Mathilde Laurent was born into a family of artists in the Montparnasse neighborhood of Paris. Growing up near the railroad tracks, Laurent had an innate curiosity for the world around her. She earned a degree in chemistry and physics before attending the Institut Supérieur International du Parfum, de la Cosmétique et de l'Aromatique Alimentaire (ISIPCA) in Versailles. A family friend who noticed Laurent's keen sense of smell and her tendency to "encounter the world nose first" encouraged her to pursue perfumery. At a school event, Laurent approached Jean-Paul Guerlain, the head perfumer of the prestigious Guerlain family succession of perfumers, and asked him for an internship. He agreed, and Laurent began her career in the early 1990s working alongside Guerlain. After a three-month internship, she was offered a permanent position at the house and ultimately stayed with the company for the next 11 years. Her perfumes for Guerlain include Herba Fresca, inspired by early mornings walking barefoot in her grandfather's garden. Laurent joined Cartier in 2005 and has been the in-house perfumer since then. In 2006, she created Cartier's fragrance Baiser Volé and later launched L'Heure Vertueuse in 2012. In her 2015 creation L'Heure Perdue, Laurent used exclusively lab-created molecules to challenge the stereotype that synthetic ingredients result in hard, abstract, and aggressive fragrances. Instead, she created a scent that felt soft, caressing, and almost maternal. In 2016, she created Cartier L'Envol, which was used in the 2017 installation "OSNI 1- Le Nuage Parfumé" ("Unidentified Fragrant Object 1- the Perfumed Cloud") at the Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain (FIAC). Also in 2016, Laurent launched a line of oud fragrances for Cartier called Les Heures Voyageuses. The collection includes six fragrances: Oud & Santal, Oud & Musc, Oud & Oud, and Oud Radieux. Mathilde Laurent is one of 16 perfumery experts who oversee the Grand Musée du Parfum in Paris, alongside Jean-Claude Ellena and Sylvaine Delacourte. Her most popular perfume compositions include Cartier La Panthère, Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Herba Fresca, Cartier Baiser Volé, Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Pamplelune, and Cartier Declaration d'Un Soir. Laurent's unique approach to perfume creation combines her artistic upbringing with her scientific education, allowing her to create innovative, expressive, and memorable fragrances. She pushes traditional perfumery's boundaries by experimenting with natural and synthetic ingredients to craft evocative scents that challenge preconceived notions.