sous le manteau: Love Potions Reborn in the 21st Century, Dedicated to All Lovers

“We sought out recipes for love potions recorded in 19th-century pharmacopoeias. Before reviving them in the language of contemporary perfumery, it was essential that Nathalie first reproduce them faithfully. For the lovers of the 21st century.”

— Olivia Bransbourg (Creative Director of sous le manteau)​

Basic Information

• Brand name: sous le manteau (sometimes abbreviated to SLM)
• Founded: 2016​
• Founder: Olivia Bransbourg​
• Official website: https://slm.paris

A note on the name: the brand is pronounced “soo luh mahn-toh.” It is a 17th-century French expression meaning “under the cloak” or “in secret,” referring at the time to the clandestine circulation of items considered excessively sexual or opposed to those in power.​

The Founder and the Brand’s Origins

A Story of Scent That Began at Five

Olivia Bransbourg had an extraordinary fascination with perfume from early childhood. At five, she received 50 miniature perfume bottles from her grandmother, learned their names, practiced distinguishing their scents, and sorted them by fragrance family and preference. “I collected them just like toys or stamps,” she recalls. At 13, she bought her first perfume herself: Cacharel’s Loulou, drawn first to its bottle design and then to its scent.

With a background as an art historian, Olivia went on to enter the worlds of art and magazines. In 2006, she founded ICONOfly, a magazine devoted to journeys around fashion accessories. Each issue centered on a single accessory and brought collaborations with a wide range of artists, including film director David Lynch and chef Pierre Gagnaire.

Attache-Moi: Her First Encounter with Creating Perfume

Her serious involvement with perfume began in 2009. While working on an issue of ICONOfly devoted to bracelets, she came up with the idea of making “a perfume that whispers like a bracelet.” Perfumers Christine Nagel and Benoist Lapouza brought that dream to life, while perfume-bottle designer Serge Mansau gave it form as eight glass bracelets covered in gold leaf. The first edition was created as a limited release, and the historic Paris department store Le Bon Marché offered a space to exhibit it.

Soon afterward, however, her husband’s work transfer took Olivia to New York. She describes celebrating the exhibition while simultaneously packing. Then, seven or eight months after arriving in the United States, she received an unexpected phone call from Barneys New York: “We found your perfume. It is exactly what we have been looking for. We want to launch it in America.”​

Attache-Moi began to be stocked at Barneys and, between 2010 and 2012, established a presence strong enough to rank among niche-perfume bestsellers. The fact that it was reportedly presented alongside Frédéric Malle (in Japanese) and Le Labo (in Japanese) offers one indication of that success.​

Later, while trying to reestablish a presence at the Paris department store Printemps, she had an opportunity to produce an issue of ICONOfly devoted to perfume. Through interviews with Jean-Claude Ellena, (in Japanese) Serge Lutens, Thierry Wasser, François Demachy, and others, Olivia immersed herself in the perfume industry’s “other face”: the world of perfumers, laboratories, and ingredients.​

When the issue appeared in 2011, Arnaud Roche of Takasago approached her, and she went on to spend three years as creative director of its New York laboratory. She continued creating perfumes with distinguished perfumers including Françoise Caron, Francis Kurkdjian (in Japanese), and Antoine Lie.​

A Pharmacopoeia Found at a Flea Market, and the Birth of sous le manteau

The immediate catalyst for sous le manteau was a chance discovery. In a 19th-century apothecary’s book that Olivia acquired at a Paris flea market from an antiques dealer, secret recipes for love potions appeared alongside prescriptions for illnesses.

“I grew up in a family of doctors and surgeons spanning four generations, where everything had always been organized and put in order. In those medical books and pharmacopoeias, I discovered recipes for love potions. Whether I believed in them was beside the point; I simply wanted to see what was there.”

— Olivia Bransbourg​

Further research revealed that aphrodisiac plants had also been cultivated in the medicinal-herb gardens, or jardins de simples, of medieval monasteries, and that their recipes had long been preserved orally, only finally being recorded in pharmacopoeias in the 19th century. Olivia was driven by her instincts as a historian.

The first person she approached was perfumer Nathalie Feisthauer. Since meeting in 2006, she says, they had been waiting for an opportunity to work together. “We were simply waiting for the perfect project to appear. She loves cooking and is passionate about ingredients, so I was certain this mission was made for her.”​

She sent Nathalie the first five recipes she had found, asking her to “reproduce them faithfully first.” Then they would modernize them in the language of contemporary perfumery: a two-stage approach.

The decisive moment came on October 1, 2016, at Nuit Blanche in Paris. That year’s Nuit Blanche celebrated romantic encounters, taking its theme from the late-15th-century book Hypnerotomachia Poliphili. Invited by artist friends, Olivia and Nathalie participated in an installation on the Passerelle Debilly, based on the concept of “healing a broken heart.” Visitors answered a questionnaire and were matched with the love potion that suited them best. This fragrance quiz still lives on the brand’s website.​

From 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. the next morning, they spent 12 hours through the night offering scents on the bridge and dispensing prescriptions to the brokenhearted. Olivia recalls: “The most beautiful experience came at around four in the morning. It was freezing cold when some young people in leather jackets came along. They were about to pass by, but one of them came back and took the test. He was matched with Essence du Sérail. Then all his friends came back and took it too.”​

Although they had initially planned to release the perfumes one at a time, this experience convinced them to launch all five together, as every scent was entirely different. Preparations accelerated toward the brand’s official launch in December 2016.

The Brand’s Commitments

A Fragrance Philosophy: Love Potions in the Language of the 21st Century

What sets sous le manteau apart from many other niche perfume brands is its starting point. Using actual love-potion recipes recorded in 19th-century pharmacopoeias as primary sources, it follows a two-stage creative process: first reproducing them faithfully, then modernizing them.

All the perfumes are made in Grasse, France, and the alcohol used is certified organic. In addition to not being tested on animals, they contain no aluminum, formaldehyde, gluten, mineral oil, parabens, SLS, silicones, soap, or sulfates. The commitment to ethical ingredients, traceability, and sustainability is also evident in the sourcing of cascarilla, the rare material used in the sixth perfume, Odisiaque n°6. A lengthy sourcing process was required before it could be obtained from a single producer in South America.

Perfumer Nathalie Feisthauer trained at the Givaudan Roure school as France’s first trainee “without a family background in perfumery.” After a career of more than 30 years at Givaudan and Symrise, she founded her independent atelier, LAB Scent, in Montmartre, Paris, around 2015. Nathalie, who says that “niche is a definition of beauty,” is known for an approach that “does not ask for difficult compromises and values depth and contrast.”

Bottle Design and Packaging

Olivia describes the bottle design in terms of “minimalism and classicism.” The bottles themselves have a distinctive appearance, with a matte, vividly colored rubberized finish. Rather than the photogenic shine of glossy bottles, their nonreflective surfaces prioritize a tactile sense of material and quietness.

Each bottle’s packaging includes a pendant made from Limoges porcelain. This ceramic accessory, patented for its ability to hold fragrance, creates a new connection between body and perfume by allowing scent to be worn on the person.​

Each fragrance is also accompanied by words from novelist Frédérique Deghelt and photographs by photographer and filmmaker Pascal Perich, extending the olfactory experience into literature and visual art.​

The Fragrance Lineup

sous le manteau currently has six creations, all unisex eaux de parfum composed by Nathalie Feisthauer. Every one takes a 19th-century love-potion formula, or in some cases an 18th-century formula, as its original source. For this reason, the official website categorizes them as “Love Potions” rather than perfumes.

A characteristic shared by all the creations is a progression that opens with bergamot, passes through spicy amber tones, and moves toward vanilla and musk.

Poudre Impériale n°1
A spicy-woody fragrance. Top notes of pink pepper, black pepper, and cardamom lead to a heart of heliotrope, lily of the valley, incense, and jasmine, followed by a base of benzoin, tonka, and vanilla.

Fontaine Royale n°2
An amber-floral fragrance. A bergamot opening leads to a heart of jasmine, orris, rose, and geranium, then a base of sandalwood, cedar, ambrette, styrax, and vanilla.

Cuir d’Orient n°3
A spicy-leather fragrance. A bergamot opening leads to a heart of heliotrope, suede, and orris, then a base of patchouli, ambrette, benzoin, opoponax, and vanilla. Olivia herself describes it as having “the most complex, spiritual, and slightly lewd personality.”

Essence du Sérail n°4
A fruity-floral fragrance. Top notes of ylang-ylang and bergamot lead to a heart of orange blossom, rose, plum, peach, and jasmine, then a base of vanilla, ambrette, and sandalwood. “Sérail” means a harem.

Vapeurs Diablotines n°5
A spicy-aromatic fragrance. Top notes of coriander, mandarin, and bergamot lead to a heart of bay leaf, clove, incense, and geranium, then a base of labdanum, vetiver, vanilla, castoreum, and patchouli. Olivia describes it as “the perfume I am proudest of: complex and captivating, fiery and addictive.”

Odisiaque n°6
A spicy-amber fragrance. Top notes of Calabrian bergamot and Egyptian geranium lead to a heart of elemi, cascarilla, liatris, and maté, then a base of Brazilian tonka, Haitian vetiver, tobacco, and hay. It was released in 2021 as the sixth love potion. Its core material is cascarilla, a rare ingredient Nathalie rediscovered while composing it. This spicy, aromatic bark had fallen out of use in modern perfumery, but also appears in Jean Carles’s classification of fragrance materials. It is ethically sourced from a single producer in South America.

By the Way…

• sous le manteau is a brand spanning Paris, New York, London, and Grasse. According to its official website’s description, “the perfumes, porcelain, and their literary and photographic expressions were conceived in strict secrecy between Grasse, Limoges, Paris, and New York.”​
• In 2020, sous le manteau won Best Newcomer at the Fragrance Foundation UK’s annual awards. In 2022, Odisiaque n°6 was also selected as a finalist for Indie Fragrance of the Year at the Fragrance Foundation Awards in New York.​
• sous le manteau places a “spirit of collaboration” at the heart of its philosophy, continuing to hold pop-ups and exhibitions in distinctive settings such as La Nuit Blanche and Maison Souquet in Paris, The Pierre hotel in New York, Harvey Nichols in London, and AZ Factory in Paris.​