Fragrance house

Parfums De Nicolai

Parfums de Nicolai, officially styled NICOLAÏ Parfumeur-Créateur, was founded in Paris in 1989 by perfumer Patricia de Nicolaï and her husband, Jean-Louis Michau. Patricia studied at ISIPCA in Versailles and grew up in the Guerlain perfumery family. The house was established around the idea of an independent perfumer whose creative choices would not be determined by marketing or budget constraints, and its identity centers on the in-house parfumeur-créateur within an independent family company. In 1990, it expanded beyond personal fragrances with Maharadjah, one of its first home-fragrance lines. New York, among the earliest creations, is Patricia’s signature fragrance and a critic-praised house landmark; Fig-Tea, launched around 2000, was a major success and one of the house’s iconic fragrances. Patricia introduced the Eaux de Parfum Intense collection with Patchouli Intense in 2009. In 2014, Axel Michau de Nicolaï took over direction and began collaborating with Patricia on olfactory creations, while Edwige joined the family business in 2024.