This phenomenon is nothing new, but it tends to become more widespread as technical solutions develop and diversify. “At the Cognacq Jay museum in Paris, we needed to prevent any molecule from settling on the works of art, so diffusing fragrances by micro-nebulization was a no-go,” recalls Isabelle Ferrand, CEO of Cinquième Sens. In 2015, she perfumed the exhibition Coffee, Tea or Chocolate? using a material made of polymer beads.
Tailored specifications and solutions
Today, Scentys offers two patented technologies adapted to scenography. “The solvent-free, dry diffusion technology prevents any lingering effect and can almost intimately pair a perfume with a work of art, without the smell getting too heavy, because the scent from the capsules can be perceived for only 15 seconds. For home fragrances with a diffusion up to 5,000 m2, the micro-nebulization technology transforms a liquid fragrance into a dry fog. Once the diffuser is off, the fragrance lingers for 30 minutes,” explains CEO Pierre Loustric.
In partnership with Givaudan, Scentys recently responded to a request from Maison Monet, near Paris: they wanted to reproduce the impressionist painter’s olfactory world throughout the visitor route, with the smells of his workshop or of a boat on water. “Some fragrances are not featured in our catalogue. They require tailor-made creation which cultural venues do not always think about beforehand,” explains Loustric.
La Guilde uses a polymer gel that is almost 70% biobased. It is impregnated with fragrance, and then inserted into a cartridge which can be installed in a venue’s air treatment systems or in high-capacity and portable diffusers. Sébastien Heylliard, the founder, highlights that one should always pay attention to the general public’s perception. “At the immersive exhibition Sensory Odyssey, at the Paris National Museum of Natural History, in 2022, where Nez was the olfactory curator, we used 21 scent projectors. However, experience showed that visitors could identify up to seven smells. So, we reduced the number of fragrances used for this immersive concept, which is currently touring globally.”
For the exhibition of Finnish painter Pekka Halonen at the Petit Palais in Paris, Daphné Bugey, perfumer at dsm-firmenich, crafted three perfumes to echo the paintings. They are diffused at eye level using Olfacom’s dry diffusing technology, which is triggered by a presence detector. This totem is connected to Le P’tit Sniff, a light, easy-to-handle additional device accessible to kids and people in a wheelchair.
As for Magique Studio, they developed a highly flexible olfactory spatialisation technology. “We can diffuse one or several scents in small or large spaces, either in a localised way or across a wider space, without scents mixing,” explains Mazen Nasri, the founder and Creative Director of the agency. The company used these different setups at the Oriental Perfumes exhibition at the Paris Arab World Institute. “We work on diffusion and on the scope of each scent, and try and anticipate whether visitors will be passive when it comes to reception, or active, through a gesture. We actually manage the space-time dimension in each multisensorial route.”
Rising demand in the luxury sector
Over the past two years, Scentys has observed a rising demand for perfuming all types of venues. “We have received many requests from major perfume brands for events in airports or pop-up store inaugurations, in NYC, Tokyo...,” says Loustric. “As events are now meant to be shared on social media, the olfactory dimension contributes to increasing the impact of an experience.” Within this context, the gap with fashion shows is naturally bridged. Scentys was contacted for the Tom Ford show in September 2025. “The Scentys Box solution makes it possible to set up a sequence of four fragrances by combining them with videos, for example. Our role consists in pushing the boundaries of technologies as far as possible,” explains the CEO.
La Guilde confirmed its expansion into retail, for example by diffusing a signature fragrance created by Julien Rasquinet (then at IFF), when department store La Samaritaine reopened in the heart of Paris, in June 2021. “Then, we scented the French Pavilion at Expo Dubai 2022 with IFF’s Dominique Ropion’s perfume, also available in a bottle,” says Heylliard. In 2023, in partnership with Ruinart, La Guilde helped set up artist Eva Jospin’s Promenade en Champagne.
Enhancing a fragrance’s image
Perfume is an art form like any other. And it is now making its way into major museum institutions. A perfect example is the USOs (for Unidentified Scented Objects) imagined by Mathilde Laurent for Cartier. In 2022, The Panther was unveiled in a poetic, luminescent, immersive evocation: The Scented Myth. In 2023, Chanel invited the public to the Grand Palais Éphémère, at the Le Grand Numéro exhibition, where diverse experiences intertwined with its perfumes diffused with Scentys’ different typologies.
Perfumes are always more desirable when they are staged at the centre. At Art Basel Paris 2025, Fréderic Malle set up the exhibition entitled Portrait(s) of a Lady, a visual tribute to artist Adeline Mai with an iconic fragrance in the ambient air. At the Palais de Tokyo, the event dedicated to Francis Kurkdjian, Perfume, Sculpture of the Invisible, ended with The Alchemy of Senses, a polysensorial experience based on the 2025 Baccarat Rouge 540 Édition Millésime.
Experiential concepts enhance storytelling. Olfy worked on the Olfactory Symphony crafted by Maison Guerlain in 2025. Exhibited at a Chinese museum, the project was focused on sound and perfume synaesthesia. By combining a virtual reality headset and scent diffusion, the startup designed the Olfactive Landscape, once again with Guerlain, to make people discover the Art and Material fragrance collection in a dialogue between vision, olfaction and narration, with the perfumers’ voices. VIP clients are offered these art contents in some Guerlain stores. “Right now, we are working on other polysensorial experiences that can interface with points of sale. This time, technology will be concealed in decorations,” explains Clothilde Dubernet, Olfy’s founder.
The artistic lens as a lever
It seems there are endless possibilities. Since the start of his career, Francis Kurkdjian has explored a great diversity of media: fountains at Grandes Eaux de Versailles, at the Palace of Versailles, soap bubbles, kaolin’s porous paste for Sparks of Roses in 2024, but also the V-Scent technology, which creates a dialogue between virtual reality, movement, and six natural scents in the Eden experience...
At the Villa Botanica, dsm-firmenich’s artistic residency, the main perfumer, Fabrice Pellegrin, worked in close collaboration with visual artist Mohamed Azeroual, who focuses on optical phenomena. Beyond perfumes, Pellegrin aimed to create an olfactory diffusion system with an artistic vision. With a Vallauris ceramic disk, impregnated and heated with an infrared lamp under predefined frequencies, light becomes the revealer of the fragrance. The concept was showcased at the Vertige de la Couleur exhibition at the Galerie Binome in Paris, in late 2025.
For the exhibition Et Gaultier créa l’Homme. Le Male : Passé, Présent, Futur, Magique Studio chose to breathe life into this iconic fragrance with an olfactory clash of materials diffused through glycerine sculptures. “Beyond technical solutions, design and exchanges between disciplines are key to the creative process,” explains Nasrin. Such sensorial innovation dynamics definitely create value.
