Haute Parfumerie and Love in a Bottle: Talking Scents with ORMAIE
June 15 | 4 minute read
Words by Christie Sinclair
The greatest stories ever written stay with you forever. ORMAIE’s founders, Marie-Lise Jonak and Baptiste Bouygues, believe a great fragrance should do the same.
The mother-and-son duo approach French haute parfumerie like storytellers, beginning with a narrative and carefully ‘writing’ (and rewriting) notes, emotions and exquisite raw ingredients into every bottle.
“Baptiste will tell me a story, and we’ll talk about the moments we’d like to remember. Almost every time you smell something, it reminds you of a moment connected to your past – to someone or somewhere,” Jonak says, recalling the process behind their hypnotic scents.
In this edition of Talking Scents, the pair share what their favourite people smell like, discuss the impossible task of capturing love in a bottle and reflect on their family's passion for creating something beautiful.
Marie-Lise Jonak: “My mother wearing Magie Noire by Lancôme. I remember its richness, and impressive black bottle in her bathroom. This fragrance opens with sparkling notes of bergamot and blackcurrant. Its rich floral heart, composed of jasmine, narcissus and rose, is enveloped by sandalwood and amber, revealing a powerful and captivating trail. She always wore red, and that black scent became an extension of her presence.”
Baptiste Bouygues: “When I was a kid, we lived in Thailand on a boat. My mother used to put leaves of patchouli in her sarong. I think that's my first memory of scent: the leaves of patchouli and the wood of the boat.”
MLJ: “Ysatis by Givenchy. Such an addictive, enveloping trail that made me completely captivated by it. A radiant white floral bouquet paired with an intoxicating patchouli. Years later, I had the privilege of working with its creator, Dominique Ropion, the master of the white/orange floral accord.”
BB: “As maman was a great director of creation, she would always bring everything she was working on home, so I wore so many different fragrances – even things that never came out. I remember going to her office when I was a young teenager and being a giant blotter and testing beautiful creations. The first fragrance I really committed to was Jersey from Chanel, a beautiful lavender scent.”
Falling in love smells like…
MLJ: “Undeniably sensual; like an edible fragrance, something sweet yet refined, intimate yet elegant.”
BB: “Addictive and happy. It's something you always want to get back to and you miss.”
My favourite person smells like…
MLJ: “A subtle candy, soft, comforting, with just a hint of freshness.”
The end of the day smells like…
MLJ: “Something calm with white flowers, slightly faded, yet still luminous.”
BB: “Wet grass in summer.”
Australia smells like
MLJ: “Earth, sun, a salty sea wind and rain in the evening.”
BB: “I just know Sydney, but it definitely has a very distinct smell like no other place in the world. It's very, very special – quite green, a mix of peppermint trees, scribbly gum and thick grass.”
The fragrance I wear everyday…
MLJ: “As I am constantly searching, always in pursuit of the next ORMAIE creation, I don’t wear one specific fragrance.”
BB: “I also don’t wear fragrance anymore. As we work with fragrances all the time, we have to arrive with a neutral skin at the office to spray new things.”
The one note I would never wear…
MLJ: “I tend to avoid very green or overly ambery notes. They are not where I naturally gravitate."
BB: “If I find the writing beautiful, I could wear any note.”
The scent I wish existed…
MLJ: “Working in perfumery means you can always construct what you imagine so I don’t believe in a scent that doesn’t exist. It’s simply a matter of exploring materials and different compositions.”
BB: “I wish I could encapsulate exactly the night, wet grass in Italy in summer. We are still working on it.”
The scent that changed my life…
MLJ: “[Jean-Paul Gaultier] Le Male when I met my husband. Later on, I had the chance to collaborate with his creator, Francis Kurkdjian.”
BB: “Yvonne Extrait. I think it made ORMAIE what it is today.”
The first step in creating a scent…
MLJ: “Every fragrance begins with a story. Without narrative, there is no true creation.”
BB: “A story, for sure.”
MLJ: “Can I say that I am proud of all my fragrances? If I had to choose one of the ORMAIE range, it would be 18-12. It brings together everything I love: sweetness, florality and a deep woody structure.”
BB: “I would say Tableau Parisien. Its writing is exceptional.”
The scent with the most interesting story is…
MLJ: “L’Ivrée Nuit has one of the most compelling stories. Its composition is particularly challenging: it involves balancing vanilla with a mango accord featuring sulphurous notes. It is this tension that brings the formula to life.”
BB: “As for the story behind each fragrance, they are all very important to me. But when it comes to the story of their creation, Le Passant is truly remarkable. I wanted a fragrance that reminded me of my father’s scent. I knew it had to be lavender, but we couldn’t quite achieve the result we were hoping for.
“As the fragrance wasn’t perfect in our eyes, we weren’t going to launch it. But at the last minute, my mother remembered that he always had Papier d’Arménie in his pocket. Papier d’Arménie is a kind of incense paper that you burn, which is infused with benzoin. We simply added a touch of benzoin to the fragrance and found it again.”
MLJ: “In the development of Tableau Parisien, I wanted to evoke the busy Parisian moment – a night scene between a man and a woman. I tried combining tobacco with tuberose and was immediately struck by the sensuality and glamour of that pairing, enhanced by tonka and subtle spicy accents.”
BB: “L’Ivrée Nuit, mango and vanilla are not meant to be together. It's a bit of a Benjamin Button situation where we have to make them meet right in the middle. Mango is meant to be young and vanilla needs to age.”
The most important thing I’ve learnt about fragrance…
MLJ: “That fragrance remains unpredictable. No matter how much dedication or precision goes into it, there is no guarantee that the public will embrace it. There is no magic formula, and it is precisely this uncertainty that makes the creative process so exciting.”
BB: “You never know if people will like it, so you have to create a scent you love first.”
MLJ: “For me, it would be love, because it's very personal. A fragrance must create pleasure and connection, yet perfume is deeply rooted in memory. When people say, ‘It reminds me of someone’ or of another perfume, they are often responding to a single molecule. That molecule becomes their personal reference, their emotional anchor.”
A fragrance is finished when…
MLJ: “When you feel that the whole composition is perfectly balanced, and you love it from the very first spray, and also after hours on skin. Or when your friends and family start saying, ‘Mmm, that smells lovely… Is it something new?’”
BB: “When it feels right, you just know. If you still have any doubts, it means the work isn't finished.”
