Liquides Perfume Bar: Its Paris Origins and Shops Today

“Our only ambition: helping customers find the perfume that suits them.”
David Frossard, founder of Liquides

Opened in the Haut Marais in Paris in 2013, Liquides introduces perfume from across a counter. Rather than taking a bottle from a shelf yourself, you begin by talking to a member of staff. The conversation leads you towards scents you have yet to discover.

The layout serves a purpose beyond decoration. It creates time for conversation between the people who select the brands, those who guide visitors through the fragrances, and the visitors themselves. The shop carries Liquides Imaginaires, the perfume brand with which it shares part of its name, but Liquides itself is a multi-brand boutique bringing together fragrances by different creators.

At a glance
The founder and the origins of the shop
Selecting perfumes and supporting their creators
1. Looking for a different facet
2. Today’s multi-brand selection
Advice and fragrance discovery at the counter
1. Listening to preferences, then following the response
2. From smelling wine to guiding perfume discovery
Main physical locations to visit
References

At a glance

Name: Liquides, bar à parfums
Opened: 2013, Paris, France
Founder and concept: David Frossard / Interior design: Philippe Di Méo
Business: Multi-brand perfume and beauty specialist
Paris street-front boutique: 9 rue de Normandie, 75003 Paris, France
Official website: Liquides Parfums

The founder and the origins of the shop

From distribution to a shop of their own

After studying philosophy, Frossard worked for his uncle’s perfume distribution company in Africa, then in exports at L’Artisan Parfumeur. In 2005, he founded Différentes Latitudes. Its work went beyond connecting independent brands with retailers: it also supported their businesses and creative work.

Among the early collaborators he named in 2019 were Marie-Hélène Rogeon of Les Parfums de Rosine and Marc-Antoine Corticchiato of Parfum d’Empire. The brands Frossard worked with had identifiable creators behind their fragrances.

The idea of opening a shop grew out of the pleasure his family and friends took in the perfumes gathered at his workplace. People dropping by the office for lunch were amazed by the fragrances they encountered there. He needed a place where he could present them all under one roof. Frossard chose a corner of the Haut Marais beside the Hôtel de Sauroy.

A brass counter, installed in 2013

The space was designed by Di Méo, who also works with Frossard on Liquides Imaginaires. An article published when the shop opened in April 2013 describes a brass counter, bottles reflected in mirrors, and light catching the liquids inside them. Arquiste, Byredo, Frapin, Miller Harris, Olfactive Studio and Parfum d’Empire were among the brands brought together in the shop.

From the outset, the aim was to offer a different kind of service from a quick, self-service purchase. With the bottles placed behind the counter, staff could share the creators’ thinking before and after a visitor smelled a fragrance. Displaying the bottles like spirits was also a way to encourage people to spend time with each perfume rather than hurry through them.

In 2019, Frossard said he wanted visitors to listen not only to the stories behind the perfumes, but also to the perfumers’ creative processes, the meaning of their inspirations and their passion. Here, the adviser’s role is to connect the finished fragrance with the work that brought it into being.

From Paris to South Korea

Liquides expanded into South Korea in 2022. Handsome, part of the Hyundai Department Store Group, introduced the concept locally, opening a flagship in Seoul and locations within department stores. A move into Printemps Haussmann in Paris was also reported that year. An idea that began as a single shop on a small street had taken shape within department stores and overseas.

Year	Milestone
2005	Frossard founds Différentes Latitudes.
2013	Liquides opens on rue de Normandie in Paris.
2022	Expansion into South Korea brings a Seoul flagship and department-store locations; a Paris opening at Printemps is also reported.

Selecting perfumes and supporting their creators

Looking for a different facet

Frossard begins his selection as a customer would: does the fragrance appeal to him? He then considers it alongside existing perfumes, asking whether it adds something or reveals a different facet. Finally, he explores what its creator intends to make next.

“Does it add something, a different facet?”
David Frossard, founder of Liquides

In 2015, Léa, then a member of the team, described the shop as a showroom for brands working with Différentes Latitudes. Relationships with creators extended beyond buying stock to supporting their communications and development. She also explained that a brand might leave the shop because it had become able to make its own way, or because sales had been disappointing. The shelves have changed with those relationships, rather than remaining a fixed collection of established favourites.

Today’s multi-brand selection

The current official online shop lists brands including BDK Parfums, Arquiste, Frapin, Goldfield & Banks, Room 1015, Liquides Imaginaires and Obvious. Alongside brands in which Frossard has a creative role, it carries perfumes by other creators.

Examples include BDK’s Gris Charnel and its Extrait version, Blanche Bête by Liquides Imaginaires, and The Orchid Man by Frapin. Niche perfumes familiar to fragrance enthusiasts are therefore part of the actual selection. An online listing, however, does not guarantee that a fragrance can be tried in every physical shop on a given day. Some listed products are out of stock, and brands carried in the past, such as Byredo, cannot automatically be counted among the current offering.

Advice and fragrance discovery at the counter

Listening to preferences, then following the response

The counter opened up conversation, but it could also feel like a barrier to visitors. In 2015, Léa explained that because customers could not freely handle the bottles, they had to speak to her first. Service began with helping them feel at ease.

Rather than defining someone’s taste solely by perfumes they had worn before, she asked what they disliked and whether they wanted something intimate or enveloping. She then invited them to smell a fragrance, read their response and adjusted the next suggestion. Sometimes she offered a perfume containing an ingredient they thought they disliked. Disliking one grapefruit fragrance, after all, is different from disliking every perfume made with grapefruit.

“I encourage people to articulate their sensations.”
Léa, Liquides staff member in 2015

For those who wanted to know about ingredients, she explained the materials; with those who spoke about what they felt, she used their words as a guide. Alongside telling the creator’s story, she encouraged the person in front of her to speak. This exchange gives a concrete sense of what guiding a fragrance discovery involves. It was the approach Léa described at the time, rather than a claim that every member of staff follows the same method today. The current official website also calls its staff “barmen” and offers individual advice.

From smelling wine to guiding perfume discovery

Léa did not enter the profession through specialist perfume training. She became familiar with wine through her partner, who had studied oenology. When she could no longer drink during pregnancy, she began smelling the wines so she could join in the conversation. That led to an interest in recognising differences between places and makers through her nose. After meeting Frossard, she moved into perfume. As she got to know perfumers, she recognised a love of materials that wine and perfume shared.

“We also wanted a meeting place bringing people closer.”
Léa, Liquides staff member in 2015

You hear the person next to you talking about a perfume, become curious and try it yourself. Part of the appeal of the bar, as she described it, lay in exchanges that went beyond a one-to-one conversation between adviser and customer. The Liquides counter is both a setting for explaining perfumes and a place where another person’s response can lead you towards an unfamiliar scent.

Main physical locations to visit

The official store directory, checked on 15 October 2026, lists the following locations in Paris, France, and Seoul and Gwangju, South Korea. The Paris street-front boutique and its department-store location are shown separately.

Country and city	Shop or location	Address
France, Paris	Liquides Bar à Parfums (street-front boutique)	9 rue de Normandie, 75003 Paris
France, Paris	Inside Printemps Haussmann	61 rue de Caumartin, 75009 Paris / Beauty area
South Korea, Seoul	Cheongdam Flagship Store	461 Apgujeong-ro, Gangnam-gu
South Korea, Seoul	Inside The Hyundai Seoul	108 Yeoui-daero, Yeongdeungpo-gu
South Korea, Seoul	Inside Hyundai Department Store Trade Center	517 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu
South Korea, Seoul	Inside Lotte Department Store’s main branch	81 Namdaemun-ro, Jung-gu
South Korea, Gwangju	Inside Handsome Haus Gwangju	87 Wangbeodeul-ro, Gwangsan-gu

Before visiting, check opening hours and the availability of any perfume you want to try with the individual shop. The online shop is a separate sales channel from these physical locations. If you would like to explore your preferences through conversation as well as smelling fragrances on your own, the idea that began at this small Parisian bar offers a reason to visit.