Olivier Cresp was born in 1955 in Grasse, into a family with generations of ties to the local raw-materials trade — his father and grandfather both worked as brokers of essential oils and natural extracts. That upbringing put him around flowers and aromatic ingredients from childhood, and he moved into the industry himself in the mid-1970s, training in aroma chemicals and natural extracts at Biddle Sawyer in the United States before returning to France to work at De Laire and then Quest International.

Cresp joined Firmenich in 1992, the same year he composed Thierry Mugler's Angel. Built around an unusually generous dose of the food-flavor molecule ethyl maltol paired with patchouli, Angel is widely credited as the perfume that established the modern gourmand category, and it remains the creation most closely associated with his name. He was named a Firmenich Master Perfumer in 2006, a rank held by only a small circle of the house's most senior noses.

Over a career spanning five decades, Cresp has built a catalogue running to well over a hundred fragrances across fashion, niche, and mass-market brands, frequently collaborating with fellow perfumers such as Alberto Morillas, Annick Ménardo, and Nathalie Lorson. His output ranges from playful gourmand and fruity-floral compositions to sheer, ozonic florals, reflecting a stated preference for pursuing one strong idea at a time rather than chasing trends across many projects at once.

France recognized his contribution to the craft by naming him a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 2012, and in 2018 The Fragrance Foundation honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Perfumer Award. He continues to work out of Firmenich's (now dsm-firmenich) fine fragrance studio and is known within the industry for mentoring younger perfumers.