Chris Maurice signs his perfumes with one of his two real names; the other, Christian Carbonnel, gives the family away. His grandfather Maurice Carbonnel, a French perfumer, moved to Spain to produce essential oils, worked in Alicante from 1921 and founded Carbonnel in 1925. The company now sits in Barcelona, and Christian is its third generation. He trained under his father, who made dense oriental perfumes for the Middle East, the smells of his childhood.
That upbringing still shows: he favours woods and incense and never wears a fresh cologne. After more than twenty years in the family firm, where he remains a director, he opened his own studio, C De La Niche, in 2019 to compose for independent brands. He has worked for Xerjoff, Nishane, Masque Milano and Zoologist, whose Zoologist Camel is his. Some houses print Chris Maurice because Christian Carbonnel of Carbonnel reads as one name too many.
Much of his work is for Xerjoff and its Casamorati line. Xerjoff Erba Gold (2016) is his: bergamot, lemon and mandarin over a fruity heart, on musk, vanilla and amber. So is Casamorati Lira (2011), a gourmand of blood orange, lavender, cinnamon and caramel that revives a Casamorati perfume from the late nineteenth century. He composed Xerjoff Alexandria II in 2012, with apple, lavender and rosewood over amber, sandalwood and Laotian oud.
