Aphorisms Of A Perfumer: Dominique Ropion

“An event, place or encounter will always be associated with a perfume or scent, serving as an infallible and trusty aide-mémoire, a formula we do not always recognise but available if we need it.”

Dominique Ropion is often described as reserved, gifted, playful and a hard worker. He defines himself as a composer, an arithmetician of fragrance, motivated by the idea that “the same formula recounts different stories on each person’s skin”.

In these chapters, he deconstructs the smells that characterised his childhood, the ones he likes to come across in the street or through a spontaneous encounter, and the aromas of flowers —rose, narcissus, tuberose — to offer us their olfactory and emotional secrets. Exploring the notions of addiction, animality and attraction, he strives to create scents that will “bind to any being and mould to its inner depths, which will necessarily be different” from his own. With this unique testimony, he reveals the sensitive and inimitable approach he takes to his work.

Preface by Frédéric Malle