who like to play with convention. As a tribute to their youthful spirit, their love of doing and undoing, of being themselves and reinventing themselves, I wanted to offer a new twist, a different expression of Twilly that reveals the timeless facet of their personalities.

HB: How would you describe it for your virtual audience, given that a lot of the perfumes are bought online without actually testing them?

CN: I would say that Tutti Twilly is a joyful and colourful combination of smooth and gentle ginger blossom, the fruity, rose-inspired scent of lychee with its tender, sensual undertones, and enveloping musk. Harnessing the power and joy of being a woman at that brief but intense time of life when anything is possible, it offers a carefree attitude and infectious happiness.

HB: What emotions does the fragrance evoke in you?

CN: Fragrance is and remains the sense with the strongest link to emotion because each scent tells a story and opens up a particular imaginative world, but although we are all made in the same way, everyone feels a different emotion in the presence of the same scent. A scent moves us because we have smelled it before. It takes its place in the library of scents that we create from the moment we are born. I express my own vision of a story in fragrance, and this is the very nature of artistic work, seeking to trigger emotion, to feel and give pleasure.