Olivia Giacobetti | Perfumer

The small details of life, captured as a fragrance atmosphere

Olivia Giacobetti trained at Robertet before founding her own perfume laboratory, Iska. Her work has explored the possibility of translating fleeting impressions into scent: a mood, an attitude or a small detail from everyday life and nature.

She is particularly associated with the development of fig accords, including their use in home fragrance. Rather than presenting an ingredient only as a recognisable note, her compositions consider the atmosphere around it and the emotion it can suggest.

Her collaboration with Frédéric Malle began in 2000 and produced En Passant, a luminous, intimate fragrance that captures the feeling of a passing moment. Their later work included an iris hand cream, extending the same creative dialogue into another format. Giacobetti’s practice gives perfume a role close to that of a photograph: selecting an impression and preserving something of its character while allowing each person to encounter it through their own memories.