Francis Kurkdjian is a famous nose. Between creating Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Le Male, in 1995, and Kenzo’s Eau de Fleur de Magnolia, in 2009, the 42-year-old Frenchman invented dozens of fragrances for houses as varied as Dior, Armani, Guerlain and, um, Bebe. Despite that impressive resume, he was no shoe-in when the perfume company BPI issued a brief for a debut eau de parfum for the couturier Elie Saab. More than 125 submissions flooded in. Kurkdjian was chosen, ultimately, for the juice rather than his pedigree. “Elie Saab’s gowns are feminine and airy,” Kurkdjian told me yesterday at the Sunset Tower Hotel in Los Angeles, the latest stop on a press tour that has spanned from Beirut to Paris to New York. “He is Lebanese but he identifies more with the West more than the Middle East. So I wanted to create something warm but not sweet. Addictive but not gourmand—in English that has a culinary or sticky, jammy sense.” Instead of the heady ambiance of oils, Le Parfum is a bright floral, very feminine, almost old-fashioned. If it were a person, it would be Catherine Deneuve. Kurkdjian calls it a “French perfume” in that it is a non-trendy scent meant to transcend age and cultural borders. However, a French perfume, he explains, will naturally pay homage to the Middle East. “The Mediterranean countries gave birth to all the source ingredients—orange, jasmine, cedar, ylang ylang.” I wrapped up the interview by asking Kurkdjian what he wears himself. “Nothing!” he said, scowling and taking a drag off a cigarette. “I wouldn’t be able to stop working if I was wearing fragrance. I’d be thinking of what it needed.”

Le Parfum launches this month in department stores and in Saab’s boutique on the Champs Elysees. The collection includes eau de parfum, body lotion, body cream, and  shower cream. Oddly, a deodorant spray in the line is offered in France but not in the US. (As if Americans don’t stink?)