Ketrin Leka
A perfumer raised in Albania, drawing fragrance ideas from photography and its emotional detail.
Albania
About Ketrin Leka
Ketrin Leka is a perfumer who grew up in Albania and built her career in the New York area. She now leads perfumery and fragrance development at French Color & Fragrance.
Career
Her love of scent drew her to New York, where she discovered perfumery as a profession. Her education includes a chemistry degree from Fordham University. From 2011 to 2019 she worked as a perfumer at Robertet. She joined French Color & Fragrance in 2019 and today serves as its Head of Perfumery & Fragrance Development.
Creative Style & Philosophy
Leka traces her most cherished childhood memories to scent: mimosa lining the streets of her hometown, the rose-scented lemonade her grandmother made each summer, and geraniums and carnations crowding the family balcony. Today her imagination often begins with photography, and she can look at an image and start picturing a fragrance shaped by its details. In her view, what makes a photograph worth capturing — a range of rich emotions — is also what makes a fragrance beautiful and memorable.
Signature Works
- *Book* (Expressive) — A woody fragrance for Commodity that tips its hat to Hemingway and Fitzgerald, layering eucalyptus over sandalwood and cedarwood with vetiver and amber.
- *Rain* — An aquatic floral from Commodity's Archive collection, built around a water musk with lotus, lemon verbena and jasmine before settling into musk and sheer woods.
