Liquides Imaginaires: Modern Alchemists Who Reveal the Invisible Through Scent

“Perfume has the power to preserve a precious memory forever, to share intimate pleasure, and to celebrate sacred rituals. But that is not all. It moves from darkness into light, becoming both a potion and an antidote. Perfume elevates us, projects us, enchants us, and sharpens our awareness.”
— Philippe Di Méo​

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Essential Information

• Brand name: Liquides Imaginaires, French for “imaginary liquids”
• Founded: 2011, originating in an art installation at Paris Design Week; commercial development of the brand followed in 2012–2013
• Founders: Philippe Di Méo, Artistic Director, and David Frossard, Business Director​
• Headquarters: Paris, France
• Official website: https://www.liquidesimaginaires.com​

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The Founders and the Origins of the Brand

A “Man of Water” Born in Marseille: Philippe Di Méo’s Early Life

To understand the world of Liquides Imaginaires, we must first get to know its central figure, Philippe Di Méo.

Philippe was born in Marseille in southern France in 1963. His childhood in this Mediterranean port nurtured a special affinity for water that would later become fundamental to his creative work. As a young man, he studied architecture at the Beaux-Arts school in Aix-en-Provence, then design at ESDI, the higher school of design in Paris, from 1985 to 1989. After graduating in 1989, he established his own agency, Reso Design, at just twenty-six.

At Reso Design, Philippe was less an architect than a scenographer, a director of spaces. Although he loved space, he reportedly regarded it as something “ephemeral and artistic.” Moving between Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, he created spatial and product designs for leading names including Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon, Louis Roederer, Baccarat, Christofle, Coca-Cola, Guerlain, Jean Paul Gaultier, Paco Rabanne, and Sephora.

“Design is merely a pretext for approaching other fields. Its greatest advantage is that it offers a method for answering a brief: finding freedom within constraints. I could have made my name with a chair, but I preferred fields with more of a narrative.”
— Philippe Di Méo​

A Detour Through Food: An Organic Restaurant and the Exploration of the Five Senses

An essential chapter in Philippe’s creative life is R’Aliment, the organic restaurant he opened on rue Charlot in Paris in 2002. In France at the time, “organic,” or bio, and gastronomy were seen as incompatible. Organic food was regarded as monastic fare, and La Vie Claire was virtually the only specialist retail chain. Entering that territory was a characteristically Philippe-like act of “subverting meaning.”

The experience would have a decisive influence on his later perfume creation. As Philippe himself explains:

“Contact with renowned chefs enriched my own work. Together, we tried to establish ‘sensual food rituals.’ I have always been fascinated by the concept of ritual. Those culinary experiences influenced the perfume brand. For example, the Les Eaux Sanguines trilogy was inspired by wine, and Les Eaux de l’Est by the culinary world.”
— Philippe Di Méo​

In 2009, he presented a provocative collection linking eroticism and the art of the table at Maison & Objet. In the gardens of the Palais-Royal, he also organized Haute Cuisine Days with fashion designer Alexandre Vauthier and pastry chef Christophe Adam. In this way, Philippe established his own position as a créateur working across all five senses.

Paris Design Week, 2011: The Revelation of “Holy Water”

The turning point came at an exhibition during Paris Design Week in 2011. Philippe was given the opportunity to create an art installation on the theme of perfume, with a “blank canvas” to work from. What arose within him was an urge to return to perfume’s origins.

In fact, Philippe had already registered the concept “L’Eau Bénite,” or holy water, as a trademark, hoping one day to create something under that name. At one point, he had even considered making it a mineral-water brand. But while preparing the exhibition, he first connected “holy water” with “the sacred origins of perfume.”​

“I did not know myself how deeply perfume was connected to its sacred origins. As a designer, I had previously worked for Guerlain, Paco Rabanne, and Gaultier, but none of those brands spoke about perfume’s sacred beginnings. The public knows almost nothing about them. People think perfume was invented for humans, when in fact it was invented for the gods. That deserves to be brought back into the light.”
— Philippe Di Méo​

The word “perfume” comes from the Latin per fumum, “through smoke.” Ancient Egyptian priests burned incense three times a day to commune with the gods: frankincense at dawn, myrrh at midday, and kyphi at dusk. Captivated by this original meaning of perfume, Philippe sought to move beyond the frameworks of beauty and cosmetics and restore its “spiritual dimension.”

The result was the first creation, Sancti, with frankincense at its heart: an answer to the question, “If holy water had a scent, what would it smell like?”​

Meeting David Frossard: The Fusion of Two Worlds

Liquides Imaginaires did not arise from Philippe’s dreams alone. His business partner, David Frossard, was indispensable.

David has an unusual background, having studied philosophy and devoted himself to boxing. His uncle ran a perfume-distribution business in Africa and the Indian Ocean region, and working in its warehouse as a student was his first encounter with the industry. In 2005, he founded his own company, Différentes Latitudes. Specializing in discovering and distributing niche perfume brands, it has supported the international development of now-renowned names such as Byredo, Memo Paris, Atelier Cologne, and Parfums de Marly.

Philippe’s exhibition in 2011 brought the two men together: the artistically inclined Philippe and the business-minded David. The brand’s official text describes these contrasting yet perfectly complementary personalities as follows.

“A multifaceted designer with a deep attachment to words, flavors, and sacred places, Philippe is the creative mind of Liquides Imaginaires. David, meanwhile, is grounded, constantly in motion, and the engine of the business’s growth. While keeping a firm grip on commercial development, he is also a man who can talk for hours about Malraux, Spinoza, and Greek mythology, and who rides his motorcycle down highways to replenish his ideas. Contrasting yet perfectly fused, each carrying his own paradoxes, they are driven by the same mission: to challenge the status quo of perfume and raise it to a deeper dimension.”
— Official brand text​

The Commercial Launch: From the First Trilogy to Nichebox’s Acquisition

Having refined their concept following the 2011 exhibition, the two worked with the major Swiss fragrance house Givaudan to develop the first trilogy, Les Eaux Delà, meaning “the waters beyond.” Its three fragrances, Sancti, Fortis, and Tumultu, expressed three worlds: holy water, protective power, and sensuality.​

Initially, however, distribution for this first trilogy was barely established. A full commercial rollout began in 2013. The concept store Liquides opened at 9 rue de Normandie in Paris’s Haut-Marais, alongside the release of the second trilogy, Les Eaux Sanguines. Sales at Barneys New York in the United States began that same year.

The brand grew steadily, reaching sales of €1 million by 2016. In 2018, the newly established holding company Nichebox acquired a majority stake in Liquides Imaginaires. Founded by Dino Pace, formerly of Perfume Holding, with backing from private investors and a Swiss fund, Nichebox positioned itself as a partner offering niche brands funding and industry expertise. Philippe remained artistic director and David general manager, and both retained stakes in the company.

The acquisition accelerated the brand’s expansion in Asia. A flagship store opened in Beijing in October 2018, followed in 2022 by a flagship in Gangnam, Seoul, and several shops-in-shops across South Korea through a partnership with the Hyundai group. In 2023, it also established a corner at Printemps Haussmann in Paris. By the time of the acquisition, the brand had grown to approximately 250 points of sale in thirty countries.

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What the Brand Stands For

“First Write, Then Smell”: Fragrance That Begins with a Story

The defining feature of Liquides Imaginaires is that perfume creation starts with a story. Philippe is not a perfumer, and he is explicit about that.

“I am not a perfumer and have no intention of calling myself one. I can have an olfactory intention and express it through a theme and words. Just as I would turn to a cabinetmaker to make furniture, I turn to a nose to create a fragrance. Because we speak different but complementary languages, we can make something stronger together.”
— Philippe Di Méo​

Where other designers begin with sketches, Philippe’s first impulse is always to write. When imagining a new fragrance, he sends the fragrance house not a list of specified notes but a story as the brief. Myths, legends, and personal olfactory confessions are written in poetic language and handed to the perfumer.

“Writing has always been at the heart of my work. Even as a designer, I start a project with words rather than sketches, because words give me more freedom.”
— Philippe Di Méo​

It is leading perfumers who transform this story-driven approach into actual scents. Liquides Imaginaires works mainly with Givaudan in Switzerland and Flair, a French fragrance studio. Celebrated noses including Sonia Constant, Louise Turner, Quentin Bisch, Amélie Bourgeois, Nadège Le Garlantezec, Vincent Ricord, Shyamala Maisondieu, and Fabrice Pellegrin have served as “translators” of the Liquides Imaginaires universe.

The Soul of the Amphora: The Bottle and the Talisman

The Liquides Imaginaires bottle is not immediately recognizable as a perfume bottle. A heavy, thick glass vessel made by France’s Verreries Brosse is topped with a cap of zamak, a zinc alloy. Its form recalls the amphora, the vessel used in the ancient Mediterranean world to store and transport perfumed oils and wine.​

“The amphora was the first vessel in history used to hold liquids: perfume, wine, and oil. The ancient Egyptians were already storing perfume in amphorae. Even today, they are like treasures found on the seabed.”
— Philippe Di Méo​

Notably, the word “perfume” appears nowhere on the bottle. Without knowing the context, one might not realize what it is. For Philippe, this is a deliberate choice, intended to free perfume from the fixed idea of a “beauty accessory.”​

The seal engraved on the bottle represents the brand’s talisman, or protective charm. Two letters combine into a key-shaped graphic symbol, meaning “the key that opens the imaginary world.” The talisman is also a pendulum of opposites, symbolizing the attraction between conflicting forces: masculine and feminine, light and darkness, material and immaterial.

A Commitment to Materials: Seeking “Strong, Sharp Scents”

Philippe favors ingredients with powerful aromas.

“I like ingredients with intense aromas. Because I believe perfume can be a powerful magical element that transforms its wearer, I feel that a fragrance should be strong and sharp.”
— Philippe Di Méo​

He makes particular use of incense, or frankincense, woods, and spices, and imposes no geographical restrictions on ingredients. The finest materials are sourced from around the world, including citrus from Reggio Calabria and roses and jasmine from France. The brand is committed to manufacturing in France, generally in small batches.

Trilogies: Building a World from Opposing Forces

At Liquides Imaginaires, the trilogy is a basic unit of creation: three fragrances explore one subject. Philippe describes a third presence bringing balance to two opposing forces. Good and evil, day and night, wisdom and intoxication are placed together as inseparable opposites rather than forces that cancel each other out.

For Philippe, three represents balance rather than a direct reference to the Holy Trinity. He connects it with upward- and downward-pointing triangles, fire and water, masculine and feminine, and the relationships between body, soul, and spirit or past, present, and future. He also invokes an Egyptian division between earth, sky, and an intermediate world. Three olfactory creations allow him to construct a complete, balanced universe.

The idea of élévation, or elevation, runs through the brand. A material liquid evaporates and acts on the senses as something invisible. That transition finds expression in subjects drawn from the sacred, the body, emotion, and mythology.

The trilogy as a creative concept does not always match the number of products currently listed. Some collections include special editions, and classifications can differ between pages and over time.

Les Eaux Delà: Purification, Protection, and Sensuality

The “waters beyond,” the trilogy at the brand’s origin, begins with perfume’s sacred roots. Here the sacred does not mean only bright, pure scents. Philippe considered different functions entrusted to perfume: water that purifies, water with protective power, and water that draws the body towards sensuality.

Sancti imagines holy water, combining incense with the freshness of cypress and rosemary. Fortis, by contrast, is dark without making evil or fear its subject. Burnt wood and smoke, saffron, oud, and vetiver suggest a force that wraps the wearer in protection.

Tumultu approaches the body between these two poles. Philippe’s inspiration was steam rising in the baths of ancient Egypt. Pomelo, coconut milk, and soft sandalwood evoke vapour that conceals the naked body while also revealing its outline. Sensuality joins purification and protection in a trilogy open to both spirit and body.

Les Eaux Sanguines: Stories Connecting Wine and Perfume

The “bloody waters” connect wine and perfume, two liquids in which human skill brings together materials grown by nature. Launched in 2013, the three compositions have colours recalling rosé, ruby, and copper. They move from tasting wine towards the roses and human stories surrounding it.

The central figure in Dom Rosa is a rose flowering in a vineyard. The flower growing beside grapes in chalky soil meets the effervescence of rosé champagne, expressed through rose, incense, and a woody trail. Bloody Wood turns to love and passion, and the conflict and betrayal that desire can bring. White-wine lees and violet meet red fruit and oak, setting white against red and cool metal against warm wood. Bello Rabelo takes its subject from the adventures of boats transporting port wine. Ship timbers, barrels in the hold, and a sweetness recalling steeped dried fruit evoke those who sail while guarding their liquid cargo.

A richer special edition, Dom Rosa Millésimé, marked Dom Rosa’s tenth anniversary. In November 2026, the collection’s listing contains four products, including this anniversary edition.

Les Eaux Imaginaires: An Imaginary Geography of Desire

The “imaginary waters” describe lands through which legendary liquids flow. Island, river, and desert are not names intended to reproduce real destinations. They become settings for the desire to escape, the precariousness of love, and uncertainty of the senses.

Île Pourpre, the “purple island,” grows imaginary trees dripping purple juice, bringing the coolness of night together with the sensuality of black fig. Fleuve Tendre, the “tender river,” grew from the Carte de Tendre, a map that translates love into geography. A river’s far bank and caves hidden by wild roses become places where lovers cross boundaries to meet.

In Désert Suave, a traveller’s oasis appears in the dry desert. The shade of date palms, baskets and spices carried by caravans, and the scent of rose and orange blossom create a feast resembling a mirage.

Les Eaux de Peau: The Boundary Between Human and Beast on the Skin

The “skin waters” explore the wildness within human beings and the way animalic smells settle on skin. Developed through fragrances including Peau de Bête, the collection does not give the beast a single fixed form. It extends from the physical body to wild humans in literature and art, and to animals that do not exist.

Bête Humaine portrays a wild human standing between civilisation and nature. A cold river, a resin-scented forest, sun-heated rocks, and fallen leaves used as a bed supply the smells surrounding that body. Blanche Bête instead calls up a unicorn. The white creature of medieval tapestries is translated into white flowers and milky light, bringing an untouchable presence close to the skin.

In November 2026, the collection page lists these two fragrances alongside Beauté du Diable. Peau de Bête is not listed there, but neither discontinuation nor a change of name has been established.

Les Eaux de l’Âme: Emotions in a Heart and a Flower

The “waters of the soul” explore invisible movements of feeling. Âme du Cœur begins with the heart as both a life-sustaining organ and a symbol of love and passion. Pulse, the shock of falling in love, ruby red, and hot spices portray emotion as a force that shakes the body as well as an inner state.

Announced in February 2026, Âme de Fleur takes its subject from the myth of an anemone born from Aphrodite’s tears. Rather than realistically reproducing an unscented flower, it expresses the desire, love, and transformation associated with it as an abstract bouquet. Fabrice Pellegrin connects the white flowers of tuberose and jasmine with a woody trail.

At launch, these two fragrances and Beauté du Diable were presented as completing a trilogy. Beauté du Diable places the fallen angel alongside gin, absinthe, red carnation, and the temptations of the city at night. The November 2026 website, however, places it in the “skin waters” and lists two fragrances under the “waters of the soul.” The timing and reason for this classification change have not been established.

Les Eaux de l’Est: Three Gardens Connected by Wind

Behind the “waters of the East” lies the movement of scents from east to west along spice merchants’ trading routes. Philippe also turned towards the magic of Eastern legends. Imagining desert wind passing through fictional gardens and carrying their smells, he conceived the fragrances from three poems.

Fleur de Sable depicts a flower living with little water and strong winds as a garden of sand. Sweetness, powder, and spice meet a salty, mineral impression. Tapis Volant begins with the flying carpet, a dream that had stayed with Philippe since childhood. Air slipping over silk carries jasmine, cool spices, and wood.

Buveur de Vent comes from a legend in which the south wind gives birth to a swift, powerful Arabian horse. Philippe chose the image of saddle leather moving among wild plants and trees. A wind that can be sweet or scorching connects flower, carpet, and horse.

Les Humeurs: Liquids That Hold Emotion

The trilogy of temperaments draws on the ancient theory of the four humours associated with Hippocrates. Philippe took from it the idea of a relationship between bodily liquids and states of mind. With two perfumers at the fragrance studio FLAIR, he developed his concept of scent moving perception and imagination.

In Anne-Sophie Behaghel’s Lacrima, the “water of the eyes,” tears containing joy, fear, or disappointment become precious drops falling down a cheek. The bright stimulation of pink pepper and elemi meets benzoin’s sweetness and the animalic, earthy suggestions of castoreum and moss. Tears carry many emotions rather than serving only as a symbol of sadness.

Amélie Bourgeois’s Melancolia, the “water of the mind,” connects melancholy, once associated with black bile, with the artist’s imagination found in Aristotle’s reflections and Baudelaire’s poetry. Sharp ginger, mint, and lemongrass lead to cardamom, bay leaf, and musk, setting a cool, stimulating scent against the weight of its name.

Phantasma, the “water of the lips,” concerns hidden desires and apparitions between perception and imagination. Behaghel, who also created Lacrima, places soft rice powder alongside yuzu and black tea, followed by wood and musk.

Les Eaux des Bermudes: Temptation, Voyaging, and the Threat of the Deep

The “waters of Bermuda” take their subject from maritime adventures in the tradition of Homer’s Odyssey and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The three fragrances launched in 2022 explore different parts of an imaginary adventurer’s crossing: temptation, the ship that sustains the voyage, and danger beneath the sea.

Sonia Constant and Marion Costero’s Sirenis translates the siren who lures sailors with her voice into flowers, musk, and a marine sensation. In Nadège Le Garlantezec’s Navis, the ship itself takes the leading role. Salt water permeates its wooden hull, sails catch the sea breeze, and citrus and spices lie in the hold. A suggestion of seaweed joins cedar and amyris, constructing a place moving along the boundary of sea and sky.

Shyamala Maisondieu’s Abyssis depicts the power of the kraken swallowing a ship and its crew. Woody, marine, and animalic impressions employ Ambrofix, the musk Cosmone, and ozone-like Calypsone. The sea becomes more than a refreshing landscape: it has depths in which fear and mythology arise.

Trilogie Alchimique: Transformation from Darkness to Light

The alchemical trilogy connects images of plants, minerals, and celestial bodies with the soul of metal. It moves from the art of extraction concealed in darkness towards a spirit seeking light. The idea of matter changing form also echoes the brand’s fundamental passage from liquid to invisible scent.

Liquide draws on a symbolic journey of transformation through tarot, layering mandarin, saffron, and carrot seed. Lunatique moves from bright juniper and pepper towards the depth of iris, leather, and oud. It was conceived as a confrontation with the dark side hidden within oneself.

Morning Star, added in 2026, tells a myth of two celestial brothers governing dawn and dusk who become a single star. Incense illuminates bergamot and spices, while white flowers and milky softness meet a woody trail.

Imaginarium: Redrawing the Citrus Family Tree

Imaginarium reconsiders citrus, previously less central to the brand, with young perfumers. Philippe gave seven students at Givaudan’s perfumery school a story rather than a detailed formula brief. Just as citrus fruits have crossed in nature, the project combines reality and imagination, traditional learning and new technology to seek unfamiliar expressions within a familiar family of scents.

The work also used CARTO, an AI tool that helps develop trials from materials selected by perfumers. It supported the students’ experiments as they conceived ideas, chose ingredients, and made fragrances. Upcycled Mandarin, for example, contains an upcycled ingredient from Italian lemon. Different extractions also draw out mandarin’s facets, bringing the fruit’s complexity into the fragrance.

The nine eaux de parfum form three groups. The yellow Cedrat Club combines freshness with gourmand impressions. The green Green Terrace explores wood, spices, and outdoor sensations. The orange Mandarin House takes citrus in aromatic and spicy directions. Names including Bergamot Brother, Pistachio Cousin, and Lime Sister extend the idea of an imaginary citrus family.

Andrea Montanari created Seductive Cedrat and Bergamot Brother, while Julie Noé made Cedrat Tonic. The latter imagines citron, grapefruit, and ginger as a chilled gin cocktail, paired with amberwood.

The project was exhibited at Rossana Orlandi’s gallery during Milan Design Week in 2024. An imaginary citrus tree made in macramé by Laurentine Périlhou gave its family tree a three-dimensional form. The launch of nine fragrances was reported in 2025. Unlike many of the trilogies that turn towards darkness and mystery, this collection opens a garden of nature, imagination, and joy to new perfumers.

Incidentally…

• Philippe is also a poet. He has written a collection of poems exploring “the visible” and “the invisible,” and the name Liquides Imaginaires itself joins opposing concepts: liquids, visible and tangible matter, and the imaginary, things that cannot be seen or touched.​​
• Liquides in Paris is a “bar à parfums,” or perfume bar. It offers a unique space where visitors can lean on a bar counter and explore scents guided not by a bartender but by a “perfume sommelier.” Philippe designed the space himself.
• A limited-edition Millésimé version of Dom Rosa was released for its tenth anniversary. Millésimé is a wine term referring to an especially fine vintage, and this special edition had a higher fragrance concentration than the regular version.​
• Philippe and tarot cards. He has taken lessons in the Tarot de Marseille, and sometimes discusses his creations in relation to tarot cards in interviews.​

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