Julien Rasquinet was drawn to scent from the age of 14, yet spent his youth painting, drawing and making theatre costumes and puppets. He took a business degree, and an internship in New York turned him towards perfume. His father met Pierre Bourdon by chance in an airport, and Bourdon took Rasquinet on as his last student, training him for three years.
After that training he founded his own fragrance house in Normandy. He worked independently in 2008 and 2009, spent five years at Creed, then from 2014 about a decade at IFF split between Dubai and Paris, much of it on Middle Eastern perfumery. He is now a senior perfumer at CPL Aromas in France. His credits include Naomi Goodsir Cuir Velours and Bois d'Ascèse (2012), Naomi Goodsir Iris Cendré (2015) and Amouage Enclave, a Musandam sunset in spearmint, cardamom, cinnamon, rose, vetiver and labdanum.
Creed Royal Oud comes from his Creed years. Frédéric Malle had kept an eye on him since Bourdon first spoke of him, and brought him into the Editions de Parfums on smelling the trial that became The Moon (2019): raspberry, lychee and saffron over frankincense, Turkish rose, oud and leather, the red fruit a nod to the fruit shisha smoked across the Middle East.
