Olivia Jan

About Olivia Jan

Olivia Jan is a French perfumer who grew up in the countryside of northeastern France and has worked from New York since 2005. She also works on fragrances built around the character of essential oils.

Career

Determined to become a perfumer from childhood, she studied at ISIPCA and refined her skills at Chanel. She then trained in Grasse, close to where many of perfumery's natural materials are grown, and kept developing her craft in Paris before moving to New York in 2005. By 2020 she was running Fragrance with Benefits in Hoboken, New Jersey, a company she co-founded with Corinne Gillespie.

Creative Style & Philosophy

A childhood spent among forests and open countryside sits at the root of much of her work, alongside a love of food. As a student she studied the structure of *Aromatics Elixir* the way a young painter examines another artist's canvas, and recalls being "on the quest for something behind scents." For her, a fragrance is an arrangement of ingredients composed to convey a particular sensation or emotion.

Signature Works

• *Gin* (Commodity) — juniper berry and lime over ginger leaf, settling into patchouli, smoky oak and musk
• *Mimosa* (Commodity) — a sparkling fruity floral of lemon, blood orange and mandarin, softened by orange blossom and sheer jasmine
• *NoMo* (Fragrance with Benefits) — born from her own trouble with mosquitoes and composed in the tradition of refined French cologne