TWENTY years ago, when a roomful of perfumers smelled the sweet scent Thierry Mugler Angel for the first time, most of them were crinkling their noses in disgust.

“They said: ‘What is this thing? It’s not a perfume. It’s a flavor. It’s awful,’ ” said Pierre Aulas, now the olfactive artistic director of Thierry Mugler, who worked for another company at the time but was in the room. “They were all saying, ‘Oh, I’m sure it will be on the market six months.’ ”

Today, Angel, a heavy dose of patchouli with a candy center that conjures an image of Janis Joplin holding a lollipop, is the fifth best-selling scent in the United States, according to the NPD Group, the market research company. Read more.