He has had a prolific career, beginning in Grasse at Lautier Florasynth and continuing for a number of fragragrance firms as well as working independently and as the house perfumer for L'Artisan Parfumeur.
Beginning his career in 1985,[1] Bertrand Duchaufour trained at the Lautier Florasynth group in Grasse, then spent 10 years at Créations Aromatiques, then Symrise, working in their fine fragrance department.
He paints olfactory charcoals and grays and deep purples with the smells of smoke and worn wood, a living Old Master of scent, and Paestum Rose is not just perfectly calibrated on a technical level.
The ingredient cypriol gave Timbuktu “a smoky note without a trace of oiliness or tar, the smell of crisply burned dry wood on a bonfire”, but, Turin notes, “no single raw material ever ‘made’ a fragrance, and [Duchaufour] should take full credit for a masterly composition.”[3] In 2017, Duchaufour's 2002 fragrance Incense: Avignon for Comme des Garçons was included in an exhibit at Somerset House on developments in perfumery in the prior 20 years, in particular "perfumes that have changed the way we think."
[9][6] Asked why he would involve himself with the repressive regime, Duchaufour responded in writing to fragrance blog CaFleureBon: "I have been a little bit naive and just considered the good part of the project (money) and didn't realize what was behind.