Olivia Giacobetti

Paris-based French perfumer Olivia Giacobetti, daughter of artist Francis Giacobetti, started working at the Annick Goutal perfumery at the age of 16. Giacobetti then began a career as an assistant perfumer at fragrance and flavor manufacturer Robertet. In 1990, Giacobetti founded her own perfume laboratory, Iska, in Paris. She received commissions from houses such as Diptyque, L'Artisan Parfumeur, and Hermès.

Giacobetti gained international recognition for her innovative use of fig notes in perfumery, which became popular in fragrances in the mid-1990s. Her fame also grew with the release of the fig fragrance Premier Figuier in 1994, developed for L'Artisan Parfumeur, which uses the fig accord she developed as its central element. This was followed in 1996 by the fragrance Philosykos for Diptyque.

Another fragrance by Giacobetti is En Passant, released in 2000 by Frédéric Malle, which, apart from the lilac note, also works with notes that were novel at the time, such as wheat, rice, and cucumber.

In 2003, Giacobetti launched her brand IUNX with the support of the Japanese cosmetics group Shiseido. The result was a line of perfumes, scented candles, and body care products. IUNX was sold in a boutique in Paris designed by Olivia and her father Francis. Due to low demand, the boutique had to close two years later.

In a new attempt, the line created by Giacobetti was offered in a boutique at the Hôtel Costes in Paris, for which Giacobetti had already designed a tailor-made house fragrance in 1995 and which was one of the first haute hôtellerie establishments to introduce such a parfum de maison. The 2000s saw the launch of the Costes and Costes 2 fragrances, which were intended for public sale and are now marketed under the names Red and Black, respectively.

In 2007, Giacobetti reopened his own boutique in Paris. This was followed in 2017 by a commission from the French national theater, the Comédie-Française, for a line of scented candles.