Núria Cruelles Borrull
Núria Cruelles Borrull never second-guessed her calling. The Valencia-born perfumer knew from childhood that scent would be her language, a certainty that shaped every decision that followed. She trained in chemistry and oenology, subjects that sharpened the same instrument: the nose. That dual expertise made her unusually precise. She evaluated fragrances for quality at Loewe before stepping into creation, arriving at the house in 2018 and beginning work on the Paula's Ibiza line. She spent her youth surrounded by the ghostly floral trace of Loewe Aire on women in her native Spain, an early education in what the house could mean. Today she holds a faculty position at ELISAVA in Barcelona, teaching the next generation to trust their own senses. She has described herself simply as obsessed.
The hits
Notable creations
The signature
How Núria composes
Her style is grounded and naturalistic, with an Iberian warmth that reads as distinctly Loewe. She favors fresh, green, and botanical materials and has shown particular skill with the texture of leaves and stems, most visibly in her celebrated Tomato Leaves soap. Her compositions tend toward clarity and restraint rather than opulence. She pairs the precision of her sommelier's training with an emotional directness that gives her fragrances an almost tactile quality. She works best when she can anchor a creation in a single, specific sensory memory.
Philosophy
What drives Núria
Cruelles works with memory and material in equal measure. She looks at the world through smell, finding inspiration in coffee, in tomato leaves, in the delicate floral air that once followed women through Spanish streets. Her approach is sensory-first: she builds from what she knows rather than from trend. Oenology taught her patience with complexity and an understanding that both wine and fragrance reveal themselves differently on the skin over time. She gravitates toward ingredients with a story, toward compositions that feel rooted rather than fleeting.
The houses
Maisons Núria composes for
In the same league