At an early age, Ellena picked jasmine with his grandmother in Grasse to sell to perfumers. Beginning with menial jobs, he became an apprentice at the factory of the essential oils maker Antoine Chiris in Grasse at the age 16 working on the night shift. He has reminisced, “Among other essential oils, we made a lot of oakmoss, and after I’d put the distiller on, I’d lie down on a bed of it and sleep.” In 1968, he became the first student at what was at the time the newly formed perfumery school of Givaudan, one of the oldest perfume factories, in Geneva, Switzerland. He left Givaudan in 1976 with two others perfumers for Lautier in Grasse. In 1983, he joined Givaudan Paris as chief perfumer and Roure-Givandan and then he worked at Haarmaan & Reimer in Paris. In 1990, he became one of the founding members of the Osmothèque, an international scent archive based in Versailles. Ellena has been profoundly influenced by pioneering perfumer Edmond Roudnitska, particularly by his article, “Advice to a Young Perfumer”, in a magazine given to him by his father. Since 2004, he has been Hermès's exclusive in-house perfumer, appointed by Jean-Louis Dumas and Véronique Gautier. He has created fragrances for several major perfume houses including The Different Company, which he founded before joining Hermès. His daughter Céline Ellena now creates for The Different Company. In 2005, Ellena created Un Jardin sur le Nil for Hermès. The story behind the creation of this fragrance was the subject of the book The Perfect Scent: A Year in the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York by Chandler Burr. In addition, the story in a limited form and accounts of other scents as well as his autobiography has been published in Perfume: The Alchemy of Scent. He is also a writer of "The Diary of a Nose: A Year in the Life of a Parfumeur."
Eau de Lalique, with Emilie Copperman, for Lalique
Amouage Dia pour Femme, for Amouage
After Hermes
Ellena left Hermes in 2016, and Swiss-born chemist and perfumer Christine Nagel re-placed him as Hermes in-house perfumer. Ellena's final fragrances for Hermes were Eau de Néroli Doré and Hermèssence Muguet Porcelaine. Ellena returned to creating for Editions de Parfum Frederic Malle, his latest work, "Rose & Cuir," debuting in September 2019. He also became the olfactive director of the brand Le Couvent des Minimes.
Personal life
Ellena's father, brother, and daughter Celine are also perfumers. Known for his signature white shirts, Ellena himself never wears perfume or cologne. His daughter Celine designed the Hermès Home Fragrance Collection.
