Jean-Claude Ellena (born 1947) is a Frenchperfumer and writer. He served as the in-house perfumer at Hermes from 2004 and 2016, prior to the appointment of incumbent Christine Nagel. He has collaborated with other major brands such as Van Cleef & Arpels, Aqua di Parma, Bulgari, Sisley, Cartier, Frédéric Malle, The Different Company, or Le Couvent - Maison de Parfum.
At an early age, Ellena picked jasmine with his grandmother in Grasse to sell to perfumers.
Beginning with menial jobs, he became an apprentice at the factory of the essential oils maker Antoine Chiris in Grasse at the age 16 working on the night shift. He has reminisced, "Among other essential oils, we made a lot of oakmoss, and after I’d put the distiller on, I’d lie down on a bed of it and sleep".[1]
In 1968, he became the first student at what was at the time the newly formed perfumery school of Givaudan, one of the oldest perfume factories, in Geneva, Switzerland. He left Givaudan in 1976 with two others perfumers for Lautier in Grasse. In 1983, he joined Givaudan Paris as chief perfumer and Roure-Givandan and then he worked at Haarmaan & Reimer in Paris (which merged in 2003 with Dragoco to form Symrise). In 1990, he became one of the founding members of the Osmothèque, an international scent archive based in Versailles.[2]
Ellena has been profoundly influenced by pioneering perfumer Edmond Roudnitska, particularly by his article, "Advice to a Young Perfumer", in a magazine given to him by his father.[3]
Between 2004 and 2016 he was Hermès's exclusive in-house perfumer,[4] appointed by Jean-Louis Dumas and Véronique Gautier. He has created fragrances for several major perfume houses including The Different Company, which he founded before joining Hermès. His daughter Céline Ellena now creates for The Different Company.
In 2005, Ellena created Un Jardin sur le Nil for Hermès. The story behind the creation of this fragrance was the subject of the book The Perfect Scent: A Year in the Perfume Industry in Paris and New YorkbyChandler Burr.[5] In addition, the story in a limited form and accounts of other scents as well as his autobiography has been published in Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent. He is also a writer of "The Diary of a Nose: A Year in the Life of a Parfumeur."
In 2019, he became the exclusive "Director of Olfactory Creation" for the Maison de Parfums Le Couvent, for which he created a collection of 6 Signature Perfumes and co-signed around twenty other creations in collaboration with young perfumers until 2024.
Ellena left Hermes in 2016, and Swiss-born chemist and perfumer Christine Nagel replaced him as Hermes in-house perfumer.[6] Ellena's final fragrances for Hermes were Eau de Néroli Doré and Hermèssence Muguet Porcelaine.
In 2018 Ellena worked with the House of Houbigant, to recreate Essence Rare, a fragrance he had first signed in 1973, his first assignment as a young perfumer in New York.[7]
Ellena returned to creating for Editions de Parfum Frederic Malle, his latest work, "Rose & Cuir," debuting in September 2019.[8] He also became the olfactive director of the brand Le Couvent des Minimes.[9]
In 2019 Ellena also started an ongoing collaboration with Perris Monte Carlo, for whom he has created the Collection de Grasse,[10] an exclusive fragrance collection paying tribute to the history and unique craftmanship of the art of perfumery in Pays de Grasse.
Since 2019, Jean Claude Ellena is the Olfactory creation director of Le Couvent – Maison de Parfum. he created for and with Le Couvent a contemporary Haute Parfumerie rich and unique, luxurious and accessible, made from of noble and rare natural materials, 100% vegan: « Creating a Singular Haute Parfumerie accessible to all, working with beautiful materials and noble essences, is what seduced me at the Couvent. This vision of the extraordinary perfume that we share. A new approach, different from what we generally find. » J.C. Ellena
Ellena's father, brother, and daughter Celine are also perfumers.[3] Known for his signature white shirts, Ellena himself never wears perfume or cologne.
His daughter Celine designed the Hermès Home Fragrance Collection.
^Alexandra Marshall, "A Hermes Perfumer". The Wall Street Journal, 5 March 2009.
^Ellena, Jean-Claude. "Classification et Osmothèque – Séance Société Française des Parfumeurs (17 December 1990)”. Osmothèque: La mémoire vivante des parfums. Paris: Comité Français du Parfum. 1990. Print.
^ abJean-Claude Ellena, Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent. New York: Arcade, 2011. ISBN1-61145-330-5 (English translation of Parfum. Collection: Que sais-je? Paris: Presses Universitaires de France – PUF, 2007. ISBN978-2-13-056082-1)
