The perfumer, who is expanding her eponymous brand Nicolaï Paris into Neiman Marcus this fall, is ScentXplore's 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award honoree.

Even as the great-granddaughter of Guerlain founder Pierre-François-Pascal Guerlain, Patricia de Nicolaï didn’t always know that a career in fragrance would be her fate.

“My link to the Guerlain family comes from women, and the company was run by men; my grandmother and mother never worked in the company,” said de Nicolaï, who nonetheless spent her upbringing in Paris immersed in the world of Guerlain.

“It was everywhere — [my family] used it in the house, on their skin, perfumes — it was impossible to smell something different from other brands.”

Today, de Nicolaï is a perfumer and fragrance founder herself of nearly 40 years via Nicolaï Paris, the brand she launched in 1989 alongside her husband, Jean-Louis Michau. Still self-funded and family-operated, the brand — one of the earliest perfumer-led labels — is set to enter Neiman Marcus in the U.S. this fall, and on Nov. 7, de Nicolaï will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual niche perfume convention, ScentXplore.

“I wanted to make elegant, rich perfumes,” said de Nicolaï of the ethos that guides each Nicolaï Paris scent. Best-sellers from the range include Ambre Cashmere, Baïkal Leather, Bois Bélize and Patchouli, which are priced at $115 for 30 ml. and $265 for 100 ml. The fragrances sell in retail doors across more than 85 countries, including 11 owned boutiques.

De Nicolaï is a graduate of ISIPCA, the perfumery, cosmetics and food flavor formulation school that her uncle, Jean-Jacques Guerlain opened in Versailles in 1970.

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