Christine Nagel

Two of Nagel's first Hermès releases were Galop (2016), a rose and leather scent inspired by Doblis, a suede-like leather kept in the Hermès vault-like cave of archival leather in Paris,. and Twilly (2017), a youthful fragrance that added ginger as a twist on a classic tuberose note. Critic Tania Sanchez (co-author of Perfumes: The Guide) said this made for a totally new perfume accord, "an androgynous fougere of fantastic beauty”. Other early Hermès fragrances include Eau des Merveilles Bleue (2017), a minéral and woody marine scent, and two additions to the Hermès line of colognes, Eau de Rhubarbe Écarlate (2016) and Eau de Citron Noir (2018).

In 2015, the Marie Claire International Fragrance Awards honored Nagel's creation Wood Sage & Sea Salt for Jo Malone as the year's most daring fragrance for women.

In 2014, Nagel went in-house at Hermès, joining Jean-Claude Ellena who had become the brand's first house perfumer in 2004. In 2016 Ellena, nearing retirement, handed the reins to Nagel and she became the sole in-house perfumer at Hermès and the director of olfactive creations for Hermès Parfums. This made her the second woman ever to hold an in-house perfumer position at a major luxury brand (the first was Mathilde Laurent at Cartier).

In 2007, Nagal won the Prix François Coty (then briefly retitled the Cosmetic Valley's International Fragrance Prize, but since returned to its original name).

In 2005, Nagel and Kurkdjian won the Fragrance Foundation France Award (called the FiFi Awards) for best women's fragrance for Narciso Rodriguez for Her. In 2012 they were recognized again for this fragrance with the “Twenty Years of Creativity” Prize at the 20th anniversary of the FiFi Awards: Narciso Rodriguez for Her was selected as the most iconic women's fragrance of the 20 the Foundation had honored with its annual prize over its 20-year history.

Nagel's bona fides were established through a versatile array of major hits like her 2003 collaboration with Francis Kurkdjian, Narciso Rodriguez for Her, the 2005 strawberry-and-popcorn confection Miss Dior Chérie, and fruity gourmand Armani Sì (2013); luxury lines like Guerlain's Les Élixirs Charnels; as well as niche perfume creations like 2011's “bizarre yet fascinating” Archive 69 for Etat Libre d'Orange, a camphorous rose and incense scent, and Wood Sage & Sea Salt (2014) for Jo Malone, a skin scent of salt lingering on the body after a day at the beach. (Nagel also created 46 other scents for Jo Malone, including the more conventional bestseller English Pear & Freesia in 2010.)

Unable to advance any further at Firmenich, Nagel moved to Italy to strike out on her own. Within a year she held 60 percent of Italy's perfume contracts, including work for Fendi and Versace. She moved to Paris in 1997.

Christine Nagel (born 7 October 1959) is a Swiss perfumer. She has served as the in-house perfumer at Hermès since 2016. Prior to joining Hermès she created designer perfume hits like Narciso Rodriguez for Her (2003, with Francis Kurkdjian) and Miss Dior Chérie (2005).

Nagel was born on 7 October 1959 to an Italian mother and Swiss father, Christine Nagel grew up in Geneva, Switzerland. Her earliest scent memory is of the Italian talc powder her mother bought to care for Nagel's baby brother (who also grew up to work in perfume). Her grandmother was a seamstress, sewing men's trousers, and the smell of freshly pressed pants formed another important early scent memory.

Nagel says her favorite perfume is always the “next one” she's working on, but she continues to feel the admiration for perfumers that first drew her to their profession, inspired by their creativity and the signature “personality” of their scents. Among contemporary perfumers, she names Morillas and Dominique Ropion as notable influences, but reserves a special place for path-breaking female perfumer Germaine Cellier, the creator of historic fragrances like Fracas (1948) and Bandit (1944) for Robert Piguet, at a time when the industry had almost no women.