Juliette Has a Gun — Juliette, Gun in Hand, Shoots Through the World with Perfume

“Juliette is armed because she asserts her individuality. Juliette represents Shakespeare’s romantic heroine. The ‘gun’ is her weapon of seduction—in other words, of course, her perfume.”

— Romano Ricci, founder

Basic Information

Year founded: 2006 (the brand concept dates from 2005)
Founder: Romano Ricci
Official website: https://www.juliettehasagun.com/en
Based in: Paris, France (and Grasse)

The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

Born into an Illustrious Family

Romano Ricci was born on May 10, 1978, in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris. The name he bears is a legend in the history of French fashion. His great-grandmother was Nina Ricci (born Maria Nielli, 1883–1970)—the Nina Ricci who was born in Turin, Italy, and founded an haute couture house bearing her name in Paris with her son Robert in 1932. His grandfather, Robert Ricci, was also the creator of L’Air du Temps, one of the defining fragrances of the twentieth century.

Romano spent most of his childhood near Fontainebleau, not far from the Nina Ricci perfume factory. When he was around ten, his grandfather Robert is said to have personally taught his young grandson how to distinguish different fragrance notes and how perfume is made.

“My earliest olfactory memory is the scent of L’Air du Temps. That scent filled the entire family factory. That gardenia note still takes me ‘home.’”

— Romano Ricci

In a sense, it may have been inevitable that Romano, growing up in this environment, would discover the world of perfume. At the same time, however, he spent many years trying to escape that “destiny.”

Escape and Apprenticeship—The Racing Driver Years

The young Romano felt a certain rebelliousness toward the fame generated by the family business. There was a time when he seriously aspired to become a racing driver, throwing himself into an adrenaline-fueled world just like his father, Jean-Louis Ricci, who was also a racing driver.

Yet his return to the world of perfume was steadily approaching. When Nina Ricci was sold to Puig in 1998, Romano decided to take on the perfume industry under his own steam. What is especially notable is the way he undertook his apprenticeship. He joined a company called France Fragrances, which was virtually unknown in the industry, and continued studying perfumery for several years without telling anyone that his surname was Ricci.

“I wanted to forge a path different from my family’s. First, I wanted to prove who I was.”

(A summary based on several publications describing Romano Ricci’s brand philosophy. This is not a verbatim translation of his own words.)

This “anonymous apprenticeship” continues to be recounted as an episode illustrating the depth of his commitment to his brand. Having learned about the world of perfumery, Romano eventually set his sights on a brilliant perfumer: Francis Kurkdjian, one of the industry’s foremost “noses,” who had created numerous celebrated fragrances, including Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Male and Narciso Rodriguez’s For Her. Romano persuaded Kurkdjian to join him, and together they would create the brand’s first perfumes.

Setting Sail from Colette in 2006

With his preparations complete, Romano launched Juliette has a Gun at the legendary Paris concept store Colette in December 2006. His choice of Colette, then one of the centers of the Paris cultural scene, as the launchpad was characteristically Romano.

Two fragrances were unveiled at the launch: Miss Charming, representing Juliette’s “light” side, and Lady Vengeance, embodying her “dark” side. Both were co-creations with Francis Kurkdjian.

From the third fragrance, Citizen Queen (2008), onward, Romano began composing the fragrances himself, and the brand began its journey as “Romano Ricci’s brand” in the fullest sense.

The Brand’s Commitments

Philosophy—Perfume Is Both “Art” and “Craft”

In a nutshell, the core of Juliette Has a Gun’s brand philosophy is “restoring perfume to what it should be.” There are words Romano repeats: “Perfume has not yet exhausted its possibilities. It must be an art and a craft.”

“I do not follow trends or use market research as my guide. Instead, I follow my intuition and focus on creating fragrances that feel authentic. With just a little rebelliousness.”

— Romano Ricci

The philosophy is consistent in distribution, too. The brand maintains selective distribution exclusively through concept stores, department stores, and specialist perfume shops. At the time of an investment announcement in 2023, it was described as being available in more than 50 countries through approximately 2,500 carefully selected points of sale. Its stance of prioritizing the protection of the brand’s world over expansion into the mass market has remained unchanged since its founding.

Bottles and Packaging—Bullets and Modernity

The bottle design gives physical form to the brand’s world. Its minimal, sharp appearance sets it apart from conventional images of “femininity.” The portable Bullet Spray is a refillable purse spray in a silver, bullet-shaped case, with the playful detail that it is roughly the size of a lipstick. It is an emblematic product that also embodies the gun metaphor visually in its packaging.

A Commitment to Ingredients—Origins and Quality

A commitment to the quality and individuality of fragrance ingredients can be seen throughout the collection. A representative example is Ex Vetiver, which blends vetivers from three different countries of origin: Haiti, India, and Indonesia. Even the name, in which “Ex” is said to mean “derived from” in Latin, expresses a commitment to ingredients and a sense of intellectual humor.

The Fragrance Lineup

A Collection of “Episodes in Juliette’s Life”

The Juliette Has a Gun collection is designed not merely as an assortment of perfumes but as a “collection of portraits” depicting the many facets of a modern woman named Juliette. Each perfume is an “episode” in her life, with its own personality and story.

The First Two Fragrances: Light and Shadow

Miss Charming (2006): Moroccan rose, lychee, strawberry, and musk. One of the brand’s debut fragrances, expressing Juliette’s innocent, charming side.
Lady Vengeance (2006): Bulgarian rose, patchouli, vanilla, and ambroxan. “The fragrance of a lady who knows the art of seduction.” Co-created with Francis Kurkdjian, it became a signature fragrance representing the brand.

A Symbol of Innovation: Not a Perfume

Not a Perfume (2010) is an essential part of the story of Juliette Has a Gun, as well as a provocative creation that sent shock waves through the niche perfume world of its time.

Its composition is extremely simple: Cetalox is the only fragrance ingredient that constitutes the scent, while the product also contains alcohol and water. It is an ambery fragrance ingredient in the same family as Ambroxan. Normally used in perfume as a supporting base note for other ingredients, it was deliberately elevated by Romano to the starring role.

The official website explains that Cetalox is a fragrance ingredient normally used as a base note, but that it plays the central role in this creation. The creator’s comments also discuss his affection for this ingredient and how he made a perfume with it alone as the basis of the scent.

Its uniqueness was further enhanced by the brand’s description of it as “allergen-free” and by accounts that the impression of its scent changes depending on the wearer’s body temperature and skin condition. The proposition “This is not a perfume” prompts the very question of what perfume is.

Subsequent Developments

The lineup has continued to expand steadily since the success of Not a Perfume. Some representative fragrances are listed below.

Fragrance	Release Year	Main Notes
Miss Charming	2006	Rose, lychee, strawberry
Lady Vengeance	2006	Rose, patchouli, vanilla
Citizen Queen	2008	Aldehydes, powder, iris
Not a Perfume	2010	Cetalox (single molecule)
Gentlewoman	2015	Lavender, neroli, bergamot
Mmmm…	2016	Raspberry, caramel, vanilla
Vanilla Vibes	2019	Vanilla, sea salt
Musc Invisible	2020	Musk, cotton
Pear Inc.	2021	Ambroxan, pear
Ex Vetiver	Recent years	Vetiver (from Haiti, India, and Indonesia)

Regarding Vanilla Vibes, Romano explains that combining vanilla with sea salt made the fragrance more elegant without allowing it to become overly sweet.

“I had wanted to create something with vanilla, but I did not like fragrances that were too sweet. Adding sea salt kept the vanilla from becoming excessive and made it more elegant.”

— Romano Ricci

Incidentally…

The Fedora and a Tribute to His Grandfather

Romano Ricci’s trademark is his fedora, a creased-crown hat. Remarkably, he is said to have worn one since the age of fifteen. According to Romano, it is “a mark of respect for my grandfather and a tribute to the elegance of the 1950s and 1960s.”

Co-founding the Niche Perfume Concept Store Nose

In 2012, Romano co-founded the niche perfume concept store Nose in Paris with Mark Buxton, Silvio Levi, Nicolas Cloutier, and others. They developed an “olfactive diagnosis” system based on data from the analysis of more than 2,500 perfumes, recommending the most suitable fragrances to customers through staff, iPads, and smartphones—an innovative approach for its time.

The Perfumer Who Competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans

Before being a perfumer, Romano is also a dedicated racing driver. He first competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2000 alongside his father, Jean-Louis Ricci, finishing 23rd overall. He returned to Le Mans in 2018, and his passion for racing has not diminished since founding the brand.

A Thirty-Year Friendship with Erwin Creed

He is said to have been friends since childhood, for thirty years, with Erwin Creed of the distinguished fragrance house Creed. As heirs to prominent French fragrance families, the two have each followed their own paths.

Winning a FiFi Award in 2011

In May 2011, the French Fragrance Foundation presented Romano Ricci with the FiFi Awards 2011 Special Prize of the Board. Receiving the award just five years after the brand’s founding illustrates its rapid rise in the industry.

Arrival in Japan

Juliette Has a Gun made its full-scale entry into Japan in July 2025.

References