French Super Nose

Perfumer Barnabé Fillion, long-term fragrance collaborator of Aesop, on the art of perfumery and his new eau de parfum for the Aussie skincare brand

- Amos Chin

PERFUMER BARNABE FILLION is a synesthete; he experiences life with all his senses. He can hear colours, feel sounds, and taste shapes which explains his finesse in creating conceptualised and unprecedented scents.

Since he discovered his passion for fragrance-making whilst studying botany and phytology, the French ex-model and photographer has been diving deep into the art of perfumery. Fillion even became the protégé of influential noses like Christine Nagel of Hermes. It wasn't long after when he met Dennis Paphitis, the founder of Aesop, marking the start of his long-standing partnership with the Australian brand.

Broadening his horizons, Fillion continued to undertake diverse fragrance collaborations with art projects to fashion brands like Rick Owens and Paul Smith, incessantly researching new scent design methods to push the limits of perfumery. In 2020, he launched Arpa, a research project exploring the sensory basis of consciousness and sense-blending potential, such as the flavour of light”, the brand elaborates on its website. At Arpa, we experience the future of fragrance with all of our senses. You will listen to the scent.”

Most recently, the perfumer announced his return to Aesop with a new fragrance: Gloam Eau de Parfum, the fifth instalment of his iconic Othertopias collection and the ninth eau de parfum in Aesop's fragrance range. Centred on the divan a horizontal portal for self-observation Gloam conjures the dreamscape, where imagination enters, and the waking world recedes. Here the familiar collides with the uncanny, in a fragrance that blends the tangible and the illusive: rich florals, warm spice and a bed of wooded depths combine to invoke reverie, rousing the senses and enchanting the mind.