Nathalie Benareau
A perfumer who builds olfactory images from colour, shape and texture, connecting joyful fruits and flowers with a brand’s story.
France
About Nathalie Benareau
Nathalie Benareau is a perfumer who grew up in the French Alps and has worked at Symrise’s New York Fine Fragrance studio. Her compositions translate colour, shape and texture into olfactory images, often finding an expressive brightness in fruits and flowers.
Career
After studying chemistry and chemical engineering, she began working as an organic chemist at Firmenich in 1999. She subsequently assisted perfumers at Intarome and completed training at Manheimer, becoming a perfumer in 2006. She joined Symrise in 2008 and its New York Fine Fragrance team in 2011. In a 2024 interview with Commodity, she discussed her work as a Senior Perfumer and explained the collaborative development of a fragrance.
Creative Style & Philosophy
Benareau begins by asking about a brand’s identity, customers and intentions. Words, colours and bottle design help her choose a direction before she sketches several combinations of materials. She regards those materials as a painter’s palette, seeking a complete image that offers more than its individual parts. For her, fragrance expresses an intangible idea with meaning and emotion, while science provides the tools to create it. Tart, green accents can sharpen a joyful fruit accord without taking away its generosity.
Signature Works
- *Juice* for Commodity — Raspberry pulp, rhubarb and Bulgarian rose build a bright, red-fruit impression, supported by amberwood.
- *3pm* for SW19 — Tangerine and rhubarb meet white flowers, cedarwood and vetiver in a fragrance inspired by a sunny Wimbledon afternoon.
