Delphine Lebeau-Krowiak

Parc Montsouris, Paris, on a cold but sunny winter afternoon. This is where Delphine's heart beats strongest, in her adored and wonderful childhood without equal, a source of joy and nostalgia where it all began: "This is the mental realm of my perfume story, where my true home was born, those totally carefree childhood years finding delight in the little things". Delphine's ancestors were Spanish and Italian. She grew up in the streets surrounding the Parc Montsouris with a bunch of cousins. It was a carefree time, full of joy and sharing, as bright as the light of her ancestors' southern climes.
He began to study medicine, following in his father's footsteps, but he missed too much expressing his creative side. The lack of freedom of expression and imagination was too painful for him, so he entrusted his future to fate and went to a library, where an article on professional perfumers caught his eye. Perfume didn't really exist for me before that article. In fact, that was what I liked about it: discovering something new, unknown and mysterious. Delphine threw herself headlong into the new adventure: she studied chemistry, worked in quality control at Guerlain and enrolled at the Givaudan Roure School of Perfumery. In retrospect, she remembers that she was always sensitive to scents in her own way, with a sense of smell closely linked to her sense of touch. But is a rational explanation always necessary? "My mother would take me to the market and I would pick everything up to smell it, which annoyed the stall owners, who told me not to touch. They didn't like it and I liked going to the perfume shops. There was something magical about them, like the powders of my grandmother, who used Guerlain's Météorites. Orris and rice powders have a nostalgic side that I love, without really knowing why. It's an emotion, it's not something I can rationalise or explain, it's just the way it is.
At the perfumery school, Delphine found her tribe: "The eight of us lived in a sort of bubble in a magnificent listed building in Grasse, with a big fireplace and a large terrace overlooking the lower town. We joked a lot and, although it was hard being away from our families, we had a great time and were the best of friends. They were very strict. They didn't want us to formulate fragrances from scratch. First we had to learn the basic raw materials and work out the chords, then analyse classic fragrances. In the meantime, we couldn't wait to get started, so we did it in secret. Delphine knew this was the place for her. She felt at home, in touch with herself, and that confidence gave her a solid foundation to face all the ups and downs she was going to encounter in an industry constantly shaken by mergers and acquisitions.