Fragrance house

Nicolai Parfumeur Createur

Nicolai Parfumeur-Créateur was founded in Paris in 1989 by perfumer Patricia de Nicolaï and her husband, Jean-Louis Michau. The house was positioned around the independent parfumeur-créateur, with creative choices free from marketing or budget pressure. Patricia de Nicolaï remains its principal perfumer, and its creative process is guided by her intuition rather than consumer or marketing testing. In 1988, she received the Société Française des Parfumeurs’ young parfumeur-créateur award for Number One and was the first woman to win the competition. Fig-Tea, launched in 2000, was a resounding success and is one of the house’s iconic fragrances. In 2014, Axel joined the company, succeeded his father as director, and began working with Patricia on fragrance evaluation and creation; Ambre Cashmere, launched in 2015, was the first fragrance from their collaboration. Nicolai’s public identity remains that of a family-run independent perfume house, with Patricia’s authorship joined by Axel and, from 2024, Edwige Michau de Nicolaï.