Olivia Giacobetti

Olivia Giacobetti arrived at perfumery through cinema. At nine years old, she watched the 1975 film Lovers Like Us, where Yves Montand played a perfumer, and something clicked. Her father, Francis Giacobetti, was an artist who understood that light could be shaped with simple elements. His philosophy would echo through his daughter's approach to scent. At sixteen, Giacobetti joined Annick Goutal's atelier, working alongside the house during the creation of Eau de Camille, where green ivy and grass took precedence over expected florals. She moved to Robertet the following year and spent seven years absorbing the technical foundations of the craft as an assistant perfumer. In 1990, at just twenty-four, she founded her own company, Iskia, an audacious move when independent perfumers rarely struck out alone. Working from a garden-laboratory in Paris's ninth arrondissement, she took commissions from houses like L'Artisan Parfumeur, Diptyque, and Hermès. Her breakthrough arrived with two fig-forward fragrances: Premier Figuier for L'Artisan Parfumeur in 1994, and Philosykos for Diptyque in 1996, which became the brand's best-seller. These scents redefined how the fragrance world used fig, and other houses followed. In 2003, backed by Shiseido, Giacobetti launched Iunx, a full line of perfumes, candles, and body products in a boutique designed with her father on rue de l'Université. The venture struggled commercially but found new life at Hôtel Costes, where she had already created the hotel's signature scent in 1995. In 2016, she opened a new Iunx boutique at 13, rue de Tournon. Her collaborations span Guerlain, Fendi, Hugo Boss, and Penhaligon's. She remains among the most influential independent noses of her generation, credited with reshaping modern perfumery's relationship with transparency, naturalism, and fig.