Anne-Sophie Behaghel

Anne-Sophie Behaghel

Anne-Sophie Behaghel is a perfumer and business developer at Flair Paris, an independent fragrance studio. She has also previously worked with renowned fragrance companies such as Symrise and Firmenich. Anne-Sophie Behaghel's fascination with perfume began during her training at Cinquième Sens, a company specializing in the creation of fragrances and the training of brands and suppliers in the field of scented products.

In 2013, Anne-Sophie Behaghel and Amelie Bourgeois founded “Flair Paris”, where they have since worked closely with laboratories such as Be Have, Elixens, Firmenich, IFF and Mane to create fragrances for various brands. Anne-Sophie Behaghel's fragrances are often described as delicate, subtle and poetic. She approaches each project with academic rigor, but is always a bit of a poet at heart. Her work reflects her passion for natural raw materials, which she believes should be more appreciated and respected.

Trained by Monique Schlienger at the Cinquième Sens school, Anne-Sophie Behaghel has favored abrasive molecules that collide with the typical flowers or woods since her first formulas. “I have always had a passion for abstract synthetic ingredients that I knew would allow me to invent unique fragrances,” she says. Instead of looking for the calm harmony that a perfume composer always strives for, she prefers dissonance, roughness and coincidences that can create surprises. To achieve her goals, she shows courage in the bold overdose of chemical molecules, which she combines with the noblest natural ingredients such as rose, jasmine, patchouli or vetiver. 

Having worked for two major perfume companies, Firmenich and Symrise, she knows better than anyone how commercial demands can undermine creativity and often lead to severe limitations. A major concern when setting up her own studio was therefore to create a counter-model to the large Swiss or Anglo-Saxon laboratories. The idea was to offer brands unconventional fragrances in which the strange meets the classic.

Three questions for Anne-Sophie Behaghel

Perfumer, a vocation? To live up to the clichés: Yes. That's the sense behind everything that has guided me the most since I was little. Growing up in Paris, a city of hot streets and crowded public transportation, I was a curious child who observed everything around me. So I realized very early on that I wanted to become a “nose”. Amélie (my girlfriend) quickly joined me in my training.

Your favorite fragrance combination? Hemp and musk, of course. Hemp is a plant used in perfumery as an extracted essential oil obtained from the seeds and stem. It is often used as a base note to add depth and warmth to perfumes. Musk is originally an animal ingredient derived from the scent gland of the male musk deer, a small animal native to Asia. Today, most musk fragrances used in perfumery are synthetic and have been developed to mimic the sensual, musky scent of the natural ingredient.

Your perfect combination in perfumery? I think it's Amélie Bourgeois as my partner and me as the perfume, because I see her as my ideal accomplice. 

Where do you find inspiration? I'm mostly inspired by people: their smiles, their gestures and facial expressions, their eye contact with others and their lifestyle. I like to give free rein to the sensations and emotions that a fragrance conveys. I can explore and shape inexplicable olfactory territories to create unique fragrances that hopefully intrigue the noses of those who smell them.

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