Jerome Epinette

Biography and career

Jerome Epinette was born and raised in Burgundy (France), a wine region whose attention to terroir he has often cited as his first sensory education (Now Smell This perfumer profile, accessed 2026-05-25). He started not in a perfumery lab but in a chemistry classroom, earning a Master's degree in biochemistry at the University of Burgundy in Dijon (France). The switch to perfumery happened in his twenties, when he chose to add a formal craft training to his scientific background.

Epinette joined the Grasse Institute of Perfumery in Grasse (France), the school founded in 2002 in the historic French perfumery cradle. The Grasse Institute curriculum, structured around raw materials, accord construction and brand briefing, gave him the technical foundation that his biochemistry degree complemented (Wikiparfum perfumer profile, accessed 2026-05-25). The pairing of biochemistry and Grasse remains relatively rare among French perfumers of his generation, most of whom come from ISIPCA, the Givaudan school or the Roure school.

In 2003, Epinette joined Robertet, the family-owned French fragrance and flavor company founded in 1850 in Grasse (France). He started at the Paris office and worked on early briefs for designer and lifestyle clients. In 2006, he was part of the team that opened Robertet's Creative Center in New York (United States), the company's American hub for fine fragrance composition (LinkedIn professional profile, accessed 2026-05-25; Glossy 50 profile, 2025). He has been based in New York since.

The partnership that defined his international reputation began in 2008, when Ben Gorham launched Byredo in Stockholm (Sweden). Epinette composed the brand's early signature scents and has remained Byredo's historic perfumer ever since, signing the majority of the catalogue alongside occasional collaborations with Olivia Giacobetti (Fragrantica nose profile, accessed 2026-05-25). The Byredo work brought him a steady stream of niche briefs and helped position him as one of the most in-demand perfumers in the American niche market.

Epinette is currently Vice President fine fragrance perfumer at Robertet and was named to the Glossy 50 list in 2025 for his industry influence (Glossy 50 profile, 2025). He is a two-time winner of the Fragrance Foundation Perfume Extraordinaire of the Year award, the major American professional distinction. Beyond Byredo, his client roster covers Atelier Cologne, Olfactive Studio, Frapin, Victoria Beckham Beauty and several mainstream lifestyle accounts such as L'Occitane en Provence and Victoria's Secret.

Olfactive signature

Jerome Epinette's olfactive signature is built on woody architectures, with patchouli, sandalwood, cedar and vetiver returning across his catalogue as structural materials rather than as decorative base notes. He has described this preference repeatedly in interviews, framing the woods as the spine of a composition rather than a finishing touch (System Magazine, Beauty Issue 1 interview with Alberto Morillas and Jerome Epinette, accessed 2026-05-25). The approach is recognizable across both his frontal compositions, such as Bal d'Afrique or Mojave Ghost, and his quieter ones.

His writing favors a short, legible formula. He has stated that his briefs often start from a single image or material, with the rest of the composition designed to carry it without crowding the reading (Now Smell This perfumer profile, accessed 2026-05-25). This editorial logic matches the Byredo creative direction set by Ben Gorham, who builds collections around memory references and material monographs rather than around classical accord vocabulary. The clean reading of Gypsy Water around juniper, pine and incense, or of Mojave Ghost around magnolia, violet and sandalwood, illustrates this short-formula discipline.

Epinette has also shown a consistent taste for transparent floral woody compositions, where a single floral material is paired with a woody dry-down. Bal d'Afrique (2009) does this with neroli and African violet over vetiver and musk; Mojave Ghost (2014) does it with magnolia and violet over sandalwood and ambergris (Fragrantica perfume pages, accessed 2026-05-25). The recurrence places him alongside other contemporary French perfumery noses such as Olivia Giacobetti or Dominique Ropion, who also work the transparent floral woody register, while keeping a recognizable warmth that distinguishes his writing from the cooler Hermes school.

I always start from a single image or a single material. The rest of the formula is built to carry it without disguising it.

Key characteristics

Notable perfumes

Epinette's catalogue runs to several dozen compositions, dominated by his Byredo signature since 2008. The selection below lists six creations.

Gypsy Water (Byredo, 2008) remains the most cited entry point to the Byredo catalogue, with juniper, lemon and bergamot opening over iris, incense, sandalwood, amber and vanilla (Fragrantica perfume page, accessed 2026-05-25). Bal d'Afrique (2009) built his international reputation as a niche perfumer with its floral woody architecture of neroli, African marigold, violet, vetiver and musk. Mojave Ghost (2014) remains a benchmark of his transparent floral woody writing. Cafe Tuberosa (Atelier Cologne, 2017) pairs coffee, tuberose and cacao on a patchouli base, and earned the Fragrance Foundation Perfume Extraordinaire of the Year award (Cafleurebon review, accessed 2026-05-25). Vanille Antique (Byredo, 2022), part of the relaunched Night Veils extrait collection, builds plum and musk over white wood, labdanum, vanilla and amber (Fragrantica perfume page, accessed 2026-05-25).

Current work

Epinette continues to operate from the Robertet Creative Center in New York (United States), where he holds the title of Vice President fine fragrance perfumer. His current production splits across niche houses, contemporary indie launches and a small number of designer accounts, all routed through the Robertet roster (LinkedIn professional profile, accessed 2026-05-25). The American base also gives him close working access to the New York-based independent perfumery ecosystem and the Los Angeles celebrity beauty market.

His recent niche work centers on the ongoing Byredo cycle, including Bal d'Afrique Absolu (2025) and Gypsy Water Absolu (2026), which revisit the historic compositions in extrait concentrations (Fragrantica news, accessed 2026-05-25). The Night Veils collection relaunched in 2022 has also brought him back to a denser, more resinous register with Vanille Antique. Beyond Byredo, the Atelier Cologne client account remains active, alongside Olfactive Studio and Frapin.

He has also become one of the named perfumers behind the wave of celebrity-led beauty houses launching since 2020 for Victoria Beckham Beauty fragrance lines (WWD perfumer profile, accessed 2026-05-25). The combination of niche heritage, designer briefs and celebrity launches places him at an unusual crossroads in the contemporary American niche perfumery market, where pure niche, mainstream lifestyle and celebrity-led houses increasingly share the same composer roster.

Frequently asked questions

Five questions that come up repeatedly about Jerome Epinette, his training and his composition work for Byredo and Atelier Cologne.

See also

Four Osmetheca resources to extend the reading on Jerome Epinette, Byredo and contemporary niche perfumery.