Quentin Bisch may be the most in-demand perfumer working today, and he almost didn’t become one. He was born in Strasbourg in 1983 and decided at age 11 to become a perfumer after smelling YSL Opium on his French teacher. He had no chemistry background, so he was turned away from perfume school and spent years in theatre instead, studying stage direction and running his own troupe. He later talked his way into a job as an assistant to Michel Almairac and eventually trained at the Givaudan Perfumery School.

This FragranceProblem research paper follows that unusual path and looks at how theatre still shapes his work. He builds each fragrance like a stage production, around one strong idea and bold contrasts like pear with hazelnut or tuberose with paprika.

The paper then goes through his work house by house, from designer blockbusters like Carolina Herrera Good Girl, Jean Paul Gaultier Le Male Elixir and Mugler Angel Muse to niche landmarks like Parfums de Marly Delina, Marc-Antoine Barrois Ganymede and Amouage Guidance, which Amouage’s creative director has called the most successful fragrance in the house’s history. For each house, it explains what his fragrances did for the brand, and it ends with a starter guide for anyone who wants to smell his best work.