Overview
Alienor Massenet
The nose who reinvents leather as something luminous, from Memo Paris's Russian Leather.
- Nationality
- French (of Hungarian origin)
- Training
- Cinquième Sens perfumery school, Paris (under Monique Schlienger)
- House
- Symrise
- 7In database
- 5Houses
- 7.5Top rated
Biography
Aliénor Massenet is a French perfumer of Hungarian origin who came up through a family of painters and scientists before formally studying the craft. As a young woman she trained at the Cinquième Sens perfumery school in Paris under Monique Schlienger while also pursuing art history, a dual grounding that shows in the way she talks about scent as both structure and image.
She built the bulk of her career at IFF, where she worked from the mid-1990s and studied alongside senior figures such as Sophia Grojsman, before moving to Symrise around 2016 as a senior perfumer. She is best known to fragrance enthusiasts for a long, ongoing partnership with Memo Paris that stretches back to the house's early years.
Her signature is often described in terms of contrast: bright, almost solar openings set against darker, resinous materials like labdanum and myrrh, and a habit of treating leather as a warm, wearable accord rather than a heavy one. Beyond Memo's leather-focused line she has also composed widely admired scents for houses including Maison Margiela and Viktor & Rolf.
Signature works
6 of 7Notes & accords
- leather
- labdanum
- myrrh
Every fragrance by Alienor7
Jazz Club
Maison Martin Margiela7.55 collectorsAfrican Leather
Memo Paris3 collectorsWinter Palace
Memo Paris2 collectorsI See the Clouds Go By
Floraïku1 collectorInlé
Memo Paris1 collectorItalian Leather
Memo Paris1 collectorOne Umbrella for Two
Floraïku1 collector