Pierre Négrin was born in Grasse, where both of his grandfathers dealt in fragrance materials, and childhood visits to their stores put him among jasmine and roses early. He first meant to be a photographer, until a summer internship with a perfumer friend turned him from the camera to the lab. He never went to perfumery school and learned the trade in laboratories. In the early 1990s he left France for Mexico, later moved to the United States, and in 2008 joined Firmenich's fine fragrance centre in New York.
Earthy smells anchor his work: cistus, the sea, eucalyptus on hot coastal ground. Mexico and New York shaped his Amouage compositions, which lean on dense resins and absolutes. His credits include Kayali Elixir 11, Alexander McQueen Everlasting Dream, Michael Kors Sky Blossom and Jennifer Aniston Silver, and for Amouage, Interlude Man, Remain and Elsewhere.
Amouage Interlude Man is his: oregano, pimento berry and bergamot over frankincense, amber, cistus and opoponax, with smoky oud, leather, patchouli and sandalwood underneath. Interlude 53 is the house's reworking of it at 53 per cent perfume oil, macerated for sixteen weeks and matured for eight more at the Muscat factory, keeping the oregano, frankincense and leather at its core.
