THE KEEPER OF MEMORIES

A conversation with French master perfumer Daphné Bugey details what exactly makes fragrances so powerful. Layered between each olfactive note is a memory tucked within.

- KELLY LEWI

SCENT IS A PECULIAR THING. It is fascinating how something so nearly ethereal can be so powerful in bringing back memories: places, moments, persons. Over the years, I have experienced my fair share of scents, or rather fragrances, that, if I were to smell them right now, will transport me back instantly across time. There were cheap colognes that I saved up to buy in my teenage years. After that, there was that bottle that encapsulated what it felt like to be a young adult, to have my first taste of freedom as I graduated from being a ‘child’. Then, there was that bottle that I had refused to touch after all this time, because a whiff of it brought me back to my first heartbreak.

There was a fragrance behind every chapter of my life and, behind these fragrances, is always a person whose nose unknowingly shaped my memories.

I quite recently had the opportunity to spend my morning with L’Artisan Parfumeur’s French master perfumer, Daphné Bugey. To her, perhaps, I am but another writer. To me, she is someone akin to shadows. Many are familiar with her perfumes and artistry, but only a handful may know who she is. Quite the odd predicament, though I secretly wondered if she knew the kind of impact she had. After all, who is to say her fragrances have not defined a part of someone’s life?