Master perfumer Annie Buzantian has developed some of the world’s best known scents including Tommy Hilfiger’s Tommy and Estée Lauder’s Pleasures. Currently working at Firmenich in New York, she has been recognised by The Fragrance Foundation (Perfumer of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015) and with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Society of Perfumers in 2003. She has created more than 40 scents for classic brands including Armani’s Acqua di Gio (with Alberto Morillas), Ralph Lauren’s Safari Pour Homme, Victoria’s Secret Pink, Estée Lauder’s Sensuous Nude, Daisy Dream Blush by Marc Jacobs, Diane von Furstenberg’s D, Vera Wang’s Look and Clinique’s Happy For Men.
Born in Constanza, she spent her childhood on the Romanian seaside and in Lebanon’s forests, where she developed a passion for sensory beauty and the natural world. She had no experience of the world of fragrance when she was given her start in the early 1970s, working as a lab assistant at Universal Oil Products (now Givaudan). She soon worked her way up to junior perfumer and began to learn her craft under the iconic master perfumer Elie Roger. Buzantian then worked her way up to the role of master perfumer with Firmenich in 1998, and her creations for the likes of Estée Lauder and Tommy Hilfiger earned her worldwide recognition as one of the best “noses” around.