Élisire: Elixirs of Color and Desire

“Color has a transcendent power. It acts on the body and soul. Rothko said, ‘Color speaks all languages.’ So does fragrance.”

— Franck Salzwedel, founder of Élisire​

Basic Information

Founded: 2015
Founder: Franck Salzwedel
Official website: https://elisire.com
Headquarters: 19 rue du Rocher, 75008 Paris, France

The Founder and the Brand’s Origins

From Southern France to Indonesia: A First Encounter with Fragrance

Franck Salzwedel was born in France to German parents. He grew up in the countryside of southern France, developing artistic interests in music, painting, and drawing amid expansive natural surroundings.

At ten, he moved with his family to Jakarta, Indonesia. It was on the flight to their new home that Franck first experienced the power of perfume. After boarding, every passenger received a scented sachet. When everyone opened their little bags at once, the fragrance filled the cabin. He still describes that experience in these words:​

“A crisp, herbal scent spread at the speed of light. It was filled with the promise of our destination.”​

— Franck Salzwedel

His life in Indonesia began with that encounter. Bali’s vibrant culture and lush natural environment, in particular, left a deep impression as an experience that spoke to all five senses. He also recalls unconsciously training his nose whenever he visited duty-free shops during those years. His parents giving him his first perfume remains another symbolic memory.

The Paris Fashion World and Fifteen Years at L’Oréal

After six years in Asia, Franck returned to France to continue his education. He completed a university business program in Dijon, then enrolled at the Institut Français de la Mode, or IFM, in Paris. There, he encountered many inspiring talents of his own generation, later recalling that “Paris in the 1990s was full of truly talented people.”

He says that words spoken at the entrance ceremony by Pierre Bergé, co-founder of Yves Saint Laurent, still guide him today.​

“I have just one piece of advice for you: whatever happens, keep following your dreams.”​

— Pierre Bergé

After graduating from IFM, Franck joined L’Oréal Luxe, the group’s luxury division, where he pursued an intensive career for fifteen years. According to the career history published on LinkedIn, his work for Giorgio Armani during that period included managing the Acqua di Giò franchise and its expansion in the United States, as well as helping create the Mania franchise. Later, working on Viktor&Rolf, he led the creation and global rollout of Flowerbomb and Antidote. He is also said to have been involved with Spicebomb.

One story about Flowerbomb’s development tells how the team turned a policy of using neither television nor major media into an opportunity. Working through hundreds of samples, they kept asking how to create a powerful impression and desire, until they finally found that “bomb.”​

New York and the Revelation That Led to Élisire

In 2007, Franck moved to New York City. While working as a consultant, he made time to devote himself seriously to the painting he had practiced since childhood. He became particularly absorbed in color-field painting, the style of abstract painting established by Mark Rothko and composed of large areas of color, and had opportunities to exhibit in galleries.​

As he pursued color more deeply, Franck recognized a parallel: both color and fragrance act directly on emotion, beyond language. That conviction gradually became a question. Could he create a brand that brought the two together?

“In 2014, I had a revelation. I felt the time had come to go a step further in the act of creation. That was when I conceived Élisire, my own collection born from a love of color and a love of fragrance.”​

— Franck Salzwedel

Élisire thus emerged as a perfume brand in which a French painter living in New York brought together fourteen years of luxury-industry experience and his artistic sensibility. It debuted at Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue in New York in late 2015, and was subsequently stocked by the Paris concept store Colette, which closed to widespread regret in 2017.​

During the pandemic, from 2020 onward, Franck moved from New York to Provence in southern France. He has continued creating amid the region’s abundant natural surroundings ever since, with the brand’s new releases emerging from there.​

The Brand’s Commitments

Translating the Miracle of Color into Fragrance

The name Élisire is a coined word combining the French élixir, meaning an elixir or magical potion, with désir, meaning desire. True to its name, the brand positions all its fragrances as elixirs of desire, seeking to express the dynamism of color and emotion through scent.

Salzwedel’s own words on the official website capture the essence of this philosophy.​

“With Élisire, I wanted to tell a story driven by my love of fragrance and painting and my fascination with nature: the world, the sky, the sun, light, the stars, and the elements. Above all, the miracle of color and its effect on the sensory and emotional spectrum. I envisioned Élisire’s perfumes as halos of color rising to awaken every sense, like auroras, dawn, or dusk.”​

— Franck Salzwedel

Collaborations with Carefully Chosen Perfumers

One of Élisire’s defining characteristics is its collaboration with leading perfumers. Its roster includes Alberto Morillas, Pierre Negrin, Philippine Courtière, Ilias Ermenidis, Clément Gavarry, and Bérénice Watteau.

Each perfume is conceived not merely as a consumer product but as a work of art created by these perfumers in response to Salzwedel’s brief. Extrait Noir, for example, began when Franck became captivated by the scent of a handmade botanical balm. With only a little left, he took it to Pierre Negrin at Firmenich and asked him to elevate its camphoraceous scent into a perfume. Development is said to have taken at least three years.​

“The flowers of Provence are always growing and blooming, their scents constantly traveling on the air. The sun keeps shining even in bitter cold, setting in a spectacular palette of amber.”​

— Franck Salzwedel

Bottle and Packaging: Modernizing Our Grandparents’ Antique Perfume Bottles

The packaging was designed by Salzwedel’s longtime friend, art director Malin Ericson, who had worked on campaigns for Gran’s Prada. The bottle is simple, transparent glass, while its crystal cap has an Art Deco-inspired, multifaceted cut that refracts the light in intricate ways.​

“It looks like a modernized version of the antique perfume bottles our grandparents had. I wanted Élisire to convey a certain sense of heritage.”​

— Franck Salzwedel

The outer paper boxes reproduce Salzwedel’s own color-field paintings, embodying each perfume’s particular color. The liquids themselves are subtly tinted, coordinating with the paper bands around the bottle necks. Together, these details create an experience of seeing fragrance.​

Ethics and Sustainability

Élisire is an independent perfume house that takes a handcrafted approach throughout production and distribution. Every product is vegan and cruelty-free, with no animal testing, and uses ethically certified raw materials. While emphasizing ingredients of natural origin, it also actively embraces molecules synthesized through lower-impact green chemistry, following a best-of-nature-and-science approach.​

The house is also committed to highly concentrated extrait de parfum formulas, containing fragrance at levels far above the market average. Its official website states that “whatever the cost, nothing can be too beautiful as long as the result can be perceived.” Some of its perfumes are said to have taken at least twenty years to develop.​

The Fragrance Range

Élisire’s fragrances are currently organized into three main collections. All creations are offered as extraits de parfum, although some come in eau de parfum form.

Collection Première

Centered on the five fragrances introduced with the brand’s debut in 2015, this collection features bright, vivid colors and contemporary interpretations of classical themes. Two sizes are available: 30 ml and 50 ml.

• Ambre Nomade: A fragrance centered on spices, patchouli, and ylang-ylang. Its theme is a journey to foreign lands, recalling Franck’s boyhood in Indonesia. Created by Pierre Negrin.​
• Eau Papaguéna: A bright aromatic fragrance with grapefruit blossom, Calabrian bergamot, and Ambrox. Created by Pierre Negrin.
• Poudre Désir: An iris-centered powdery floral, presented in pink packaging. Created by Alberto Morillas.
• Jasmin Paradis: A jasmine fragrance illuminated by Sicilian bergamot and orange blossom, which Salzwedel says reminds him of Zanzibar. Created by Alberto Morillas.​
• Élixir Absolu: A fruity floral in which tropical flowers such as tiare, ylang-ylang, and mimosa bloom in abundance. Created by Ilias Ermenidis.​

Collection Métallique

Introduced from 2017 onward, these creations feature denser, more experimental formulas. Their bottles have metallic finishes in gold, silver, black, white, pink, and other colors.​​

• Desired: A sumptuous oriental fragrance opening with clove, cumin, and saffron, followed by layers of jasmine, rose, vanilla, oud, and patchouli. A nectar of desire housed in a gold bottle. Created by Philippine Courtière.​
• Oderose: Centered on Damask rose, with raspberry and davana, a flower from Ethiopia, wrapped in a silvery glow. Created by Philippine Courtière.​
• Érose: A sensual floral starring tuberose, jasmine, and ylang-ylang, in a rose-gold bottle.​
• Extrait Noir: Opens with thyme, eucalyptus, and camphor before unfolding into Ceylon cinnamon, lavandin, and leather, then moving toward an amber-toned drydown. Created by Pierre Negrin and released in 2021.​
• Extrait Blanc: Inspired by an Indian milk drink, this milky white fragrance is composed around sandalwood and ginger.

Collection Chromatique

The newest collection is said to explore the dark side of color.​

• Hautbois: A dense woody fragrance centered on oud from Bengal, layered with a vegan accord of Provençal honey, guaiac wood, and vetiver. Presented in a bronze-colored bottle. Created by Clément Gavarry and released in 2024.​Hautbois is the French word for oboe and means “high wood.” It also refers to woody materials, bois: a playful name intended to embody a deep woody scent resembling the resonance of a string instrument.​
• Aliksir: A modern ambery woody fragrance in which oud, oregano, suede leather, and patchouli merge. The oregano comes from Türkiye and the oud from Bangladesh. Created by Philippine Courtière and released in 2025.​
• In Fabula: A gourmand chypre bursting with blackcurrant, red berries, rose absolute, and a hazelnut accord. Presented in a raspberry-colored bottle. Created by Bérénice Watteau and released in 2025.

By the Way…

• The Origin of the Name Élisire: Unfamiliar in both English and Japanese, the name is a blend of élixir, an elixir or magical potion, and désir, desire. The name itself distills the brand’s philosophy, also expressed in an Instagram caption as “a fusion of elixir and desire, where color becomes fragrance.”​
• Provence and New York: Two Points of Origin: For many years, Salzwedel painted while on holiday in Provence, saying that the place marked a turning point in his life. Lavender fields and blue skies led him toward color-field painting and eventually became the direct inspiration for Élisire. Since the pandemic, he has moved to Provence permanently and continues to create in a landscape that embodies the brand’s philosophy.​