Ormaie perfumes
Courtesy Ormaie

This Natural Fragrance Brand Forgoes Synthetic Ingredients in Favor of Candor and Nostalgia

Ormaie’s mother-and-son co-founders believe that their perfumes, candles, and soaps will stir something in every nostril they encounter.
By Michaela Trimble
November 12, 2021
2 minute read

After working for luxury fashion houses including Givenchy and Louis Vuitton, Baptiste Bouygues joined forces with his mother, Marie-Lise Jonak, considered one of the top noses in France, to create a line of all-natural perfumes called Ormaie. Now, three years later, the brand is a veritable leader in environmentally conscious scents, which, unlike many other aromatic elixirs, are made without the use of synthetic ingredients. Its mainstay collection features seven unisex fragrances inspired by family memories, such as Papier Carbone, a richly layered bouquet of bergamot, coffee, and cardamom that serves as an ode to the school Baptiste attended as a child in the French countryside. The bottles echo Ormaie’s planet-friendly approach while doubling as objets d’art: Each sundial-shaped, recycled-glass flacon is topped with hand-carved sculptural keepsakes that are inspired by the work of artist Constantin Brâncuși and made of beechwood sourced from responsibly managed forests in France.

Ormaie’s latest olfactory offerings further enhance its ethos of candor and nostalgia. Later this month, the company will introduce a collection of soaps, conveniently packed in a box set for gifting. Its newest scent, Marque-Page, is a woody accent made with davana (an herb that’s redolent of tea) and artemisia (a bitter, strong-smelling plant), and its first series of candles, made from a blend of coconut oil, beeswax, and soy, are hand-poured into artful vessels on the French Riviera in the French fragrance capital of Grasse. The scents of the candles are often “linked to moments or places,” Bouygues says, while the perfumes are typically informed by people. The Pain Perdu candle, for example, emits a sweet mix of almond and vanilla that evokes after-school treats; 8M² captures the smell of Bouygues’s grandfather’s garden with notes of mint, basil, and eucalyptus.

Even for those outside his family, Bouygues believes that Ormaie’s straightforward savors will elicit emotion in every nostril they encounter. “I believe that if you draw your inspiration and creativity from something very honest and pure,” he says, “people will feel it.”