Anne-Sophie Behaghel grew up in the Paris region among tarmac and concrete rather than gardens, and chose perfume as a way of connecting people. She trained under Monique Schlienger, a driving force in the rise of niche perfumery, and with Amélie Bourgeois and Martine Denisot set up Flair, a Paris creation studio with its own factory, Flair la matière.
She prefers friction to calm: abrasive synthetics, often overdosed, set against the finest naturals. With Bourgeois she wrote Room 1015 Power Ballad (2016) and the five molecule-led Æther perfumes for Nicolas Chabot. On her own she signed La Manufacture Cologne Précieuse (2014); Frapin If by R.K. (2019), a Mysore sandalwood tribute to Kipling shaped with Frapin's art director David Frossard; BDK Parfums Sel d'Argent (2020), a salted musk cologne drawn from BDK founder David Benedek's childhood summers at Porticcio in Corsica; and BORNTOSTANDOUT Sugar Addict. Mendittorosa Le Mat, with clove, geranium, rose and immortelle, earned five stars in the 2018 edition of Perfumes: The Guide.
For the Romanian artist Adi ale Van, who paints and makes every bottle, lid and box by hand at his atelier in Râmnicu Vâlcea, she composed Hai Hui, a 27 per cent extrait for the hippie years: pineapple, black pepper, peppermint and cardamom, then elemi, almond and fig, over vetiver and papyrus.
