Manuela Ruiz
Manuela Ruiz arrived in the fragrance world with quiet confidence, debuting as a perfumer and creative director in 2024 with Crazy Pills for Fioud. Rather than announcing herself with fanfare, she let the work speak first. The 2024 launch marked the culmination of years spent refining her craft behind the scenes. Her approach favors balance over spectacle, building fragrances that feel effortless rather than engineered. Based in Bilbao, Ruiz draws from her Basque surroundings and a multicultural sensibility that teaches her to read the world through scent. She entered the industry at a moment when perfumery is expanding, and she brought something the field needed: clarity.
The hits
Notable creations
The signature
How Manuela composes
Ruiz gravitates toward smooth, well-blended compositions with gentle sweetness and subtle freshness. She handles tropical and green notes with particular skill, as demonstrated in Crazy Pills, where papaya, pineapple, and fig meet green leaves and rose before settling into oud. She avoids heaviness even when working with deep base materials. Her signatures include the balance between brightness and warmth, and an instinct for ingredients that age gracefully rather than fade. Oud appears to be a foundational material in her palette, lending depth without darkness.
Philosophy
What drives Manuela
Ruiz treats each fragrance like a conversation between ingredients, not a competition. She cares about how a composition breathes over time, how it settles on skin, how it feels rather than how loudly it announces itself. Her creative process begins with observation, not invention. A trip to Paris, where she spent time with traditional perfumery, sharpened her appreciation for restraint. She builds from clarity outward, letting each note find its natural place rather than forcing structure. Her goal seems simple: fragrance that feels inevitable.
The houses