Serena Ava Franco
Serena Ava Franco walks into a studio the way a painter steps onto a canvas—eyes fixed on the next shade of feeling. Born in a family that prized artisanal craft, she spent childhood evenings watching her mother shape silver into delicate jewelry. The scent of metal mixed with the perfume of garden blooms sparked a curiosity that later guided her toward formal training at a French perfumery institute, where she honed the chemistry of aroma. After graduating, she launched Ava Luxe, a boutique house that blends her jewelry sensibility with scent design. The brand’s debut, Absinthe, arrived in 2015 and earned quiet acclaim among collectors, marking her first public breakthrough. Since then she has added roughly eighty creations to the Ava Luxe catalogue, each reflecting her love of contrast and her desire to converse with the season of brilliant melancholy. Serena continues to split her time between a Parisian atelier and a seaside workshop, where she sketches, molds, and mixes in equal measure.
The hits
Notable creations
The signature
How Serena composes
Serena favors natural absolutes and carefully sourced synthetics, layering them to create depth without relying on heavy fixatives. She frequently begins with a bright top—citrus or green herb—then introduces a heart built around tuberose, jasmine, or absinthe leaf, honoring the French legend of tuberose that warns against inhaling its scent after dark. The base often rests on amber, vetiver, or soft woods, giving the composition a lingering, meditative finish. In the lab she works by hand, measuring drops with a pipette, stirring with a glass rod, and documenting every nuance in a leather-bound notebook. This hands-on method keeps each fragrance intimate and unmistakably her own.
Philosophy
What drives Serena
Serena believes that fragrance should act as a bridge between memory and moment. She approaches each formula as a conversation with emotion, asking what feeling the scent will whisper to the wearer. Her work often explores the tension between light and shadow, a concept she describes as brilliant melancholy. She draws inspiration from literature, visual art, and the tactile quality of her jewelry pieces, letting those cues dictate the structure of a perfume. For her, the creative act is a ritual: select a handful of ingredients, test their interaction, then step back and listen for the quiet voice that emerges.
The houses