Why Serotonin Spritz Is the Most Important Fragrance We've Made So Far

Every L'Epoque fragrance up to this point has been built with Elena Valdivieso Ruiz, a perfumer we trust completely and have built a real creative shorthand with. That relationship isn't changing.

But Serotonin Spritz is different. It's our first fragrance developed with IFF  — and our first project with perfumers Carlos Benaim and Laurent le Guernec.

If those names mean something to you, you already understand why this matters. If they don't yet, here's the context.

Who they are:

Carlos Benaim is one of the most decorated perfumers working today, with a body of work that spans some of the most recognizable fragrances of the last several decades. Laurent le Guernec brings a different, equally serious pedigree — precision, restraint, and an instinct for making complexity feel effortless.

These are not perfumers a brand our size typically gets access to. That's not false modesty — it's the reality of how the fragrance industry works. Production partnerships at this level are usually reserved for major houses with the volume and budget to match.

Why it happened:

It happened because of the work. Because our founder showed up with a vision: story-driven, emotionally specific, unwilling to make anything generic — that it became a project perfumers at this level wanted to be part of, not just execute.

That distinction matters to us more than almost anything else in this business. We didn't come to IFF with a brief that said "make us a citrus summer fragrance." We came with an emotional thesis: the exact feeling of a summer day that refuses to end on schedule. The optimism of a spritz in your hand. The specific kind of joy you don't examine too closely because examining it might end it.

Benaim and le Guernec built Serotonin Spritz around that thesis. Grapefruit, pink pepper, and pomelo zest up top. A tequila accord — rare to find well-executed, and even rarer to find this well-balanced — running through the heart with thyme, geranium, and cassis leaf. Watery musk, cedarwood, and amber at the base.

What makes it different from the rest of the lineup:

Our Elena Ruiz fragrances tend to live in psychological territory — identity, longing, contradiction. Serotonin Spritz lives somewhere more physical: heat, skin, salt, sun. It's less about introspection and more about sensation. That shift in tone is intentional, and it's part of why this particular creative pairing made sense.

Serotonin Spritz launches July 9th on lepoqueparfums.com. We think it's some of the best work we've put into the world. We hope you feel that the first time you spray it.

xx, L'Epoque