Mathilde Bijaoui is a perfumer at Mane. Her first scent memories are domestic: Dior Eau Sauvage on her father, Guerlain Habit Rouge on her piano teacher, and L'Artisan Parfumeur Mûre et Musc, which she wore herself from sixteen to twenty. Guerlain Vétiver caught her as a teenager in the late 1990s, and at ISIPCA she made it the subject of her postgraduate diploma, rebuilding it by nose, analysing it by chromatography and, a year later, sketching a feminine version around iris.
Wood and spice are the two families she reaches for most, with no thought for gender, which once earned her the nickname Spice Girl. Musk ketone ran through her early formulas until regulation reined it in, and a Mane sourcing partnership took her to Madagascar to watch vetiver cut, dried and distilled. Her credits include Etat Libre d'Orange Like This (2010), built on a pumpkin accord with ginger and immortelle, Lalique Hommage à l'Homme (2012) with Christine Nagel, BDK Parfums Oud Abramad (2016) and Gris Charnel, and La Cérémonie de l'Encens for L'Artisan Parfumeur, drawn from kōdō, the Japanese incense ceremony.
Jo Malone London Myrrh & Tonka came out in January 2017 in the Cologne Intense line: a unisex amber with lavender at the top, myrrh at its heart and tonka bean with a trace of almond underneath.
