Annick Goutal Perfume & Women's Fragrance

Annick Goutal is a French perfume house. They are known as one of the premier independent perfume companies and have been providing customers with high-concept scents of the highest quality since the late 70's. Annick Goutal herself was a natural when it came to perfumes. She was a creative genius who was interested in art and scents from an early age and was also blessed with a fantastic sense of smell. Although she started off as a model she later launched a skincare company with a friend. She found herself more fascinated with the scents and packaging of the products and the experience of using them than the effects of the creams. This led her to realise she would be perfect for luxury perfumery when she met perfumer Henri Sorsana in 1977. Sorsana was a skilled scent maker who showed Goutal the secrets of the craft. She then trained for many years to become a perfumer herself. Like many independent perfumers she was more concerned with perfume as art than as a fashion accessory. Her fragrances, developed together with Isabelle Doyen, are based on places and ideas and often feature oriental influences.

Many Goutal perfumes are unisex but most are created solely for women. Rose Absolute (1984), is an intense floral fragrance made from six different types of rose that have been carefully layered to create the sensation of a rose garden. Ce Soir Ou Jamais (1999), which was Goutals very last perfume and took 10 years to complete, is a subtle fragrance which blends rose notes with pear, wine and ambrette meant to mirror the scents she experienced one morning while visiting a church garden. Songes (2005) is a later scent created by Goutals collaborator Isabelle Doyen and it has become one of the brand's most popular perfumes with it's smooth and creamy take on frangipani flowers.

Annick's daughter, Camille Goutal, took over the company after she passed away. A perfumer herself, she has carried on her mother's work. In 2014 she opened a beautiful new Goutal boutique in Manhattan’s West Village.