Nathalie Feisthauer

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Biography and career

Nathalie Feisthauer trained at the Roure perfumery school from 1983 to 1986. Her career began in 1990 in New York (USA), alongside Karyn Khoury, Ann Gottlieb and Clare Cain. That team produced Elysium for Clarins, Aramis Havana and Nuits Indiennes for Jean-Louis Scherrer.

In 1994 she moved back to her native France and stayed with Givaudan. There she created Must for Men for Cartier, Eau des Merveilles for Hermès and Versace Blondes. She also worked for Comme des Garçons, Diesel and État Libre d’Orange.

On 1 October 2008 she joined the fine fragrance team at Symrise in Paris (France) as senior perfumer. The Symrise release credited her with 20 years at Givaudan. In a 2020 interview she put the figure at 24, including four in New York.

Nez describes her as independent since 2014. She then set up her own studio, LAB Scent, which Premium Beauty News dates to around 2016. She left, she says, because the big houses no longer look for the best scent, but for “the one that will not displease anyone” [« celle qui ne déplaira à personne »].

Notable perfumes

Her best-documented work dates from her Givaudan years. Fragrance suppliers rarely publish launch years, so several dates remain open.

Other creations and awards

In November 2019, at the Russian FIFI Awards, she won Perfumer of the Year and a prize for Fluo_Ral by Nomenclature. Premium Beauty News noted it was her third FIFI since founding LAB Scent.

Putain des Palaces was one of nine fragrances État Libre d’Orange launched at once in 2006, signed by Nathalie Feisthauer, Antoine Lie and Antoine Maisondieu. Its individual attribution to Feisthauer rests on Fragrantica. Pelargonium, for Aedes de Venustas, is credited to her by ÇaFleureBon as a collaboration with Karl Bradl and Robert Gerstner.

Olfactory signature

Feisthauer defines niche as perfumery that follows a creator’s artistic vision, far from the more uniform offer of department stores. What she enjoys, she told Premium Beauty News in 2020, is to “retell a story, with an olfactory point of view” [« retranscrire une histoire, avec un parti-pris olfactif »].

Fluo_Ral shows the method. She wanted to pull calone away from its iodine, marine side and show it in a darker light. The cue was a photo of a night sea glittering with fluorescent algae. She dressed the molecule with rhubarb, blackcurrant, pink pepper and floral notes over a woody base led by incense.

At Maison Crivelli, the house describes Absinthe Boréale as an aromatic musk: juniper berry, eucalyptus, mint, lemon, lavender, artemisia and musks. She says her clients now come from the Gulf states, Russia, the United States and many European countries.

“I wanted to find meaning again by founding my laboratory.” [« J’ai donc voulu retrouver du sens en fondant mon laboratoire. »] Nathalie Feisthauer, Premium Beauty News, 2020

Key characteristics

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