Jousset Parfums: A Revolutionary in Gourmand Perfumery

“After an olfactory journey around the world, it became essential for me to offer gorgeous, gourmand, bold scents that I had not previously found on the market. Gourmand perfumes are not sufficiently appreciated in the market. I wanted to give them the recognition they deserve.”

— Jimmy Bodin, creator of Jousset Parfums

Basic Information
The Founders and the Brand’s Origins
What Defines the Brand
Fragrance Lineup
Incidentally…

Basic Information

Founded: 2020
Founders: Jimmy Bodin (perfumer), Melis Bodin (business partner)
Official website: https://www.joussetparfums.com
Pronunciation note: “Jousset Parfums” is rendered “Juse Parufan” in Japanese; Jousset is pronounced “zhoo-seh” in French.

The Founders and the Brand’s Origins

An Inheritance from Two Parents

The story of Jousset Parfums begins in the childhood of a Frenchman. Perfumer Jimmy Bodin was born into an ordinary family. Yet within that family lay the source of a rich sensibility.

“I come from a modest family. But my mother always loved luxury, especially fine perfume. From an early age, she taught me that beauty need not be expensive to be meaningful; it only needs to be genuine. When she died, her passion for beautiful scents became my inheritance. That is why I named the brand after her maiden name, Jousset.”

— Jimmy Bodin

His father was also a major influence in shaping Jimmy’s philosophy.

“My father worked with his hands and made things through his own efforts. What I learned from him was to try, to be patient, and that if you cannot find what you want, you can make it yourself.”

— Jimmy Bodin

“Be bold and patient,” and “if what you want does not exist, make it yourself”: these two lessons became the foundation of everything the brand stands for.

The Self-Taught Path

Jimmy did not attend a formal perfumery school. His teachers were curiosity, emotion, and intuition themselves.

At one point, he fell deeply in love with an oriental-style perfume. But its price was beyond his means. He could not afford a second bottle, so the only option was to decode it himself. Thus began his journey into learning the structure of scent.

“Today, I create scents that I could not find on the market even after olfactory journeys around the world. Strong sillage, the trail of a fragrance, and longevity can be shaped through honest work, quality materials, and skillful blending. That is my mission.”

— Jimmy Bodin

His approach was “emotional, intuitive, and deeply human.” Rather than being ashamed of being self-taught, he made it his identity.

Jimmy has also spoken openly about the anxiety he lives with every day.

“I have always been fascinated by the workings of the mind and emotions. I live with everyday anxiety, and it makes me observe everything. It helps me build strategies and understand people, but it has disastrous results in social situations.”

— Jimmy Bodin

The brand itself says that the same sensitivity that makes socializing difficult gives him a rare ability to “turn emotion into structure.”

From a Small Room in Switzerland to the World

On March 21, 2020, while living in Switzerland, Jimmy launched Jousset Parfums with his partner Melis Bodin. A business-management specialist from Turkey, Melis connects Jimmy’s creative vision with the practical business.

The earliest setup was extremely simple.

“Jousset Parfums began in the humblest way imaginable: filling bottles with syringes in a small room. It was far from glamorous, but it was real. It was driven by passion. I had always loved French desserts, and turning the things I couldn’t find in Switzerland into scent felt like a pure form of happiness. Turning what you love into something you can share with the world: that was it.”

— Jimmy Bodin

The initial goal was to reproduce existing perfumes, but a passion for making his own creations gradually took over. Produced in small quantities and supplied mainly to family, friends, and a few customers, the brand eventually spread by word of mouth in social-media communities as a house defining a new category of ultra-gourmand perfume.

A Turning Point: Returning to France

In January 2021, listening to feedback from the community, the brand completely redesigned its bottles. A more elegant, chic design gave them an appearance recalling France’s perfume heritage. On March 17 that year, Accident à la Vanille, which would become a signature creation, was born, followed by the Collection Noire.

On March 1, 2023, Jousset Parfums reached a major turning point. It moved its base to Jimmy’s hometown of Rennes in Brittany, France, and established ATELIMAP, a workshop business specializing in perfume manufacture and filling that was also featured by Forbes France. On December 14 that year, it opened its first directly operated boutique in Rennes.

By March 2024, Jousset Parfums had grown into a brand stocked in at least sixty boutiques across twelve countries worldwide.

What Defines the Brand

Its Own Category: “Ultra-Gourmand™”

Gourmand perfume is a fragrance genre built around food-evoking notes such as vanilla, caramel, and chocolate. Jousset Parfums pushed this further, pioneering its own territory under the name “Ultra-Gourmand™.”

“We created the Ultra-Gourmand™ category, going beyond classic sweet perfumes to focus on bold, dessert-like accords with a distinct pâtisserie identity.”

— From official Jousset Parfums press material

Jimmy sees fragrance as a set of cues that evoke impressions of food. Vanilla, cacao, caramel, milk, pastry dough, and fruit jam are built not as simple sweetness but as three-dimensional structures with temperature and texture.

Exceptionally High Concentration

Extrait de parfum is a perfume category generally offered at a high concentration of fragrance materials. Whereas eau de parfum is often described as containing approximately 15–20%, Jousset Parfums officially states a high concentration of around 30%. This concentration is the secret behind the longevity, sometimes described as lasting for days, and powerful sillage, or lingering trail.

The official slogan “Twice is enough,” meaning two sprays are sufficient, succinctly expresses the brand’s confidence in this remarkable concentration.

Handwork in Its Own Atelier

All fragrances are made by hand in the brand’s own workshop in France. This approach, which does not depend on outsourcing or mass production, safeguards its independence and enables consistent quality control from the creative concept through to the finished product.

“Jousset Parfums is not merely a brand. It is a promise to people who love niche perfume: a promise to remain sincere, to keep innovating, and above all to prioritize passion and quality.”

— Jimmy Bodin

Its Approach to Sustainability

The brand continues to replace plastic caps with metal ones, reduce packaging materials, and adopt recyclable materials. All fragrances use vegan formulas and are not tested on animals.

Bottle Design

The brand logo depicts a parrot, or perroquet in French. This is the brand’s symbolic emblem, and a timeline in its introductory materials states that it “took flight two years after launch.” Since the redesign in January 2021, the bottles have shared a clean, refined silhouette, with a design that suggests a tribute to France’s perfume heritage. Detailed information on the bottle materials and manufacturing processes could not be confirmed from publicly available information.

Fragrance Lineup

Jousset Parfums’ collections have so far been developed primarily through three lines and limited collections.

La Collection Noire

As the name “the black collection” suggests, these creations pursue depth and intensity. The lineup includes the following five fragrances, among others.

Le Gourmand: A creation inspired by chocolate spread, distinguished by its combination with musk that seems to melt into the skin.
Accident à la Vanille: The collection’s biggest cult favorite, discussed below.
Accident à la Vanille — Madeleine de Proust: A variation on Vanille. The title refers to the madeleine episode in Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, in which a bite of cake awakens lost memories.
La Tarte Tatin: A creation that transforms the traditional French dessert tarte Tatin into fragrance.
Delicious Black Powder: The darkest and most complex creation in the collection.

La Collection Blanche

“The white collection” provides a contrast to the Collection Noire. It centers on brighter, lighter gourmand notes, including pistachio, caramel, milk accords, and white chocolate. Representative fragrances include African Queen, Ciao Bello Pistachio, and Gourmand Bakhoor. It has a chiaroscuro relationship, a contrast of light and shadow, with the Collection Noire, each bringing out the other’s qualities.

Les Délices de Jousset

Named “the delights of Jousset,” this line is a more playful collection of dessert-inspired perfumes. It has included the following five creations, among others.

Crème Brûlée: An accord of burnt caramel and creamy custard
Sticky Popcorn: A creation recreating salted-butter caramel popcorn
Banana Split: A nostalgic composition of banana, ice cream, and chocolate
Café Affogato: The Italian dessert of espresso and vanilla translated into scent
Belle Hélène: A creation inspired by the classic French dessert of pears with chocolate sauce

Les Mignardises

Mignardises are bite-sized petits fours served with after-dinner coffee in French bistros. This collection is offered as limited editions, with confirmed creations including Chestnut Cream & French Vanilla, Spicy Pumpkin & Marshmallow, and Gingerbread & Brown Sugar.

A Legendary Creation: Accident à la Vanille

The fragrance most often talked about within the community is Accident à la Vanille. Forbes France describes it as “born from a happy blending mistake,” and it is positioned as a symbol of the brand’s innovation and boldness. Its complex accord of vanilla, sandalwood, and styrax, a balsamic resinous perfume material, goes beyond a merely sweet scent and has been embraced by perfume lovers as a smoky, richly shaded portrait of vanilla.

Incidentally…

The origin of the brand’s name also lives in its logo. The statement in the same timeline that “the parrot in the logo took flight two years after the founding” can be read as a metaphor for the brand’s full-fledged emergence onto the world stage around 2022.

Jimmy Bodin works on several brands at once. In addition to Jousset Parfums, he has sister brands called Jimmy Bodin Parfums and The Unleashed Apothecary, all of whose products he makes by hand himself.

The slogan “Twice is enough,” meaning two sprays are sufficient, is also a paradoxical warning. An overapplication of a highly concentrated extrait can overwhelm those nearby. Two sprays are enough: a humorous expression that combines confidence in performance with serious advice to the wearer.

References