Fragrance du Bois: A Fusion of the West and the Middle East

“My role is to oversee the entire creative side. The concepts, the packaging, the names of the perfumes… Everything ‘outside’ the juice, you might say.”
— Jonnie Swarbrick, Co-Founder and Creative Director

Essential Information

• Founded: 2013 (Paris)
• Founder: Jonnie Swarbrick
• Headquarters: Paris, France
• Official website: fragrancedubois.com

The Founder and the Brand’s Origins

A Career in Design

Before entering the fragrance industry, Jonnie Swarbrick spent nearly 30 years working as a graphic and packaging designer. He built his experience in Britain’s creative industries at renowned companies including the advertising agencies M&C Saatchi and TBWA, and Condé Nast Publishing. From 2003 to 2011, he headed his own design company, Digital Storm, as Creative Director.

This period spent pursuing visual beauty and brand storytelling as a designer would also play a central role in the fragrance brand he later launched.

A Life-Changing Phone Call

In 2013, Jonnie received a phone call from the person who would become his co-founder. The proposal was, “Let’s launch a global fragrance brand.” Jonnie recalls:

“The founder of another brand approached me and said, ‘Let’s launch a global fragrance brand.’ My immediate answer? ‘Sure, let’s do it!’”
— Jonnie Swarbrick, from a LinkedIn post

He says that building a brand’s visual identity from scratch, as the culmination of a design career spanning more than 30 years, struck him as “the ultimate design project.”

The brand initially took shape in Singapore, experimenting with prototypes. In a fiercely competitive market, it spent around three years refining its lineup, improving its packaging, and honing its products. Jonnie describes that period this way:

“We moved slowly, nurturing it carefully. We started in Singapore and learned as we went, changing various things along the way. It took about three years to bring it to a level where it could really succeed commercially.”
— Jonnie Swarbrick, from a 2020 interview

Then, in 2016, the brand secured a presence at Jovoy, a Paris boutique that could be described as a mecca for niche perfumery, and formally made the leap from Asia to Europe. “Our European journey began at Jovoy in Paris in 2016. That was the real starting point,” he recalls.

An Encounter with Oud as the Starting Point

Another crucial element in the brand’s birth was the discovery of a “sustainable source” of oud.

“It began with having access to a sustainable source of oud oil. There was a boom in oud fragrances in 2011, but we noticed that many brands were using synthetic oud. Our USP, our point of difference, was to bring a brand to market that could prove where its ingredients came from.”
— Nicola Parker, Brand Director

From the outset, the brand forged a close partnership with Singapore-based plantation company Asia Plantation Capital (APC), establishing a system for exclusively sourcing oud oil from sustainable plantations in northern Thailand. In 2013, APC announced that its oud oil had achieved compliance with IFRA Standards following testing by ABP Australia. Then, in 2015, Fragrance du Bois made a decision unusual even within the industry: to acquire and manage its own plantations in Malaysia and Thailand. This created an integrated ingredient supply chain, “From Soil, to Oil, to You.”

The Origin of the Brand Name

“Fragrance du Bois” means “fragrance of wood” in French. According to Jonnie, the name came naturally because the first collection was based entirely on oud (agarwood) (in Japanese). A fusion of French perfume culture (Fragrance) and Asian wood (Bois), the name itself embodies the brand’s dual character.

What Defines the Brand

A Philosophy of Fragrance Creation

Fragrance du Bois uses the tagline “Born in Nature, Crafted in France” on its official website. Its perfumes are completed in collaboration with perfumers in Grasse, in southern France, regarded as the world’s spiritual home of perfumery.

“We combine traditional French perfume craftsmanship with modern innovation, respecting the heritage of classic scents while adding a contemporary twist.”
— Jonnie Swarbrick

Fragrance du Bois takes particular pride in the authenticity and transparency of its oud oil. Its oud fragrances come with a certificate stating where the ingredient was harvested and wood chips from the source wood, allowing purchasers to see the ingredient’s traceability for themselves.

Oud (agarwood) is a fragrant material obtained from the dark resin that trees of the Aquilaria genus, a type of agarwood tree, produce when injured. In the wild, it occurs in no more than 7% of trees. Illegal logging has brought wild species close to extinction, and they have been protected since 2004 under CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention. Fragrance du Bois is also a rarity in the industry in securing CITES certification for all the oud it uses and using only oud from its own plantations. It also plants two trees on its plantations for every 100 ml or 50 ml bottle sold.

The roster of perfumers is equally rich. François Merle-Baudoin has worked on the Privé Collection and the early Nature’s Treasures fragrances, while Givaudan’s Nanako Ogi and Gael Montero have also contributed. Nicola Parker explains:

“We only work with perfumers who understand our ethos and can create fragrances with oud. Raw oud is difficult to use in a fragrance, and it takes real skill.”
— Nicola Parker, Brand Director

Bottle and Packaging Design

Jonnie says that, when designing the bottle, he had in mind “a fusion of Eastern and Western luxury.”

“We wanted to add Western luxury to spicy oriental fragrances with Middle Eastern and Far Eastern inspiration. A square bottle, a square cap, gold details. It was a blend of Middle Eastern opulence and Western design, and the design came together naturally.”
— Jonnie Swarbrick

The unboxing experience is designed so meticulously that it could be called “theatre,” with a multilayered opening process that moves from the outer box to the inner one. The latest collections use a new crystal-glass bottle with an embossed logo. Bottles in the Privé Collection carry a special gold plaque to distinguish them from the other lines.

Environmental consideration extends throughout the packaging, with plastic wrapping removed from the outer box and reusable outer boxes and renewable materials adopted.

The Fragrance Lineup

Fragrance du Bois divides its collections into several families according to their themes and use of ingredients. Broadly, the range rests on two pillars, oud and non-oud fragrances. Nicola Parker explains:

“Fragrance du Bois has four main lines: two are oud-based, and two contain no oud.”
— Nicola Parker

Shades du Bois

The brand’s early flagship collection. Inspired by “a voyage across the seven seas,” it comprises seven fragrances with oud at their core, each expressing its own character through a different “colour,” or colour-inspired mood. The principal releases in 2013 were Oud Bleu Intense, Oud Rouge Intense, Oud Vert Intense, Oud Jaune Intense, Oud Orange Intense, Oud Violet Intense, and Oud Rose Intense. Jonnie names Oud Bleu Intense as his own favourite perfume, describing it as having “a uniquely deep mystery, with resinous depth mingling with frankincense, coriander, and ginger.”

Privé

The brand’s premium line. These fragrances are said to have been commissioned on the extraordinary condition that perfumers could “use the most expensive ingredients without restriction.” Representative creations include Sahraa Oud (£695), a complex fragrance combining saffron and rose with oud; Heritage (£595); Amber Intense (£595); and Parisian Oud. Their special bottle design, featuring a gold plaque, sets them apart from the other lines.

Nature’s Treasures

A collection of natural-material perfumes that do not depend on oud, introduced mainly from 2016 onward. Using a wide range of natural materials, including frankincense, sandalwood, patchouli, and rose, they are designed to stand on their own without oud. Representative fragrances include Santal Complet, Baie Rose, and Brume du Matin. Nicola Parker explains that the brand stopped calling these its “non-oud range” and renamed them “Nature’s Treasures” to convey that they use “equally precious ingredients.”

Fashion Capitals

A collection inspired by the world’s major fashion cities. The lineup covers London (London Oud and London Spice), Paris (Voyage à Paris), Milan (Milano), and New York (New York 5th Avenue and New York Intense). London Oud was created by François Merle-Baudoin around the concept of “sharpening a blend of cedarwood, cardamom, and lemon with oud.”

For Lovers

A three-fragrance collection themed around “the chemistry of love.” Cavort, Lovers, and Secret Tryst express the stages of a relationship: instinct, intention, and memory. Lovers is a woody-fruity fragrance that moves from passion fruit, plum, and ginger to a heart of rose, saffron, and jasmine, before settling into Kashmir wood and sandalwood. In February 2026, the brand also partnered with award-winning poet Dave Steele, known as The Blind Poet, who lost his sight to retinitis pigmentosa, in a collaboration creating poetry for the collection through touch and memory rather than sight.

Sirène and Lucius

In 2024, the brand released Sirène, its first fragrance for women, which quickly became the “No. 1 bestseller in almost every store and market.” Jonnie describes its success this way:

“Today’s consumers are moving away from the mainstream and seeking distinctive signature scents that set them apart. Sirène is proof of that.”
— Jonnie Swarbrick

In 2025, its sister fragrance, Sirène Privée, arrived with a darker, spicier character and the brand’s first lacquered pink bottle. Meanwhile, Lucius, its first fragrance for men, also launched in 2024. Its spicy-citrus composition moves from top notes of bergamot and mandarin through cedarwood and orange blossom, with tonka bean and amber adding depth.

The Collaboration Series

Minuit et Demi was the brand’s first external collaboration. Created with Dubai-based fragrance influencer Demi Rawling, it was composed by perfumer Stéphane Bengana and launched in the UK in 2021. A luscious gourmand, or food-inspired fragrance, with cardamom, coffee, caramel, and bourbon de l’air, it was nominated in the Fragrance Foundation Awards’ “Perfume Extraordinaire” category. The brand has continued actively collaborating with outside creators, including its AM/PM project with Producer Michael.

Growth and Global Expansion

The brand first entered Hong Kong in 2016, making its debut at Parfumerie Trésor. Nicola Parker, then Brand Director, described the thinking behind the move:

“Hong Kong is part of our strategic expansion plan to reach Chinese consumers. They already have a deep understanding of oud and agarwood.”
— Nicola Parker

In the UK, the brand brought distribution in-house in March 2024, ending its previous distributor agreement. As a result, sales at major department stores including Harrods, Selfridges, and Harvey Nichols rose by at least 600% in less than a year. Global sales have at least tripled over the past three years, and in 2025 the brand is expanding into new markets including China, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Indonesia.

Incidentally…

• The brand celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2023 with a party at The Carlton hotel in Cannes, France. Jonnie described it as “a venue perfectly suited to Fragrance du Bois’s French roots.”
• The brand also makes custom bottles to order, with Swarovski crystals applied individually by hand, priced between £1,500 and £3,500. It has also created a special bottle in gratitude to NHS healthcare workers, based on Oud Bleu and adorned with at least 5,000 Swarovski crystals, and offered it at a charity auction.
• Jonnie Swarbrick enjoys landscape photography as a personal hobby and shares his work on his personal Instagram account, @swarbrickjonnie. Although he is the founder of a perfume brand, he says that “landscape photography lets me step away from the most commercial things and reset my mind,” an attitude that resonates with the brand’s approach to making things.
• Perfumer Ogi Nanako also composed Shiro’s Be Like You.