'5+1' with BMW's Fragrance Designer Annabelle Coffinet

Meet Annabelle Coffinet. She is Fragrance Designer for BMW and takes care of the perfect scent in your car. Active fragrancing of the interior at the touch of a button has emerged in the last years.

We learned more about Annabelle and if a particular event influenced her to take the path as a fragrance designer, what made her decide to create fragrances for cars and join BMW and where she gets her inspiration for new scents. Besides she lets us know how the process of creating a new interior fragrance looks like and if new technologies like autonomous driving will face challenges for her in regards to calming passengers who are anxious about the new technologies.

1. How did you become a fragrance designer? Did a particular event influence you to take this path?

Since childhood I have been fascinated by smells of everything, good or bad. Naturally, I began to collect a lot of fragrance bottle samples and learned about them one by one. I was surprised I could recognise a lot of fragrances when I walked along the street. I think that every designer likes to imagine and dream about a special vision. A fragrance designer can smell in their head, like a musician can hear music. I had a particularly good sense of smell for pieces of wood, or spices from the kitchen, fragrances, aromatics, also perfumes on clothes, and I would imagine a story around it. My interest just grew over time and didn’t have any particular event that influenced me. My family was interested how I was able to learn and name odours, fragrances, and they help me nurture this talent. I was instinctively attracted to remembering, associating, describing and classifying every smell, so I had the ingredients to be a fragrance designer. I discovered relatively late that there was a special school where you could become a professional and learn how to create fragrances. Of course, I decided to use this passion for scents.

2. After studying at the world's leading school of fragrance, cosmetics and aroma (Isipca in Versailles) you worked as a fragrance designer in the South of France and Switzerland. What made you decide to create interior fragrances for cars and join BMW? Are there more men or women working in this field?

For a very long time, I was surprised that a large variety of interior car fragrances were extremely powerful, with the most popular a Coconut Vanilla accord. I was impressed that people were addicted to those products and also adapted to this incredible intensity. Nevertheless, I was able to imagine a much more premium and elegant fragrance experience adapted for the premium car segment.

I wanted to work for BMW when I noticed how the BMW 7 Series Steinway Edition at BMW Welt in Munich used a perfect combination with other art to express emotions in a car interior.

3. Where do you get your inspiration for new fragrances?

Nature is the most powerful source of inspiration. It could be very simple – in fact, the simpler it is, the clearer it is in the memory. Fragrances play a key role in creating an atmosphere and memories, and those associations are perfect for a car interior.
The inspiration of fragrances could also be used through other arts like music, painting, architecture and, of course, colours, textures, materials. Names, adjectives are also important when defining a brief.

4. What is the process of creating a new interior fragrance for a car? How long does development take and what are the challenges?

The first challenge is to create international fragrances fitting for every region in term of hedonisms and regulation. Furthermore, car fragrances need to be adapted for the interior environment, depending on the volume and kind of material. Qualitative and quantitative parameters of the new fragrance are evaluated, using the technical scent device of course.

In addition to that, the right balance is also important in the composition. Our BMW Ambient Air package from BMW is developed to be discreet, unisex and non-polarising. While many people find the smell of lavender pleasant, it is too well known. A new creation has to induce a curiosity, encourage us to discover more, explore our own comfort and be in resonance with ourselves; it acts like a stage for emotion, sensations. Then it smells perfect for the right moment. It takes about two years to develop a complete fragrance.

5. Autonomous driving is becoming more and more important and will take up a significant role in the future. Do you think there will be special challenges for you as a fragrance designer, e.g. in terms of calming passengers who are anxious about the new technologies? 

Comfort and wellbeing in car interiors are dramatically increasing in every segment. Fragrances for cars are more than a trend. They have been developed a lot over the last ten years and a particularly wide range of after-sales products are available in the Chinese market.

A lot of research is being conducted in neuroscience. We know that fragrances could have effects on the body, influence our blood pressure, for example, and activate specific brain regions. Scents could also positively condition and create positive experiences.

Scents open up holistic experiences and add unique dimensions to car interiors – including specific ones for BMW. We could imagine enabling BMW Group costumers to individualise their cars with their own fragrance, to access a specific level of relaxation or personalisation.

And the +1 question from Annabelle to you: “Do you have a particular specific olfactory memory that you like or a preferred scent?”

Thank you Annabelle for giving us an insight into your very inspiring job as a fragrance designer at the BMW Group.

Pictures: BMW Group
Interview: Britta Reineke