Watermelon, mint tea, orange blossom: this Franco-Moroccan woman turns her memories of Morocco into luxury perfumes
Watermelon, mint tea and orange blossom: Sophia Gyé-Jacquot draws on scents associated with Morocco to create perfumes in Paris. With her fragrance house MEZEL, founded in 2024, she presented her creations this month at the Fragranze trade show in Florence.
Born in Paris to a mother from Casablanca, Sophia Gyé-Jacquot grew up between French and Moroccan cultures. After a career in luxury goods and perfumery in Paris and London, she founded her own fragrance house around the materials and rituals that marked her stays in Morocco, reports MEZEL.
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Her first collection includes five perfumes: Datte Opaline, Cuir de Pastèque, Néroli Cuivré, Menthe Enivrante and Café Défendu. The orange blossom that inspired Néroli Cuivré also inspired a Yves Saint Laurent perfume inspired by Moroccan gardens. MEZEL entrusted its compositions to perfumers Jérôme Di Marino, Mathilde Bijaoui and Julie Massé.
Watermelon, an unexpected guest in haute perfumery
Cuir de Pastèque is the collection’s most unexpected creation. Mathilde Bijaoui pairs watermelon with iris, a material the house says it sources in Morocco. Sophia Gyé-Jacquot made it the subject of a talk in Florence entitled “Why can watermelon be more chic than rose?”, according to the Fragranze programme.
MEZEL was among the exhibitors at the 2026 edition, held from September 11 to 13. The house had also been selected as a finalist for the Fragrance Foundation France Responsible Innovation Award in 2025.
Casablanca features even in the bottle, whose design is inspired by the Hassan II Mosque. Gold threads on the label evoke the founder’s two cultures.
