NOTES DE BAS DE PAJE: Your Life Story, Written in Footnotes

“We thought of scent as a kind of ‘footnote.’ Smelling someone’s perfume lets you learn a little more about them. Not only their taste in fragrance, but whether they are bold or reserved, original or full of curiosity… Through perfume, the outlines of that person naturally emerge.”

— Pierre-Junior Menana, Co-founder

Essential Information

Established: 2023

Founders: Alice Gensse and Pierre-Junior Menana

Official websites: https://notesdebasdepaje.com (global) / https://notesdebasdepaje.co.jp (Japan)

The Founders and the Origins of the Brand

Spring 2020: A Meeting After Lockdown

The story of NOTES DE BAS DE PAJE goes back to spring 2020. Paris had just emerged from its first COVID-19 lockdown when Alice Gensse and Pierre-Junior Menana met. At first, they had almost only one thing in common: they were both preparing for the bar examination that year.

“When we met, we were students preparing for the bar exam. We weren’t considering any path other than law, to the point that we talked about opening a law firm together one day.”

— Pierre-Junior Menana

From June to November 2020, the two immersed themselves in studying together for the bar exam. Spending so much time together led them to realize two things: they could be good working partners, and their passion did not lie in the legal world.

Burnout and a Turning Point

The two subsequently entered law school, but after burnout and a “massive wake-up call,” they decided to leave the legal profession behind. As they exchanged ideas about their future, a remark from Alice set everything in motion.

“As we were exchanging ideas about the future, Alice said, ‘Let’s make perfume.’ That wonderful suggestion was where it all began.”

— Pierre-Junior Menana

They were already perfume enthusiasts. Pierre liked niche fragrances, and Alice had developed the same interest through his influence. But enjoying perfume as a fan and launching a brand were entirely different matters.

Entering the Industry as “Outsiders”

They had no connections in the perfume industry. They began without knowing anything about manufacturing processes or running a business. Alice later recalled:

“The biggest challenges were finding suppliers and learning the entire process from scratch, from launching a brand to developing fragrances. There were so many regulations, and at first we knew nothing, so we learned step by step by doing our own research and visiting all sorts of people. We really came to understand that loving perfume and actually making it are entirely different things.”

— Alice Gensse

When they consulted the one person they knew in the perfume industry at the time, they were advised not to do it. France was a country with a long history of perfume and a high level of expertise, they were told, and the market was saturated. Instead, the two became even more convinced that they should take on the challenge.

“But if you keep waiting, nothing comes of it. You just let other people do it first. And we had already left everything behind. There was no Plan B anymore.”

— Alice Gensse, from an interview with chimie scent

Seven years of legal studies had made them forget their creative selves, but they realized that the discipline and work ethic those years had given them could become the foundation for running the brand. Alice’s specialization in intellectual property also provides a practical advantage in negotiating contracts and protecting the brand.

The Two Founders’ Initials in the Brand Name

In 2023, the two launched their brand in Paris. “NOTES DE BAS DE PAJE” comes from the French expression “note de bas de page,” meaning “footnote,” but changes one letter in the spelling to make “paje.”

“We wanted to add a personal touch to the brand name. Since we tell stories from our own lives through scent, we incorporated our initials, ‘P’ and ‘A,’ to make ‘paje.’”

— Pierre-Junior Menana

Paje is a phonetic blend of “page,” the initials of our names, and the hyphen that connects us: “et,” meaning “and.”

This “et,” or “and,” is an important word that binds the two of us, Pierre-Junior and Alice, together.

Our perfumes are the “footnotes” to our individual stories and to the story we have begun to weave together.

What Defines the Brand

A Philosophy Bringing Fragrance and Literature Together

At the heart of NOTES DE BAS DE PAJE is a philosophy that sees fragrance as a literary footnote. The familiarity with footnotes they developed through legal texts became the brand’s concept directly.

“As law students, footnotes were very important to us. You can skip them; they are small details, you could say. But if you read them carefully, they bring new discoveries about things you didn’t know at first, or had understood only on the surface.”

— Pierre-Junior Menana

Pierre also speaks of the similarity between the structure of perfume and legal thinking: “Perfume is a particular art form, with both a creative dimension, which goes without saying, and an intellectual dimension: it is rooted in chemistry and has a pyramidal structure, much like legal reasoning. It suited us perfectly.”

Gender-Neutral and Made in France

All the fragrances are offered as “extrait de parfum,” or perfume extract, the format with the highest fragrance concentration, and are designed to be worn by any gender. They are composed at the independent Paris studio Flair Laboratoire and manufactured in Grasse, the perfume-producing center in southern France.

Thoughtful Packaging: “A Box You Don’t Throw Away”

The book-shaped packaging opens to reveal the fragrance’s story. The case itself is designed as a “book,” with the aim of making packaging that would normally be discarded into something people want to keep. It uses paper materials certified by the FSC, the Forest Stewardship Council, and is manufactured in certified factories in Paris and Italy.

The packaging refresh in March 2026 went a step further. A twelve-page booklet, a short story themed around each fragrance, was added to every fragrance box. Alice explains the refresh:

“By giving clearer form to the literary aspect we have valued since launching the brand, we wanted customers to immerse themselves more deeply in our world.”

— Alice Gensse

The Fragrance Collection

Between its debut in 2023 and March 2026, NOTES DE BAS DE PAJE released four extraits de parfum. Each carries a number, ①, ②, ③, or ④, and has its own independent story as a “footnote” in a book.

① Prolégomènes: A Prologue, a Scent of Beginnings

In legal studies, “Prolégomènes” means an introduction or preliminary remarks before the main discussion. Its setting is Paris in spring and a green bench beside the Seine, symbolizing the story of Alice and Pierre’s first meeting.

“In theory, the two were in places where they should never have met. Strangers in a crowd, each convinced that their future was more or less decided. But when the trees bloom again and the clouds clear, everything becomes possible.” From the official story.

Key notes: bergamot, cardamom, fig milk, apple, Atlas cedar, vetiver, and Ambroxan. The perfumer is Amélie Bourgeois.

② Olatua: Basque Waves and the Summers of Youth

“Olatua” means “wave” in Basque. The fragrance is inspired by Alice’s youth in the Basque Country, where she grew up, particularly memories of summer on the coast of Biarritz. It is also the fragrance Alice herself chose to recommend to Japanese customers.

“Olatua means ‘wave’ in Basque, so some people may think of Katsushika Hokusai’s famous wave. This is a very delicate, soft fragrance inspired by summers spent by the sea in Biarritz. Japan is an archipelago surrounded by the sea, so I think people will find something nostalgic or comforting in the seaside atmosphere this perfume evokes.”

— Alice Gensse

Key notes: coconut wax, iodine, a mineral and salty scent, white flowers, ylang-ylang, black pepper, white musk, and vetiver.

③ Towédé: The Most Popular Fragrance, Named After His Mother

“Towédé” is Pierre-Junior’s mother’s own name. It tells the story of her journey from Benin in West Africa to a new life in Paris: two worlds intersect, a mystical land of red earth and a city of cold asphalt.

According to Alice, Towédé is the most frequently chosen of all their fragrances. She describes it as “a fragrance that truly makes you feel as if someone is embracing you, a real ‘feel-good’ fragrance.”

Key notes: nutmeg, cinnamon, ambergris, sandalwood, leather, dark chocolate, and Cashmeran. The perfumer is Margaux Le Paih-Guérin of Paris-based Flair Laboratoire.

④ Carambolage: Hope Glimmering Beyond a Collision (Released March 14, 2026)

“Carambolage” means “pile-up” in French. This fourth extrait de parfum was inspired by a traffic accident Pierre-Junior experienced when he was young.

“Carambolage is inspired by a traffic accident I experienced a few years ago. Strictly speaking, it wasn’t a pile-up, but it was one event in a chain of different events in my life… That is why I described it as a pile-up.”

— Pierre-Junior Menana

The fragrance carries a message of resilience, the ability to recover from any experience. It opens with a striking, unexpected scent that gradually becomes fresh and bright. Pierre describes its story as having the atmosphere of noir or a thriller, a departure from the three classical novels that came before it.

Key notes: rhubarb, cade, a type of juniper, crumpled metal, a metallic note, myrrh, styrax, leather, guaiac wood, Virginia cedarwood, and Siberian pine.

By the Way

Two Clues Hidden in the Brand Name: There are actually two interpretations of “PAJE” in “NOTES DE BAS DE PAJE.” One is that it incorporates the initials “P” for Pierre and “A” for Alice. The other is more poetic: the French conjunction “et,” meaning “and,” connects the two. The presence of both founders is inscribed in PAJE.

Perfume as an “Unwritten Story”: The official website’s tagline is “Write a perfume, feel a story.” It is not just an advertising slogan, but a concise expression of the brand’s core idea that perfume becomes part of the wearer’s story. The numbers attached to each fragrance, ①, ②, ③…, also resemble the numbered notes in a book.