Emrys Au
Emrys Au did not arrive at perfume through the conventional route. Trained as a food professional before shifting his focus to fragrance, he brings an unusually sensory approach to composition, one informed by flavor, texture, and the way ingredients behave when heat and pressure come into play. Alongside his brother Eugene, Emrys has built a practice rooted in experimentation and cross-disciplinary curiosity. Their collaboration first gained attention through Art and Olfaction, where the brothers demonstrated that an understanding of food chemistry translates remarkably well to the structure of scent. Rather than approaching perfume as pure abstraction, Emrys works from taste and smell as inseparable senses, building fragrances that carry weight and presence. The transition from culinary arts to perfumery speaks to a broader truth about creative work: technique transfers, even when the medium changes entirely. Emrys continues to develop work that reflects this background, bringing a chef's sensibility to questions of balance, duration, and the way a scent evolves on skin.
The hits
Notable creations
The signature
How Emrys composes
Emrys favors precise, ingredient-driven compositions where each element earns its place. His background in food work draws him toward natural materials with identifiable character: osmanthus, resins, green notes that carry actual botanical weight rather than generic freshness. He tends to avoid heavy sweetness in favor of nuanced bitter-green-floral intersections. The Golden Pear for Miyako remains a signature statement of this approach, using osmanthus as its anchor while allowing pear to express itself as something edible and specific rather than stereotyped. His work with Art and Olfaction has reinforced a laboratory mindset, where experimentation and iteration produce clearer results than inspiration alone. He favors short, confident formulas over sprawling ones, and this restraint often distinguishes his finished work from peers working at similar scales.
Philosophy
What drives Emrys
Emrys approaches fragrance as he once approached food: with attention to how flavors interact, contrast, and linger. He believes scent should carry memory and texture, not just pleasantry. The nose, he argues, is really the palate of another sense, and that overlap interests him most. His work tends toward clarity and purpose, rejecting complexity for its own sake. He asks what a fragrance needs to say and builds from there, stripping away anything that does not serve that core idea. This disciplined approach, informed by culinary training, gives his compositions a coherence that feels deliberate rather than ornamental. He remains curious about how cultural associations with smell shape perception, and he designs with awareness of what different audiences bring to a fragrance when they first encounter it.
The houses
Maisons Emrys composes for
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