I grew up in a suburb of Paris called Saint Germain en-Laye with my family. For me, the scent of home is the scent of my mother because she always wore a fragrance called ‘Paloma Picasso’, which had a chypre and rose aroma. Perhaps this is why I have an addiction to chypre and rose in the ‘For Her’ line as well. It reminds me of the smell of my mother. It is a comforting smell.

I grew up in a house with a garden, so the smell of flowers, and I also loved the smell of cut grass.  My father would cut the grass on Sunday morning and I could smell it along with the oily smell of the grass-cutting machine. My grandmother would cook apples, almonds, cinnamon, and dried grapes together; I also love this smell. It was a great comfort to me in my childhood.

Family is definitely the smell of my kids. When breastfeeding my kids, I loved the smell on the top of their heads; it is a very specific smell. Also, with breastfeeding, there is the smell of milk. The smell of milk is milky from lactones, with a hint of vanilla, and a green note as well.

In the beginning, I wanted to isolate the scent molecules of my kids. But then I realized it was an odor that was too beautiful. When I analyze a smell, when I discover the ingredients and molecules, it ruins a bit of the magic. I didn’t want that to happen with this smell, I wanted to keep it as it is.

I think I was always a creative person. Creation is about urgency for me. It’s something I need. It’s something that is a part of me. I need to create. I need this creation process. It is my passion. It gives me life. Sometimes it’s too much because my brain is continuously creating. I feel fireworks in my mind. Everything I see becomes a source of inspiration. It’s like synesthesia where I transform what I see into smell. It is immediate. I have to practice meditation to soothe my mind, otherwise, it becomes crowded with too many things and it becomes very tiring. Meditation is an off-button for my brain. So, the scent of creativity to me is fireworks. It’s something that bursts. It goes alongside the feeling of being alive.

The scent of love for me is a scent I created for Narciso Rodriguez called ‘Bleu Noir’. When I created this fragrance I created it for a man because I was passionately in love with him at the time. It was a very strong feeling that I had never had before. When Narciso Rodriguez revealed the image of the ‘For Him Bleu Noir’ campaign, the silhouette was a shadow of a man and this silhouette was so similar to the man I was in love with that it frightened me. Love is a source of inspiration for me when I create. I put so much passion and energy into it.

Happiness for me is grapefruit. I love the duality of its bitterness and acidity. This smell brings me joy.

Salt, because of my tears. I am a very emotional person with up and down feelings. When I’m happy I’m very happy and when I’m sad I’m very sad.

It is the scent of pure musk. This smell is a smell of tenderness. It’s like being surrounded by a cotton cloud or a cocoon. It’s very pure, white, and comforting. For me, it’s super relaxing.

Definitely oud. I know it’s very common here, but I am Parisian. Every time I smell oud, whether I’m in India or the Middle East, it always smells very different from what I am used to in my culture. It is a link to travel for me. It’s a strong scent.

I would say ‘For Her Forever’. It was exciting to create a new chapter of ‘For Her’, one that is more luminescent, more immaculate. It was very exciting to revisit this fragrance. Excitement can also be champagne bubbles, it gives a feeling of celebration. I can link both to excitement.

There is a fragrance from my own brand, Ella K called ‘Camelia K’ that is for me a fragrance that makes me feel like a stronger avatar of myself, more confident, more seductive, more bright, more everything. This fragrance I created to achieve a feeling just like this. 

Wood and Musk noir. For me, wood gives power, especially to women, because it comes from a masculine side. Leather also gives a feeling of power.

There are many bad smells [laughs] but I really hate the smell of mothballs. It smells like bad breath, or like death. I also hate vulgarity, and I think there can be vulgar smells that are cheap, too fruity, too sugary. It appeals in a very obvious way, but not in an elegant way. This is something to avoid, definitely.