Perfumer
Jean Jacques is a perfumer and a pianist, and until 2024 he was Caron’s house perfumer. For L'Orchestre he made Piano Santal, a soft woody perfume of sandalwood, cedar and warm milk.
Asked at his ISIPCA entrance exam in Versailles why he wanted to be a perfumer, he said he was a pianist, though he knew almost nothing about perfume then. He graduated in 1992, and his first boss and mentor was Pierre Bourdon. After four years at Kao he spent twenty-two at Takasago, where he made Gentlemen Only for Givenchy. Piano Santal was his last perfume there. He joined Caron in 2019.
He likes simple perfumes with nothing extra in them, and he is rarely fully happy with his own work. He puts a soft, warm ambery note in almost every perfume, because it reminds him of a childhood comfort blanket, crumpled sheets and a mother’s milk. He has to stop himself using too much of it, he says. That’s why Piano Santal is soft and warm too.
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