Perfumes de Julien Rasquinet

Among our five senses, it seems that smell has a direct connection with memories and emotions. Julien believes that our olfactory memory is the strongest. “When I think about my childhood memories, scents come first associated with the feeling I had, then I see images and eventually I hear a sound or music,” he says. For Julien, our nose is always on alert, even when we are not paying attention; it imprints sensations into the deepest parts of our brain.

Julien Rasquinet only realised quite late, and thanks to the intuition of the famous perfumer Pierre Bourdon, that he was destined to create perfumes. From a very early age, Julien found in the creative arts a way to communicate his feelings and thoughts. He loved painting, drawing, designing and creating costumes for theatre and puppets. But it was only after graduating from business school that he discovered what would become his passion and profession.

When Pierre Bourdon met Julien, he instinctively discerned his sensitivity and his potential to become a perfumer. He offered Julien the chance to become his protégé. During an intensive 3-year training programme, Pierre shared with him his creation philosophy, his techniques, his passion…. This meeting with Pierre Bourdon turned Julien’s life around.

Julien also had the opportunity to work with Christine Nagel for 2 years before demonstrating his entrepreneurial spirit by creating his own perfume company. For 4 years, Julien has been creating independently for several international brands.

“The goal of a creation is to trigger an emotion,” says Julien. To achieve this goal, he likes to evoke personal olfactory memories or create a story that translates carefully into notes. His creations can be very figurative or very abstract, but they will always have the ambition to move people.

Julien’s inspiration always comes from an encounter; whether it is a person, a song, a phrase from a book or a place. From those encounters, Julien extracts sensations —such as textures, colours, raw materials— that will become the foundation of the story he has been creating in his mind. “I always take notes when something inspires me, just like an author takes notes from everyday life to use in their next script,” he declares. “Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with a new idea that I have just dreamed. When that happens, I feel like running to the lab and creating it immediately!”

When Julien first went to the Middle East, he fell in love with oriental perfumery. He discovered new codes of creation: perfumes made with intuition and passion. When IFF offered Julien the opportunity to join the team in the Middle East, he accepted enthusiastically, seeing all the potential and the new challenges the region would offer.

“ I knew I was moving to a region with a very rich perfume history, even older than the French one. But to be honest, I wasn’t expecting to fall so much for the region’s unique perfumery.”

As soon as Julien got on the plane, he was struck by unmistakable trails: intense, rich, impactful, distinctive…. Far from Dubai, he could already smell the beauty of the Middle East and the call of his new life…

Since 25 September 2023, Julien Rasquinet has been working at CPL Aromas.