Perfumer

Calice Becker

The nose behind Dior J'Adore

Nationality: French
Born: 1964 · Paris, France
Training: Roure perfumery school, Grasse (École Jean Carles curriculum)
House: Givaudan

In our database
14
fragrances
Active since
1985
Houses
15
worked with
Recognition
2
awards

Calice Becker was born in Paris to a family of Russian émigrés who had settled in France after the Revolution, and she has said her fascination with scent began in early childhood. She trained as a perfumer at the Roure school in Grasse in the mid-1980s, studying under the Ecole Jean Carles curriculum before starting her career at Roure Bertrand Dupont in 1985.

Becker built her reputation through the late 1980s and 1990s working for Quest International, where in 1999 she composed Christian Dior's J'Adore — a fragrance credited with defining the modern fruity-floral genre and later inducted into Dior's fragrance Hall of Fame. Earlier in her career she also created Tommy Hilfiger's Tommy Girl, one of the best-selling launches of the 1990s, cementing her standing as one of the industry's most influential women perfumers.

She subsequently joined Givaudan, where she has spent the bulk of her career and now holds the title of Vice President Perfumer. Since 2017 she has directed the Givaudan Perfumery School in Grasse, training the next generation of noses, and she has also served for several years as president of the Société Internationale des Parfumeurs Créateurs, an advocacy body for perfumers as creative authors. Beyond her Dior and Tommy Hilfiger work, her portfolio spans houses including Calvin Klein, Estée Lauder, Versace, Tom Ford, Balmain, Donna Karan and By Kilian, with a style she herself describes as favoring harmony and smoothness over harsh, aggressive compositions.

In recognition of her body of work, Becker received France's Médaille de Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2019 and The Fragrance Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Perfumer Award in 2021.