BDK Parfums

“I always begin with a blank sheet of paper, a canvas with nothing on it. The process by which a story takes shape from there, that moment born of collaboration with a perfumer, is what always drives me.”
— David Benedek, founder of BDK Parfums​

Basic Information

• Founded: 2016, in Paris
• Founder: David Benedek (Japanese transliterations: Daviddo Benedekku and Deividdo Benedekku)
• Base: The Palais-Royal district of Paris
• Official website: https://bdkparfums.com
• A note on pronunciation: “BDK” is an abbreviation of Benedek. It is sometimes pronounced “bé-dé-ka” in French, while in Japan the brand is marketed as “Bee Dee Kay Parfums.”

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

The Benedek Family’s History in Perfumery

The story of BDK Parfums is not David Benedek’s alone. It begins with the Benedek family’s deep connection to perfume across three generations.

David’s paternal grandparents had roots in Romania and Hungary. After the Second World War, they left their homeland, which had come under communist rule, and sought refuge in Paris in the early 1950s. His grandfather had been a lawyer, but his qualifications were not recognized in France. His grandmother, meanwhile, began working as a beautician for Hungarian women living in Paris. Surrounded by talk of the perfumes worn by affluent Parisiennes, she asked his grandfather for a perfume one day. Astonished by its price, he had an idea: obtain authorized distribution rights for leading French perfume brands and sell them at American military bases in France.

“One day, my grandfather approached French perfume brands such as Dior (in Japanese), Jean Patou, and Worth, and obtained the rights to sell them at American military bases. The soldiers eagerly bought perfumes to take home to their wives, and it was a great success.”
— From an article in The Perfume Society

The business proved highly successful, and his grandfather decided to open his own perfumery in Paris. Tragically, he died suddenly of a heart attack just one month before it was due to open. David’s grandmother and his father, then in his twenties, took over.​

The result was Benlux, a perfume and luxury-goods shop opposite the Louvre in Paris, near the Palais-Royal. Visited by tourists from around the world, the store is still run by David’s parents.

Grandmother Édith and an Education in Scent

His grandmother Édith was a particularly important figure in David’s life.

“I remember drawing perfume bottles in the living room when I was seven or eight. After my grandmother retired, we spent a great deal of time together. Her bathroom held a beautiful collection of perfumes from Lalique, Révillon, Dior, and others, and she was always teaching me about their histories and the nuances of their scents.”
— David Benedek​

His grandmother’s terrace overflowed with flowers. In spring, tulips, pansies, mimosa, and magnolia bloomed in abundance; summers in Corsica were wrapped in a warm, salty scent, with a sea breeze reminiscent of Calone (in Japanese), a synthetic marine fragrance ingredient. These childhood memories are strongly reflected in the world of BDK Parfums.​

David’s Education and the Birth of the Brand

David was born in Paris in 1989. His father has a Romanian background, while his mother has Algerian and Moroccan roots.

After studying economics and management in Beijing and New York in 2010, he enrolled at the Institut Français de la Mode in 2012. He chose perfumery as his specialization in the master’s program and spent about a year learning about fragrance ingredients, olfactory families, and their characteristics with a team at Givaudan. He also trained at the Paris perfume school Institut Cinquième Sens, refining his own olfactory vision.

“I am not a perfumer. As a creative director, I am deeply involved in the creative process, and I continue to learn from the perfumers, the specialists.”
— David Benedek​

He began developing the concept at 24 and officially launched BDK Parfums in 2016, at the age of 26, with an initial collection of five fragrances. It was an unusually young age to establish an independent perfume house.​

“I admit I was very young. But I had absolute confidence in this project. Strangely enough, it had always been in my mind.”
— David Benedek​

Rather than relying on sales through the family business, Benlux, David demonstrated the brand’s independence by securing a place at Liquides, a niche perfumery in Paris. The decision paid off: within just a few years of its launch, BDK Parfums had expanded to countries including Ukraine, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Russia, and Hungary. Today, it is stocked by more than 200 carefully selected stores in over 30 countries, including renowned department stores such as Harrods in London and Le Bon Marché in Paris.

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The Brand’s Commitments

The Concept of an Olfactory Library

BDK Parfums describes itself as a contemporary “olfactory library.”

“I conceived BDK Parfums as an olfactory library. Like book covers, the perfume boxes contain stories bounded only by the possibilities of interpretation and imagination.”
— David Benedek​

The outer packaging does indeed resemble a bound book; lined up on a shelf, the boxes look like a library of scents. Each creation tells a story whose ending changes with the wearer’s memories and interpretation. This idea runs throughout the design.

The Creative Process: From Words and Colors to Scent

David’s creative work always begins with a blank sheet of paper. He lists words, connects colors, and builds mood boards. His experience with painting as a teenager informs his distinctive method of linking ingredients and colors.​

“Words are colors, places, feelings, and ingredients. Once I have the list, I build the fragrance from it. I don’t think of the scent first; I think of words and colors first.”
— David Benedek​

For the Collection Parisienne, discussed below, he imagines a story before choosing the ingredients. For the Collection Matières, he takes the opposite approach, starting with an ingredient and building a story around it. These two contrasting methods give BDK Parfums its many facets.​

David’s approach is to give perfumers “complete freedom.” He sets no price-per-kilogram limit, with some houses using materials costing as much as €400–500/kg, creating a generous creative environment not found at major houses. Only friends and family evaluate the trials; he does not seek consumer testing or buyers’ opinions. His conviction is that “creation is intensely private.”​

Made-in-France Craftsmanship

BDK Parfums places importance on French craftsmanship at every stage of production.

• Bottles: Made by master glassmakers in Normandy. A reheating process gives them distinctive clarity and brilliance, beautifully revealing the color of the perfume inside.​
• Caps: Made by traditional jewelers near Paris. Inspired by the domed roof of the Grand Palais, an iconic Parisian building, their design complements the minimal, Art Deco-style bottles.
• Labels: Printed in Bordeaux and applied individually by hand.​
• Outer boxes: Made by a company in the Sarthe region, with a finish reminiscent of bookbinding.​

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The Fragrance Lineup

BDK Parfums consists of four collections, each with its own theme and imaginative world.

Collection Parisienne

The main collection takes inspiration from the scenery, people, and atmosphere of Paris. It is the starting point of BDK Parfums and the series at the heart of the brand.

• Bouquet de Hongrie: A tribute to grandmother Édith and the only creation to carry her name on its packaging. A classical floral bouquet evoking the spring flowers on her terrace. Composed by Serge Majoullier.
• Pas Ce Soir: Its bold, provocative name means “Not Tonight.” A spicy, gourmand chypre of quince, orange blossom, and black pepper. Composed by Violaine Collas.​
• Rouge Smoking: A tribute to the tuxedo jacket Yves Saint Laurent designed for women, expressing the decadent beauty of Pigalle. Cherry, black vanilla, and heliotrope. Selected as a finalist in the 2019 FiFi Awards France. Composed by Amélie Bourgeois (in Japanese) of Studio Flair.
• Gris Charnel: BDK Parfums’ signature creation and biggest bestseller. A sensual story of two people dancing on the banks of the Seine, with fig and black tea accompanying a duet of Indian sandalwood and Bourbon vetiver. Composed by Mathilde Bijaoui (in Japanese).
• Nuit de Sable: The story of two people meeting in the Palais-Royal gardens on a summer night. Turkish rose, a hot-sand accord, and cardamom. Composed by Marie Schnirer.​

Collection Matières

A collection that puts the raw material itself in the spotlight. Whether natural or synthetic, a single principal ingredient serves as the starting point, with the aim of drawing unexpected facets from it.

• Tubéreuse Impériale: Indian tuberose takes the lead in this powerful, sunlit floral, supported by ylang-ylang, jasmine, and iris. Composed by Cécile Matton (in Japanese).
• Oud Abramad: A “political fragrance” imagined as a bridge between East and West. Saffron, rose, and oud. Composed by Mathilde Bijaoui.
• Crème de Cuir: A transparent leather stripped of animalic notes, with bergamot and pineapple leaves melting into suede. Composed by Violaine Collas.​
• Velvet Tonka: A gourmand of orange blossom, almond, vanilla, and tonka bean, imagining a meeting point between the two worlds of Morocco and Paris.​

Collection Azur

Launched in 2020, this collection takes the Mediterranean as its theme. Its flacons are tinted a beautiful azure blue.​

• Citrus Riviera: Memories of summer at Cap d’Antibes in southern France. Citrus, fig, jasmine, and orange blossom. Composed by Ralf Schwieger (in Japanese).​
• Sel d’Argent: Memories of childhood summer holidays at his grandmother’s house in Porticcio, Corsica. A “second-skin” scent that leaves a veil of salt and musk on the skin. Composed by Anne-Sophie Behaghel (in Japanese).​

Collection Exclusive

A special collection that began as a Harrods exclusive in London. Its concept is to bring two main ingredients into dialogue, each enhancing the other to create a new harmony.

• Tabac Rose: Composed by Julien Rasquinet (in Japanese).​
• French Bouquet: A contemporary reinterpretation of the powerful aldehydes of the 1970s. Composed by Amélie Bourgeois.​
• Vanille Leather: A new creation born of a collaboration with IFF master perfumer Dominique Ropion (in Japanese). It began with falling in love with a vanilla accord encountered by chance.​
• Other offerings include Pas Ce Soir Extrait, Gris Charnel Extrait, and Velvet Tonka Extrait, reinterpretations of existing favorites as extraits, special versions with higher concentrations.​

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Incidentally…

• From the outset, “BDK” was conceived as an abbreviation of “Benedek.” David himself wanted to avoid “playing the family-name card,” yet wanted the initials to carry his family’s history, revealing a subtle sense of balance.
• Pink pepper (in Japanese) appears as a top note in almost every BDK Parfums creation, making it a quiet signature of the brand. David describes it as “a soft, sensual, unobtrusive spice. It is gustatory; it penetrates and blends.”​
• Grandmother Édith’s name appears on the packaging of Bouquet de Hongrie. David calls it the most emotional of all his creations, and it was the only one she was able to smell during her lifetime.
• At the 2019 FiFi Awards, sometimes called the Academy Awards of the perfume industry, Rouge Smoking was one of three finalists in the independent niche-brand category. David reflected, “If I could have told myself this five years ago, how many worries it would have taken away.”​

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