Paul Guerlain

Paul saw his future taking shape. He would become a perfumer. Yet as decisive and revelatory as his days in the laboratory were, they were not enough. Paul had to plead with his family to persuade them of his vocation. All parents want the best for their children. And Paul’s parents did not want to see him suffer from the burden of his name or be measured against the family history. They wanted him to take life as a terra incognita, an adventure all his own. Paul saw and felt the love behind his parents’ initial lack of support for his decision. And he accepted that he would always have to prove his love of fragrance and fight for his vocation. He is even extremely grateful to his parents because without them, he would not be sure whether becoming a perfumer was the easy option – or the only one. And now he does know. He also knows that his grandfather did not train him but rather revealed him to himself, almost by osmosis; he gave him the keys to his house and the opportunity to study with a wide range of IFF master perfumers, enabling him to develop his own olfactory palette, uninfluenced by his family history.