Alexandra Mettetal

About Alexandra Mettetal

Alexandra Mettetal is a perfumer who creates at Technicoflor, a fragrance composition house. She chose fragrance as her medium because it unites science and creativity, letting her express herself through the invisible language of scent. Alongside perfumery she works in photography and ceramics, and most recently she has been collaborating with the world of mixology.

Career

Her first scent experiences date back to the age of four, in a small village in Alsace. Among them was the smell of macerated fruit drifting from a neighbouring schnapps distillery, a memory she still calls her madeleine de Proust. Convinced that perfumery was her vocation, she enrolled at the École supérieure du parfum. Along the way she met Bertrand Duchaufour, who became her mentor and trains her at Technicoflor. She has also trained with Vincent Ricord and Romain Keller.

Approach

From Duchaufour she learned to be bold with overdoses of materials while keeping precise control, work she likens to shaping olfactory lace. The unexpected pairings and textures she meets in her other practices feed her exploration of contrast and emotion. With Hadrien Moudoulaud, whom she met at Bar Nouveau, she developed "olfactory mixology," a method for teaching bartenders to describe smells beyond simple liking or disliking. It starts with one main ingredient, breaks its scent into facets, strengthens one or two of them and brings in another olfactory family for contrast. She also encourages people to describe odours through textures, sensations, sounds and colours, since smells are tied to emotion and memory.

Signature Works

• *Jodhpur 6am* — Co-created with Bertrand Duchaufour, it recalls a cup of chai at dawn in Jodhpur through black tea, spice and flowers.
• *Œillet Voyageur* — A fragrance presented in Iconofly’s collection by perfumer.