Perfume maker aims to bring 'olfactory comfort' by bottling the scent of the deceased

The inspiration behind Katia Apalategui’s new business came from her mother, who held onto her late husband's pillowcase so she could always remember his distinctive smell.

Apalategui, an insurance saleswoman, thought it would be better to have an actual perfume made of the scent, and set about finding a way to make it happen. Eventually she wound up at France's University of Le Havre, where they came up with a technique to reproduce a smell. "We take the person's clothing and extract the odor — which represents about 100 molecules — and we reconstruct it in the form of a perfume in four days," Geraldine Savary of the University of Le Havre told Agence France-Presse.

It's instant "olfactory comfort," says Apalategui, who plans to launch the business in September with a chemist. While she plans to offer her services at funeral homes, she wants the living to feel included, too, and said a vial of her perfume (cost: €560, or $600) would be perfect as a Valentine's Day gift, or for a child who has a parent that travels often.

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