Francisco Carbonnel

About

Francisco Carbonnel is a Spanish perfumer and second-generation head of Carbonnel S.A., the Barcelona-based fragrance house founded in 1921 by his French father, Maurice Carbonnel, originally as Destilerías Mauricio Carbonnel to distil essential oils from Spanish lavender and rosemary. In the 1960s Francisco took over and rebranded the company as Carbonnel S.A., shifting its focus from raw materials to full fragrance composition and pushing the house into artistic perfumery. Under his direction the company expanded into the Gulf in the 1970s, building deep ties with the region's perfumery culture and establishing itself in the 1980s and 1990s as a leader in mukhallats and non-alcoholic oil-based fragrances. Francisco's signature partnership is with Al Haramain Perfumes of Dubai, for whom he and his son Christian have composed the bulk of the house's catalogue, working in the Arabian register of oud, amber, rose and resin layered over his family's training in southern-European naturals. He trained his son Christian (who works professionally as Chris Maurice) in the family laboratory in Barcelona, and Christian now operates the niche label C de la Niche (2019) as a fourth-generation extension of the house. Carbonnel S.A. celebrated its centenary in 2025, marked by a 100-year event in Dubai recognising 45 years of operation in the Gulf.