Ralf Schwieger

It all began in Germany, in a forested region near Hanover. During the summer, the young man helped a friend's parents to create window displays for a perfume shop. He collected dummies. At university, although he could have gone into applied arts and jewellery design, he opted for the natural sciences and moved to Berlin. During his studies, he specialised in perfume chemistry. He was then admitted to the Roure school in Grasse, where he was introduced to the profession of perfumer. The only French words he knew at the time belonged to the vocabulary of his favourite cuisine, which he readily compared to composition: "In both cases, you act as an enhancer of sensations, often with spices or aromatics, from a raw base".
After a spell in chromatography, Ralf joined the fine fragrance team in Paris. There he developed a taste for ingredients that evoke the skin, such as mousses with woody and phenolic facets, but also animalic notes, to which he brings a vintage and sophisticated touch. The notoriously addictive nature of his creations makes you want to smell them again and again, without ever being overpowering, a subtle balance that neither satisfies nor stagnates.
So he often avoids materials that are a little too fashionable. He likes to turn to forgotten ingredients or little-used notes. It's in this unexpected palette that he finds ever more modernity for formulas that breathe and soar. Anachronistic, Ralf likes to blur the boundaries of masculine and feminine genders in his compositions, because for him, they have been artificially affixed: "What counts is that there is enough tension to form a core of attraction".
An integral part of the MANE team since 2008, Ralf has forged privileged relationships with niche brands, while putting his creativity at the service of as many people as possible. Without taboos or limits, he knows how to make himself accessible through sincerity.