Lightyears Collection
Henri Robert
(1899-1987)

Perfumer Henri Robert's career began at Chiris in Grasse. From Chiris he went on to Parfums d'Orsay and from d'Orsay to Coty where he was responsible for the creation of Coty's Muguet de Bois.

By the outbreak of the Second World War, Henri Robert had moved to New York City to become part of the French community displaced by the war. This group included Yvonne Cotnareanu, first wife to perfumer François Coty and now, since Coty's death and the settlement of her alimony claims, controlling shareholder in Coty, Inc.

From 1940 to 1943, Henri Robert worked as a perfumer for Coty in New York City.

Henri Robert passed up an opportunity to work for Elizabeth Arden (Arden could not or would not meet his salary demands) but upon the retirement of Ernest Beaux, perfumer for Chanel and Bourjois (the perfume companies were jointly owned), he became chief perfumer for the Chanel-Bourjois enterprise where he created a sting of new classics for Chanel including Pour Monsieur (1955), No. 19 (1970) and Cristalle EDT (1974).

He was still creating for Chanel while in his 80s.

Perfumes Created By Henri Robert

FragranceHouseYear
Muguet des BoisCoty1936
RamageBourjois1953
Pour MonsieurChanel1955
No. 19Chanel1970
Cristalle Eau de ToiletteChanel1974


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  • Paul Kiler, 11/28/2022. Hello, As I was given the Henri Robert fragrances formula notebook, submitted to the Albert Verley company, I can affirm that Henri Robert merged his company with Verley, and worked at Verley for some years before going to Chanel.

    My sentence on Wikipedia says thusly: "In 1943 Henri Robert Inc. merged with the Albert Verley Company Inc., and Mr. Robert worked there for an unknown number of years before departing to Chanel."

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  • Mark Cowan, 01/06/2021. Interesting information about Henri Robert.
    Created my absolute signature fragrance Pour Monsieur. Nothing compares or works quite like this.
    It is an intelligently formulated fragrance.
    You can always test how good a classic fragrance is by looking at e bay pricing.
    You will never find this at bargain basement prices.

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  • Elizabeth Arden, 04/09/2006.
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Philip Goutell
Lightyears, Inc.