Portrait of a determined perfumer
She never stops creating or traveling. With a solid background in personal care, perfumer Violaine Collas has mastered a highly reliable technique that is evident in the structure of all her creations. A perfumer with insatiable curiosity, she trained under the industry’s greats (to name but a few: Bertrand Duchaufour, Maurice Roucel, and Dominique Ropion). One of her key qualities? Her authenticity.
A senior perfumer at Mane following many years at Symrise, Violaine Collas loves to touch people’s hearts and explore themes of olfactory addiction and collective memory. She creates fragrances for brands ranging from Margiela to Dolce & Gabbana, while also giving pride of place to niche perfumery with striking creations like Black Mango for Born To Stand Out—one of the year’s standout hits—and Pas Ce Soir Extrait for BDK. The latter embodies a woman who is human, alluring, and self-assured—someone who won’t be pushed around… much like the perfumer herself.
Dear Violaine,
Could you tell us about your journey?
I wanted to become a perfumer at a very young age—around twelve. I was fascinated by the power of scents—by the fact that you could associate a fragrance with a person the moment they walked into a room, and that smelling it could bring that person back to life anywhere else. Even houses had a specific scent when I stepped inside. Through perfumes—and scents in general—you could travel, and see people without actually seeing them.
That incredible power still captivates me today.
Very early on, I told my mother, “There are people who create your perfume. I want to be one of them.” She understood that this—and nothing else—was what I would do. Later, I was fortunate enough to meet Bertrand Duchaufour, who helped me get a foot in the door at Florasynth even before I started at ISIPCA.
I imagine you can learn a great deal from a perfumer like Bertrand Duchaufour…
Yes. Especially since, at the time, there were also great perfumers like Dominique Ropion and Jean-Louis Sieuzac at Florasynth. I used to go there every Tuesday evening to smell raw materials, analyze them in detail, and memorize them. I was very diligent—I never missed a single Tuesday evening. After passing the entrance exam for ISIPCA, they offered me an internship and then hired me for a work-study program. Dominique became my mentor throughout my three years at ISIPCA.
I spent a year in Germany before completing my apprenticeship in New York. By then, the company had become Symrise. I joined the Personal Care division in Paris. I really enjoyed it; I find that area very playful, and it gave me valuable technical skills.
What do you learn in Personal Care?
How to create fragrances that are easily « readable »—conveying a clear message and delivering pleasure—which consumers can instinctively understand and make their own.
I feel that the consumer has a choice between something accessible—something that evokes a memory or a sense of comfort—and something more complex that tells a story.
At Maison Margiela, for instance, the approach is to offer fragrances that tell stories—resonating with our collective memory—in a way that is both sophisticated and immediately recognizable. For me, it is always an advantage to select raw materials that consumers already know or that conjure up evocative, dreamlike images. However, novelty or innovation, when well explained, can also be intriguing and appealing.
Let’s go back to your career path. How did your return to fine fragrance come about?
Maurice Roucel invited me to come and work alongside him as a team. I would say that Dominique Ropion taught me technique and creative freedom, while Maurice taught me to remain true to myself—regardless of whether others liked it or not. That allowed me to always maintain my integrity and feel comfortable in my own skin. Then, I joined Mane in 2011.
Why Mane?
I wanted to join Mane because it is a French company that produces beautiful natural raw materials. I believe it is important to champion French perfumery expertise within a family-owned business.
Which of your various experiences have been the most significant?
Meeting Bertrand, Dominique, and Maurice. They all have different personalities, yet they are all driven by the same passion. Those encounters were pivotal in my life.
What are your biggest challenges right now as a perfumer?
The current challenge is time. I find that development periods are getting longer and longer. A great deal of time can elapse between the start of a project and its completion. Sometimes it’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that you’re working on a project that won’t launch for another five years. The scent still has to appeal to people by then… And yet, paradoxically, we have less and less time in our day-to-day work!
What are your strengths?
I’m also very curious; I draw a lot of inspiration from travel, art, and cooking, in particular. And I’m a perfectionist—very resilient and tenacious, with a bit of a « Penelope » quality: if something needs to be done over, I do it over.
That’s a rather rare quality…
Many people think having to start over is a failure. I never view it that way. Sometimes a note doesn’t lead to a creation right away, but it might if you revisit it ten years later. Sometimes you just have to start again because you didn’t take the right approach. To me, failure would be giving up.
What do you most enjoy working on?
What I really love working on is creating that sense of addiction—like the way a child is attached to their comfort blanket. They can’t do without that scent; they love it, even if it doesn’t always smell particularly pleasant! When crafting a fragrance, the goal is to achieve that kind of addictive quality—the kind that resonates on a deep level. These addictive notes evolve over time. After years of working on gourmand and intensely sweet fruity scents, the focus today has shifted toward naturalness—capturing the green nuances of a strawberry or a freshly picked raspberry. At the same time, we are also developing new gourmand profiles that are highly textured or even savory.
Which of your creations are the most popular?
Right now, people are talking a lot about Black Mango by Born to Stand Out and Brioche Vanille by Lattafa, as well as my ongoing work for BDK, Maison Margiela, and Dolce & Gabbana.
Which creation are you most proud of?
Black Mango, because it embodies a bold vision that was present from the very first trials: a contrast between a mouth-watering mango note and a very animalic oud.
What do you see as the key challenges for the future of perfumery?
The fragrance market has become a blend of the global and the local, with cross-influences—particularly from the Middle East.
What do you mean by that?
Middle Eastern olfactory culture is inspiring Western brands. Meanwhile, Middle Eastern brands are moving toward new directions—for instance, by putting a fresh spin on Western conventions. Asia is calling for the development of notes that work well in both Asian and Middle Eastern markets. Cultures travel and feed into one another, often with a time lag of a few years.
What accounts for this lag?
It is the time required for markets to discover and embrace new olfactory preferences.
Could one say that it meets needs—such as those in France—that previously went unfulfilled?
I’m not sure. What is certain is that Middle Eastern fragrances have opened up new avenues.
If you could create a fragrance for a personality of your choice, who would it be and why?
I would have loved to create a fragrance for Alexander McQueen. Everything he did was incredible. The way he constructed and deconstructed… There is something fascinating about his work. I also loved his way of expressing himself—being politically incorrect in a highly creative manner. The man himself resonated with me deeply.
What kind of fragrance would you create for him?
Something quite comforting—something that would allow him to love himself. I would play with leather and notes that evoke the color red, like spices… It would have to be something completely deconstructed.
If you were to co-create a fragrance with another perfumer, who would it be and why?
I work a lot with Julie Massé. Together, we always strive to give our best in a spirit of simplicity. Julie is a consistently joyful person, which makes the experience very pleasant. What’s more, we complement each other perfectly; we enrich one another.
What are your future plans?
My future plans always involve new travels!
August, 3rd 2025
Crédits photos
Portraits 1 &2 : Mathieu Dortomb
Livre sur Alexander McQueen par Véronique Bergen
