Christine Nagel

Nagel began her career in the research department of Swiss fragrance firm Firmenich, where she became enchanted with the strong emotional reactions a male perfumer colleague's work elicited from the women smelling it. The perfumer was Alberto Morillas, one of the giants of the perfume industry.[6] Nagel asked to transfer to the perfumery section, but lacking the traditional background was told no and switched to chromatography instead, examining fragrances and their ingredient recipes on a molecular level.[2] Subsequently, this has become a mechanized process but Nagel was one of the few in the world trained to recognize ingredients using only her nose.[6]

Unable to advance any further at Firmenich, Nagel moved to Italy to strike out on her own. Within a year she held 60 percent of Italy's perfume contracts, including work for Fendi and Versace.[2] She moved to Paris in 1997.[7]

Nagel's bona fides were established through a versatile array of major hits like her 2003 collaboration with Francis Kurkdjian, Narciso Rodriguez for Her,[2] the 2005 strawberry-and-popcorn confection Miss Dior Chérie,[7] and fruity gourmand Armani Sì (2013); luxury lines like Guerlain's Les Élixirs Charnels;[8] as well as niche perfume creations like 2011's “bizarre yet fascinating” Archive 69 for Etat Libre d'Orange, a camphorous rose and incense scent, and Wood Sage & Sea Salt (2014) for Jo Malone, a skin scent of salt lingering on the body after a day at the beach.[4] (Nagel also created 46 other scents for Jo Malone,[7] including the more conventional bestseller English Pear & Freesia in 2010.)[8]

In 2014, Nagel went in-house at Hermès, joining Jean-Claude Ellena who had become the brand's first house perfumer in 2004. In 2016 Ellena, nearing retirement, handed the reins to Nagel and she became the sole in-house perfumer at Hermès and the director of olfactive creations for Hermès Parfums.[4][9] This made her the second woman ever to hold an in-house perfumer position at a major luxury brand (the first was Mathilde Laurent at Cartier).[10]

Two of Nagel's first Hermès releases were Galop (2016),[5] a rose and leather scent inspired by Doblis, a suede-like leather kept in the Hermès vault-like cave of archival leather in Paris,.[4] and Twilly (2017), a youthful fragrance that added ginger as a twist on a classic tuberose note.[4][11] Critic Tania Sanchez (co-author of Perfumes: The Guide) said this made for a totally new perfume accord, "an androgynous fougere of fantastic beauty”.[4] Other early Hermès fragrances include Eau des Merveilles Bleue (2017), a minéral and woody marine scent,[1] and two additions to the Hermès line of colognes, Eau de Rhubarbe Écarlate (2016)[12] and Eau de Citron Noir (2018).[4]