Obvious: A Sustainable French Perfume Brand Celebrating “Obvious” Beauty

“Beauty is obvious and needs no explanation. Everything added around a fragrance tends to conceal rather than reveal it.”
—David Frossard​

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Essential Information

• Brand name: Obvious
• Founded: 2020​
• Founder: David Frossard
• Location: Paris, France
• Official website: https://www.obviousparfums.com​

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The Founder and the Origins of the Brand

A Young Philosopher Enters the World of Perfume

The story of Obvious begins with an unexpected turning point in a young man’s life. David Frossard studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris for five years, intending to become a philosophy teacher. Inspired by the Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis, he was interested in the tension between a theoretical life and a practical one.

“Philosophy influences every aspect of life, because it allows us to see and understand things that are not normally visible or widely understood.”
—David Frossard, interview with Schön! Magazine​

As a student, Frossard took a part-time job in a perfume warehouse. Six months later, he was offered a job selling perfume in Africa. At first, he turned it down for the sake of philosophy. But after reconsidering overnight, he decided to embark on the adventure.​

“I decided to embrace adventure and live a practical life rather than a theoretical one. That was my first step into the world of perfume.”
—David Frossard, interview with Duft-Tagebuch​

This family business was a company run by his uncle, selling fragrances from brands such as Boucheron, Dolce & Gabbana, and Nina Ricci in Africa. Frossard spent his childhood in Corsica, where intense olfactory experiences in nature became deeply imprinted as formative memories. He later said:​

“Nature gave me so much during my childhood in Corsica.”
—David Frossard, official website​

Becoming a Key Figure in Niche Perfumery

In 2001, Frossard was invited to join L’Artisan Parfumeur (in Japanese) as head of exports. L’Artisan was still independent at the time, and a distribution network for niche perfumes did not yet exist. “Everything had to be invented from scratch, and I learned a great deal. It was a time of extraordinary creativity,” he recalls.​

Drawing on that experience, Frossard founded Différentes Latitudes in 2005, a company specializing in supporting and distributing independent perfume brands. Through it, he successfully helped launch numerous niche brands that would later become internationally renowned: BYREDO (in Japanese), Juliette Has a Gun, Atelier Cologne, Memo Paris, BDK Parfums (in Japanese), Liquides Imaginaires (in Japanese), Parfums Frapin (in Japanese), and Ella K (in Japanese), among the names that now define niche perfumery.

At the same time, Frossard began to move into creation himself. He worked with the distinguished Cointreau cognac family on Parfums Frapin, then met Philippe di Méo and co-founded Liquides Imaginaires with him.

“When I created Frapin ten or more years ago, I did not see myself as a ‘creator.’ So I embraced Frapin’s art de vivre and devoted my creativity to its DNA. When I met Philippe and we co-founded Liquides Imaginaires, I placed my knowledge at the service of his creativity.”
—David Frossard, interview with Duft-Tagebuch​

In 2013, he opened Liquides, bar à parfums, in the Haut Marais district of Paris’s 3rd arrondissement. Conceived by Frossard and di Méo, the space is an experiential boutique unlike a conventional perfume shop, with carefully selected niche fragrances displayed on golden brass shelves like spirits in an upscale bar.

An Awakening on an Indian Beach, and the Birth of Obvious

After 25 years or more inside the industry, Frossard had watched the world of niche perfume gradually drift away from its original spirit.

“The niche sector has changed enormously in twenty years. Once, only discerning customers sought out fragrances in simple bottles. Now prices have soared, packaging keeps getting more luxurious, and bottles with enormous caps imported from China arrive in my shop almost every day. Luxury that does not consider the state of the planet is not luxury.”
—David Frossard, interview with ELLE Belgium​

A turning point came on a trip to India. He was taking part in a charity tuk-tuk race, an event he describes as sounding fun but actually being dangerous, on a long journey from northern India toward the coast north of Bombay. When he finally reached the beach, it was covered in plastic waste.

“Far from Paris, on a beach full of plastic, while going through a personal reset, I saw the consequences of overconsumption with my own eyes. And I became aware of the perfume industry’s unstoppable drive for expansion: ever more claims of being ‘rare and exclusive,’ decked out in bling, often at the consumer’s expense.”
—David Frossard, official website​

Later, with further time for reflection during the COVID-19 pandemic, Frossard sold a majority stake in Liquides Imaginaires and finally resolved to launch a brand under his own banner.

“After twenty-five years working for Penhaligon’s, L’Artisan Parfumeur, Byredo, Juliette Has a Gun, Atelier Cologne, Memo, Parfums de Marly, and BDK, I finally felt entitled to express my own vision: a less pretentious brand, closer to its customers, without complicated storytelling, and caring for the planet. I thought that was ‘obvious.’ That is where the name comes from.”
—David Frossard, interview with Duft-Tagebuch​

The name is also inspired by the seventeenth-century philosopher René Descartes’ concept of évidence, or self-evident certainty. It expresses the belief that beauty, too, should be self-evident, like that moment of encountering truth without needing a complicated explanation.​

In October 2020, a campaign was launched on the crowdfunding platform Ulule. The brand debuted on November 15 that year at Le Bon Marché department store and Liquides perfume bar in Paris.​

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The Brand’s Commitments

A Philosophy of Scent: “The Olfactory Clear Line”

Obvious sums up its fragrance philosophy in an approach it calls “the olfactory clear line.” Complexity should serve an artistic vision, not be an end in itself. Like an Impressionist painter, the brand captures an impression of nature and translates it in a simple, contemporary way. That is the Obvious creative style.

“For a long time, I told stories for other brands. But that storytelling became mad. Now you almost have to read a novel to understand a single perfume. I wanted to return to the essentials. So I made the first perfumes very simple interpretations of nature. Like an Impressionist painter, I capture an impression, orange blossom, for example, and translate it in my own way. There is no need to make it grandiose.”
—David Frossard, interview with ELLE Belgium​

“Simplicity is honesty. When you are direct, you cannot cheat or pretend.”
—David Frossard, interview with Duft-Tagebuch​

For Frossard, perfume is not an accessory of ostentation but a totem that reveals the self, an emotion, and a shortcut to memory. When he speaks of the best moments of his life, he points to time in nature, sailing at sea or sleeping under the stars beside a campfire. These are the inspirations behind Obvious.

A Thorough Commitment to Sustainability

For Obvious, environmental consideration is not a marketing pose but something built into the brand’s very reason for being. Its specific initiatives are as follows.

• Ingredients: Natural raw materials are prioritized, without excluding synthetics. Synthetic materials, however, are selected from green chemistry, chemical synthesis with a lower environmental impact. Un Musc, for example, uses “clean” macrocyclic musks.​
• Alcohol: Organic dilution alcohol made from French wheat.​
• Bottles: Made with 30% recycled glass, refillable, and infinitely recyclable.​
• Caps: Made from cork offcuts generated during wine-cork production, with no plastic inserts.
• Packaging: Biodegradable material made with recycled paper and organic cotton fibers, without cellophane wrapping.​
• Overall recycling rate: 98%.​
• Raw-material sourcing: 100% European raw materials, with production entirely in France.​
• Vegan-friendly​

“Luxury that is not sustainable is not luxury.”
—David Frossard, interview with ELLE Belgium​

The Aesthetics of Bottle and Design

The Obvious bottle embodies the brand’s philosophy directly: an unadorned, straight-sided silhouette topped with a cork cap. The label simply gives the perfume’s name, such as Une Rose or Un Musc, with the contents themselves providing the name. There is no need for elaborate naming or a grand narrative. The stance is “What you see is what you get.”​

Fair Pricing as “Activism”

Another Obvious conviction is a fair price. At around €110 for 100 ml in the classic collection and around €130 even for the capsule collection, its fragrances occupy a relatively accessible price range within niche perfumery. The brand describes this as “activism rather than financial logic.”

“When a perfume costs €300, people want their money’s worth. Sometimes they ask in the shop, ‘Will it last four days?’ It is ridiculous. They are reducing perfume to mere performance, like a deodorant. Perfume should be an emotional product, not a functional gadget.”
—David Frossard, interview with ELLE Belgium​

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The Fragrance Lineup

The Obvious official website presents its perfumes in three categories: Must-Haves, Capsules, and High Standards. Alongside those three, the following overview looks separately at Kakigori, which belongs to Capsules. All are offered at eau de parfum (EDP) concentration and marketed as unisex.

The Classic Collection (Les Incontournables)

The foundational collection of staples. Seven fragrances were introduced at the 2020 launch, with more added since. All were composed by the Parisian fragrance laboratory **Flair**. They share the concept of taking a single natural material and reinterpreting it simply and contemporarily, in an Impressionist manner.​

• Une Rose: A fresh, fruity rose built around Bulgarian rose, finished with grapefruit, bergamot, and the anise-like notes of caraway and dill.​
• Une Vanille: Black vanilla from Madagascar paired with tonka bean, creating a green, floral vanilla that is chic and never cloying.​
• Un Musc: A soft, intimate musk with something of the warmth of a sunny spot. Frossard calls it “the perfect example of Obvious.”
• Une Fleur d’Oranger: Orange blossom with an enveloping, cocooning quality and a faint animalic tension, accented by Spanish orange essence and ginger from Madagascar.
• Un Poivre: A fresh, elegant fragrance in which violet and vetiver seem to sparkle. A personal favorite of Frossard’s.​
• Un Patchouli: Balsamic and warm, with patchouli’s characteristic earthiness kept in check.​
• Un Bois: A fresh, delicate woody scent shaped by the effect of Ambroxan.​
• Une Verveine (2021): A refreshing fragrance built around bergamot, lime, verbena, and thyme.​
• Une Figue (2022): Inspired by fig trees planted in Corsican vineyards. The composition took its cue from a friend’s words: “A fig tree likes its feet in water and its head in the sun.” Distinctive features include salty watery notes and a sunscreen-like drydown created by Corsican immortelle.​
• Un Oud (2022): A meditative interpretation of oud.​
• Un Été (2023): Summer captured in a fragrance.​
• Une Pistache (2023): A gourmand interpretation of pistachio that is not overly sweet.​

The Capsule Collection (Capsules)

A limited line taking a more experimental, conceptual approach than the classic collection.​

• Milk & Matcha (2024): A creation by perfumer Meabh McCurtin. It captures an olfactory moment suspended in time: ordering a matcha latte in the morning and taking a breath before leaving home. Matcha’s bitterness, maté oil, the sweetness of orange blossom, and the roundness of vanilla harmonize in a delicate balance. It is described as the first attempt to express umami in perfume.
• Scoville (2024): By perfumer Patrice Revillard. A bold fragrance named after the Scoville scale, the measure of chili-pepper heat. A spicy woody scent centered on red chili pepper, Sichuan pepper, and Piri Piri Amour, a sacred root used by the Indigenous Shipibo people of Amazonia in wedding ceremonies.

The High Standards Collection (High Standards)

A new line introduced in 2024, composed by Julien Rasquinet. A pupil of the legendary perfumer Pierre Bourdon (in Japanese), he is also known for his work with Éditions de Parfums Frédéric Malle (in Japanese) and Amouage (in Japanese). Unlike the minimalism of the classic collection, its theme is an olfactory journey around the world, inspired by secluded places where one can try to be oneself.

• Frida’s Thorns: An homage to the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. Pear, raspberry, rose, chocolate, cacao, patchouli, and vanilla.
• Himalayan Spell: The mystery of the Himalayas and the spirituality of Tibetan Buddhism. Saffron, black pepper, nagarmotha, jasmine, suede, leather, and oud.
• Malfa Walls: The village of Malfa on Salina, a small island north of Sicily. Mandarin, orange, frankincense, clary sage, oud, and leather.

The Kakigori Collection (Kakigori)

The latest trilogy, introduced in summer 2025. Inspired by Japan’s kakigori shaved-ice culture, a tradition in which snow from Mount Fuji was once collected to cool the upper classes in summer, the three fragrances were designed with layering in mind.

• White Crush: By perfumer Tanguy Guesnet. An expression of the ice itself, the foundation of kakigori. Spicy pink pepper, the powdery depth of iris, rose, and a creamy base of white musk and tonka bean.​
• Dulce de Leche: By perfumer Meabh McCurtin. Inspired by the traditional Latin American confection, with gourmand notes of vanilla and nuts and a lingering sandalwood finish.​
• Plum Cream: A fruity leather inspired by Japanese umeboshi, combining the sweet-sour quality of plum with rum and leather.

Frossard also emphasizes layering as a feature shared by all Obvious creations. All the fragrances can be combined with one another, and wearers are encouraged to create their own signature.​

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Incidentally…

• Frossard is not only a philosopher but also a martial arts expert. His bearded, tattooed appearance contrasts, in a good way, with the conventional image of a perfume creator. Schön! Magazine describes him as “at first glance, a gentleman with a beard and tattoos, and a martial arts expert, incidentally.”​
• Obvious is currently sold in 400 or more locations across 35 countries. While expanding into major cities including Tokyo, Madrid, Paris, New York, and Seoul, it remains committed to French craftsmanship. In Japan, stockists include NOSE SHOP, BIOTOP, and Tomorrowland.
• The words that inspired Une Figue, “A fig tree likes its feet in water and its head in the sun,” came from a friend of Frossard’s who runs a vineyard in Corsica. There is reportedly a tradition in Corsica of planting fig trees in fields to absorb excess water.​
• The brand also offers a liquid soap range in scents including Un Musc, Une Figue, and Un Bois. All are made in Provence using the traditional Marseille soap-making method.​

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