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, 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, 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 at least 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.​

The Fragrance Lineup

Paris and its people, the character of a raw material, summers by the Mediterranean, the feel of fabrics and embellishments: BDK Parfums has several ways of beginning a fragrance. David Benedek describes starting with a story for Collection Parisienne and building a story around an ingredient for Collection Matières. The collections differ not only in how they smell, but in where the work begins.

Collection Parisienne

The collection from which the house began takes its subjects from the scenery, people, and atmosphere of Paris. A figure encountered at night or the memory of a garden becomes the subject of a perfume. The balance of flowers, fruit, spices, and woods changes with each person or scene.

Bouquet de Hongrie is dedicated to Benedek’s grandmother Édith, whose name appears on its packaging. Serge Majoullier composed a floral fragrance recalling the flowers on her terrace in spring and the quiet ritual of getting ready in the morning. Rose and jasmine meet the green fruitiness of blackcurrant and pear, softened by musk.

Pas Ce Soir, whose name means “Not Tonight,” imagines a free-spirited, enigmatic Parisian woman. Violaine Collas combines quince, orange blossom, and black pepper, giving the fruit and white flowers a woody chypre structure. The fragrance brings together vivid spice and sweetness.

Rouge Smoking moves into the nightlife of Pigalle. Its homage to the tuxedo jacket Yves Saint Laurent designed for women takes the form of a woman in a red suit. Amélie Bourgeois uses cherry, black vanilla, and heliotrope, bringing the softness of musk and tonka bean together with leathery labdanum. It was a finalist in the independent niche category of the 2019 FiFi Awards France.

Gris Charnel evokes the banks of the Seine and the intimacy of two people spending the night together. In Mathilde Bijaoui’s composition, sandalwood and Bourbon vetiver meet fig, black tea, and cardamom. The powdery brightness of iris and the resinous character of cistus give light and shade to the warm woods.

Nuit de Sable tells of a chance encounter in the Palais-Royal gardens that lasts late into the night. Marie Schnirer layers Turkish rose with cardamom, cinnamon, and nutmeg, leading into a warm sand accord that recalls the garden’s gravel paths.

Parisian architecture and light also become subjects. 312 Saint-Honoré takes its name from the address of the house’s first boutique. Alexandra Carlin translates its glass, concrete, and white Burgundy stone into the clarity of pink pepper, orange blossom, and white musks. Impadia turns to a Paris colored orange and pink by morning and evening light. Jordi Fernández combines Turkish and Bulgarian roses with Madagascan vanilla and a praline accord, adding creamy sweetness to the richness of the flowers.

Collection Matières

Collection Matières begins with the raw material itself. Whether natural or synthetic, an ingredient is explored for its character and the different facets that emerge when it meets other materials. Some perfumes enlarge the presence of a single flower; others pursue a texture, such as leather, built from several ingredients.

Indian tuberose takes the leading role in Tubéreuse Impériale. Cécile Matton expands its floral richness with jasmine, ylang-ylang, and iris. The creamy character of iris and sandalwood, together with the warmth of benzoin, adds fullness to the white-floral composition.

Oud Abramad was conceived as a meeting of Eastern and Western cultures. Benedek’s description of it as a political fragrance expressed his wish to bring cultures together through an oud that anyone could wear. Mathilde Bijaoui combines rose, saffron, cardamom, and incense to explore oud’s spicy, woody facets.

Crème de Cuir explores the texture of leather. Violaine Collas and Benedek sought a bright, translucent impression rather than pronounced animalic or smoky effects. Bergamot, mandarin leaf, and the green impression of pineapple lead into a suede accord, softened with musk and sandalwood.

Velvet Tonka is a powdery gourmand built around tonka bean, almond, orange blossom, and vanilla. At its center are the warm almond scent and milky, hay-like facets of tonka that Alexandra Carlin enjoys. The connection between Moroccan pastries and Paris is explored further in the later extrait.

Julien Rasquinet composed Tabac Rose, layering Turkish rose with tobacco and impressions of plum and chocolate. The smoothness of the flower sits alongside the strength of tobacco and patchouli.

Tabac Rose began with Benedek’s proposal for a rose perfume. His suggestion of adding tobacco connected with a scent that had fascinated Rasquinet for years. As a teenager, he did not smoke, but kept French tobacco flavored with peach, chocolate, and vanilla, returning to smell it again and again.

Vanille Leather grew from a vanilla accord Benedek encountered at IFF and developed with Dominique Ropion. Vanilla meets tuberose, jasmine, and orange blossom, while oakwood and patchouli suggest smoky leather. Both Tabac Rose and Vanille Leather have been presented within the Exclusive collection and are now also listed in Collection Matières.

For Vanille Caviar, Carlin turned to the glossy black interior of a split vanilla pod. The idea of drawing light from black also connects with the paintings of Pierre Soulages. Cocoa, Peru balsam, and labdanum provide depth around a vanilla-caviar accord with salty and mineral facets.

Collection Azur

Launched in 2020, Collection Azur draws on the Mediterranean places familiar to Benedek: summers at Cap d’Antibes, the Corsican coast, and gardens on Capri. In their blue bottles, the fragrances portray time spent in these places through fruit trees, flowers, and sun-warmed skin as well as the scent of the sea.

Citrus Riviera began with memories of a white house at Cap d’Antibes in the south of France and summers spent beside fruit trees. Ralf Schwieger combines the freshness of citrus and fig with jasmine, orange blossom, and immortelle, moving from the coolness of eucalyptus into patchouli and vetiver. Waterside air and garden plants meet in one fragrance.

Sel d’Argent recalls summer holidays at Benedek’s grandmother’s house in Porticcio, Corsica. Anne-Sophie Behaghel captures the feeling of salt crystals left on the skin after a swim as the sun warms it. A salty accord and white musks surround bergamot, grapefruit, orange blossom, and ylang-ylang.

For Villa Néroli, Alexandra Carlin imagined an orange garden overlooking Capri’s Faraglioni rocks. The growing sweetness of the flowers at dusk takes shape in a fragrance that moves from neroli, petitgrain, and lemon to orange blossom and vanilla.

Collection Exclusive

Collection Exclusive explores the resonance and contrast between two principal materials. It developed through fragrances such as Tabac Rose and French Bouquet, initially offered at Harrods. In 2019, Benedek spoke of considering how these early exclusives might later enter the regular collections. The current Collection Exclusive listing includes Ambre Safrano and French Bouquet.

In Ambre Safrano, Julien Rasquinet brings the impression of saffron together with the warmth of amber. Sweet plum, a black-leather accord, French oakwood, sandalwood, and vanilla give body to the spice.

After the success of Tabac Rose, Benedek approached Rasquinet again with the idea of a fiery amber. Rasquinet sought to make amber feel contemporary by moving away from its animalic facets and emphasizing boozy richness and vanilla. Saffron’s heat and soft leather complete the composition.

French Bouquet is an aldehydic chypre recalling French perfumes of the 1930s. Its starting point was Benedek’s memory of his grandmother applying her favorite perfume to her skirts and petticoats. Amélie Bourgeois drew on that recollection to create a modern homage, combining a floral bouquet with aldehydes, woods, and mossy notes.

Collection Studio

Collection Studio explores the meeting of perfume and fashion. It connects the world Benedek studied with fragrance worn on the skin, taking silk, leather embroidered with purple stones, and silver sequins as its subjects. The first three perfumes were composed by Jordi Fernández of Givaudan. Each is an Absolu de Parfum, with concentrations ranging from 40% to 48%.

Explaining his choice of woods, Fernández says, “I chose woods because they embody texture and structure in perfumery, much as fabrics do in fashion.” The different characters of sandalwood, oud, and cedar support the translation of three clothing materials into scent.

Stellar Silk expresses the softness of silk sliding across skin through the creamy texture of sandalwood. Ginger and cinnamon open the fragrance, while iris, vanilla, tonka bean, and benzoin lead into the fabric’s smooth feel. At a concentration of 48%, the composition pursues Fernández’s aim of turning touch into smell.

Oud Paradisio takes as its subject “Paradisio,” leather embroidered with purple stones. At 44% concentration, it contrasts dark oud with a cool, juicy pineapple accord, joined by Turkish and Bulgarian roses. Saffron, incense, and cocoa add further dimensions, translating the leather’s sculptural texture and purple gleam through contrasts of fruit, flowers, and wood.

Silver Ceremony begins with sequins and metallic embellishments that catch the light with every movement. Bergamot, green mandarin, and lemon open brightly with ginger and pink pepper, supported by Atlas cedar, patchouli, labdanum, and a citrus-oud accord. At 40% concentration, it brings together the sharpness of reflected light and the depth of wood.

Reinterpreting Fragrances as Extraits

Gris Charnel, Pas Ce Soir, and Rouge Smoking each have an Extrait de Parfum alongside their eau de parfum. These belong to Collection Parisienne, while Velvet Tonka Extrait belongs to Collection Matières. The extraits reinterpret existing fragrances, a different starting point from Studio’s three new creations inspired by fashion materials.

For Gris Charnel Extrait, Mathilde Bijaoui adds patchouli to sandalwood and tonka bean and gives greater fullness to vanilla. As she explains, “Revisiting a perfume that has already found its audience is much more challenging than starting from a blank page.” Beyond its 30% concentration, the reinterpretation extends the original’s intimacy into deeper impressions of woods and resins.

In Pas Ce Soir Extrait, Violaine Collas uses cocoa and patchouli to deepen jasmine and a quince accord. Rouge Smoking Extrait is the work of Amélie Bourgeois and Margaux Le Paih Guérin. It shifts the emphasis from the almond-like impression of cherry stones toward juicy flesh, adding oud, saffron, and a milk accord. Both have a concentration of 30%.

Velvet Tonka Extrait is the first extrait in Collection Matières. Alexandra Carlin combines the original’s bitter almond with a lightly salted roasted-pistachio accord. A Saffiano-leather accord brings an urban Parisian facet to the sweetness of Moroccan pastries in a fragrance concentrated at 30%.

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 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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