Scentis: Scent Strips and Perfume Blotters from Grasse

“The good blotters will be the blotter answering to one specific need.”

Jérôme Algieri-Liguori

Someone makes the white scent strips handed out at perfume counters, the mouillettes used to absorb perfume, lift it to the nose, and note down its name. Scentis, based in the Grasse region of France, supplies these small tools to laboratories and retail counters alike.

Looking at Scentis’s work, a blotter becomes more than a piece of printing paper. Will it be dipped into liquid or sprayed? Will scents be assessed one at a time or combined? The shapes of the paper and the tools around it reflect the work of the people handling perfume.

At a Glance
Jean-Paul Malerba’s Venture and the Company’s Development
Choosing a Blotter’s Shape and Paper
1. Paper for Dipping and Paper for Spraying
2. Specialist Paper for Fragrance and Surface Finishes
Paper Forms That Make a Scent Memorable
1. Windmills, Origami Boats, and Flowers to Hold
2. “Wet & See”: An Image Appears When Sprayed
Bags and Holders Around the Blotter
1. Bags That Separate Scents and Keep Notes Visible
2. Arranging Several Strips to Assess Combinations
References

At a Glance

Name: Scentis
Founded: 2005. The company was registered with the RNE on January 6, 2006.
Founder: Jean-Paul Malerba
Location: Saint-Cézaire-sur-Siagne, in the Grasse region of France
Business: Making scent strips, printed materials, and tools for presenting fragrance
Official website: Scentis

Jean-Paul Malerba’s Venture and the Company’s Development

From Sample-Card Expertise to a Business at Home

Malerba is a native of Grasse. Alongside his contact with the perfume world, he spent more than 20 years as technical director at a European sample-card company. Drawing on that experience, he founded Scentis in 2005. He began at home, initially working with just his business partner.

The expertise here is not the art of composing perfume itself. It is the skill of choosing, cutting, and printing paper for testing scents, then shaping it to suit the setting in which it will be used. As the business expanded to fragrance laboratories in Grasse and perfume brands, the house became too small. In 2013, Scentis stayed within the Grasse region and moved to the industrial area of Saint-Cézaire.

From Sales and Marketing to a Change in Leadership

In 2016, Jérôme Algieri-Liguori joined to handle sales and marketing. Scentis describes his arrival as a turning point in the expansion of its international business.

In December 2023, Fragrantica’s Dariia Fessalonika asked Algieri-Liguori and Audrey Donato about their work with paper and its forms. Their answers reveal a company combining laboratory tools with expressive ways of introducing perfume to people.

Subsequently, effective January 29, 2025, JAL INVEST, represented by Algieri-Liguori, succeeded Malerba as the company’s president. A report on a company visit by Grasse Entreprises that same year also introduced Algieri-Liguori as its new leader. The founder’s background and the present management structure need to be distinguished.

Scentis Timeline

Year	Event
2005	Malerba founds Scentis, starting the business at home with his partner.
2006	The company is registered with the RNE on January 6. This is distinct from the founding year in the official company history.
2013	According to the official history, the company moves to the industrial area of Saint-Cézaire.
2016	Algieri-Liguori joins to handle sales and marketing.
2019	A new collection of holders is developed in collaboration with Jean-Christophe Gaydon.
2023	Algieri-Liguori and Donato explain blotter materials, uses, and bespoke production in a Q&A.
2025	On January 29, JAL INVEST succeeds Malerba as the company’s president.

Choosing a Blotter’s Shape and Paper

Paper for Dipping and Paper for Spraying

Algieri-Liguori explains that dipping paper into liquid and spraying it call for different sizes and shapes. Narrow strips used in laboratories are not treated as interchangeable with paper used to introduce perfume at a retail counter. The purpose determines the form.

The current official shop likewise lists square “BLOTTERS PROFESSIONNELS” and rectangular “AEROSOLS LABORATOIRES.” Behind their shared appearance as white paper lie differences in the area that carries the scent and the way the paper is handled.

The company makes not only individual strips but also blotter booklets. Rectangular, pointed, and paddle-shaped forms can be chosen to suit the application and bound in the required quantity. This format keeps strips together for use in laboratories, at trade shows, and in business meetings.

Specialist Paper for Fragrance and Surface Finishes

Scentis selects a dedicated perfume paper known as “carte à parfum.” Its specialist paper has a neutral pH and is available in white, black, and beige. The choice of material is intended to convey fragrance faithfully; colour and appearance are not the only starting points.

This paper can be combined with single- or multicolour printing, foil stamping, embossing to create relief, and bespoke die-cutting. The work adds a brand’s individual visual and tactile character to a material chosen to receive fragrance.

Paper Forms That Make a Scent Memorable

Windmills, Origami Boats, and Flowers to Hold

Among the projects Algieri-Liguori mentioned in the 2023 Q&A were a windmill for Hermès and an origami boat for Dior. Donato’s example was a floral design for the Good Girl fragrance.

“a flower made for Carolina Herrera Good Girl.”

Audrey Donato (excerpt)

For this flower, foil-stamped, specially die-cut paper was attached to a rod strong enough to be held during fragrance testing. The work goes beyond changing an outline to creating a structure that can be handled. Even the brief moment of spraying perfume and handing it to someone brings together printing and finishing skills.

“Wet & See”: An Image Appears When Sprayed

“Wet & See” is a process in which spraying perfume onto a card reveals an image or message. Donato describes it as a way of communicating through surprise, for occasions such as the introduction of a new perfume.

Spraying, normally a means of applying scent, also becomes the action that reveals a picture. Paper is no longer simply a backing for words about perfume: it becomes a medium completed by the user’s own movement.

Bags and Holders Around the Blotter

Bags That Separate Scents and Keep Notes Visible

The tools continue to play a role after fragrance has been applied. The glassine-paper bags known as “sachet cristal” are designed to hold blotters individually. Notes remain readable through the translucent paper, and a fold-over flap encloses the strip.

Scentis describes these bags as tools for keeping fragrances separate and protected. Their design considers not just the moment of smelling but also the time spent organising and carrying the strips.

Arranging Several Strips to Assess Combinations

For holders that grip and support blotters, Scentis collaborated with Jean-Christophe Gaydon, a designer working in perfumery. Together they redesigned a perfumer’s tool that holds several strips and is rotated to assess combinations of different scents.

The metal body has removable clips; single-, three-, and five-branch models hold between 5 and 25 strips. Zamak alloy provides weight and strength, while a separate ruler-shaped version is made from aluminium. These tools respond to the hand movements involved in working with several scents, rather than smelling just one strip.

What makes Scentis interesting is the way these different uses emerge from behind an ordinary sheet of white paper. The person making perfume, the person introducing it, and the person trying it for the first time are connected by choices: the shape of the paper, the bag that carries it, and the fittings that support it.