Officine Universelle Buly 1803: A Beauty Emporium Traveling Through Time

“We are not selling products. We are selling ‘wow.’ You open the door: wow. You hear the music: wow. You smell the fragrance: wow. You see the calligraphy: wow. Everyone has products. But not so many people have ‘wow.’”
— Ramdane Touhami, co-founder

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Essential Information

• Full brand name: Officine Universelle Buly 1803
• Also known as: Buly 1803
• Original founding: 1803, rue Saint-Honoré, Paris, by Jean-Vincent Bully
• Modern revival: 2014, 6 rue Bonaparte, Paris, by Ramdane Touhami and Victoire de Taillac
• Based in: Paris, France
• Group: LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (acquired in October 2021)
• Official websites: buly1803.com (global) / buly1803.jp (Japan)
• A note on the name: Officine is French for a pharmacy or dispensary. Buly was renamed by removing one “l” from the old spelling, Bully, to avoid its negative meaning in English-speaking countries.

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The Founders and the Brand’s Origins

Chapter One: The Nineteenth-Century Bully Family and Its “Miracle Vinegar”

The story begins in early nineteenth-century Paris. Claude Bully, a distiller, perfumer and cosmetics-maker, invented a vinegar-based fragrance known as vinaigre de toilette. Promising to eliminate body odor, heal ailments and nourish the skin, it was a groundbreaking product for its time.

Since antiquity, vinegar mixed with honey water had been used as a remedy for infections. In the eighteenth century, the famous “Four Thieves Vinegar” was considered the best defense against plague. At a time when water itself was suspected of transmitting epidemics, vinegar came to be used in baths and later as a skincare toner.

Claude’s son Jean-Vincent Bully devoted himself to establishing a scientific basis for his father’s invention. After examination by physicians and scientists, the vinaigre aromatique received patents in 1809 and 1814. Bully’s vinegar went on to be exhibited at the exhibitions of 1823, 1827 and 1849, at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, and to win prestigious medals at the Paris Expositions Universelles of 1867 and 1878.

Newspapers of the time were unanimous in reporting its reputation. In 1869, Le Petit Journal wrote:

“A whole regiment stands in formation in the shop window, but its colonel is always Jean-Vincent Bully’s familiar vinegar. Even as an army of competitors tries to take its place, this old soldier remains on the front line, medals on his chest.”

Bully’s renown spread far beyond France’s borders, resounding across Europe. The Almanach du Commerce of 1807 listed no fewer than 139 perfumers in Paris alone, and the perfume and cosmetics industry was said to be the city’s second-largest employer. Amid that intense competition, Bully combined an instinctive feel for the spirit of the times with business acumen, creating one innovative formula after another that embraced advances in science and cosmetics.

Yet tragedy followed glory. Having lost his shop in revolutionary riots, Bully was forced to sell his business for a pittance and died in poverty. His remarkable fate inspired the protagonist of Honoré de Balzac’s 1837 novel César Birotteau, a perfumer who experiences both glory and ruin.

Even so, the Bully name did not disappear entirely. In its beauty column in 1937, Le Figaro wrote, “Do not forget to buy a bottle of Bully vinegar. It has enjoyed worldwide fame for almost a century.” In South America, moreover, “Vinagre Aromático Tipo de Bully” survived under international licensing long after it had disappeared in France.

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Chapter Two: Ramdane Touhami, from Homelessness to Serial Entrepreneurship

The story of Ramdane Touhami, the man who brought Buly back to life, is equally eventful.

Born on September 23, 1974, in Montauban in southwestern France, Ramdane was part of a French-Moroccan family of six. His father was an agricultural worker. Alongside rural life, he spent time from childhood in a nineteenth-century château that his father had been entrusted with looking after, gaining early exposure to the aesthetic world of old architecture, wallpaper, flooring and furniture.

“From childhood, I was surrounded by old architecture, beautiful floors, wallpaper, furniture, all that history. In fact, much of the interior design of Buly’s boutiques is based on memories of that château.”
— Ramdane Touhami

At twelve, he joined Radio Récré, a radio station started by a teacher at his secondary school, and managed to interview the then prime minister, Jacques Chirac, during a visit to a neighboring town. The recording was rebroadcast on France Inter the following day.

In his mid-teens, he launched his own T-shirt brand, Teuchiland, combining a parody of Timberland with elements of cannabis culture. Selling 1,000 to 2,000 shirts a month, he made substantial profits. But people who noticed those earnings kidnapped him and took all his income. Having left boarding school and become entangled in trouble with gangs in Toulouse, he fled to Paris. He was around eighteen.

He spent roughly a year homeless in Paris, and was stabbed, leaving scars he still bears.

“Once you know what it is to be homeless, nothing frightens you anymore. People are always afraid of losing something. But I know what it means to have nothing.”
— Ramdane Touhami

In 1996, he launched King Size, a streetwear brand connected to skateboarding culture. On September 17, 1998, he opened the concept store L’Épicerie at 30 rue du Temple in Paris’s third arrondissement. Positioning itself as “anti-Colette,” a challenger to the city’s celebrated concept store, it attracted designers including Jeremy Scott, Marc Jacobs and A.P.C. founder Jean Touitou. International publications such as Dazed & Confused and The New York Times called it Europe’s hippest store, but it closed in April 1999, little more than six months later.

In 2000, he went to Tokyo, where, as artistic director of the Japanese fashion brand And.A, he oversaw a complete overhaul of its collections, store design and visual identity. Working with influential creatives including Rei Kawakubo, he absorbed Japan’s retail culture and precision of design. In 2003, he restructured the menswear department at London department store Liberty. All of these experiences would later flow into Buly.

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Chapter Three: Victoire de Taillac, from an Aristocratic Daughter to an Explorer of Beauty

Ramdane’s partner and Buly’s other founder is Victoire de Taillac.

Born into a French aristocratic family and raised in Paris, Victoire traces her roots to childhood experiences at her family’s château in Gascony, in southwestern France.

“I grew up right opposite the Champ-de-Mars gardens in Paris, and always spent holidays at our house in Gascony. From childhood I was very aware of nature’s changing seasons, playing outside all day and enjoying the falling leaves of autumn and the flowers of spring.”
— Victoire de Taillac

After studying history, she joined the launch of the legendary Paris concept store Colette in 1997 as its head of public relations. Through that experience, she developed a profound understanding of the power of storytelling in fashion and beauty.

She met Ramdane in the late 1990s, when he was running L’Épicerie and she was working at Colette. Their backgrounds could hardly have been more different: the son of a Moroccan farming family and the daughter of French aristocracy. Yet they shared an insatiable curiosity, a passion for travel and a respect for France’s rich historical heritage.

In 2001, they jointly established the press office VDT and T, with clients including Aesop, Tod’s, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Alaïa and Colette. In 2002, they opened Parfumerie Générale together, France’s first concept store specializing in niche cosmetics and perfume, introducing independent brands gathered from around the world. The store was later sold, but it gave the couple a formative experience of exploring beauty secrets from around the globe.

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Chapter Four: Cire Trudon, a Rehearsal for Revival

A turning point came for Ramdane in 2006, when he was entrusted with revitalizing Cire Trudon, France’s oldest candle-maker, founded in 1643. This illustrious house, once a supplier to Louis XIV’s court and the Palace of Versailles, had fallen dormant after at least 350 years.

Ramdane researched the archives thoroughly, reinterpreting its history with royalty and the church in a contemporary design language. He improved the formulas with plant-based wax and developed twenty scented candles, each with a name and story drawn from French history. One of its signature creations, Abd El Kader, was named after his own father. Wallpaper selected Cire Trudon’s candles as “Best Candle 2011,” and the brand grew to be sold in at least 600 stores worldwide. In 2011, Ramdane sold his 40% stake.

This experience established Ramdane’s method of reviving forgotten heritage by combining respect for the past with contemporary creativity, and became a direct rehearsal for Buly’s rebirth.

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Chapter Five: Buly Reborn, 2014

“I wanted to find a nineteenth-century brand. Then I fell in love with the story of Jean-Vincent Bully, the perfumer who opened this house of beauty in 1803.”
— Victoire de Taillac

After leaving Cire Trudon, Ramdane began working in earnest on a long-cherished idea: a project gathering beauty secrets from around the world. Its foundations lay in knowledge acquired while traveling internationally from around 2002. Rhassoul clay and argan oil used by his Moroccan grandmother before soap came into use, Japanese scrubs made with nightingale droppings, mastic resin from the Greek island of Chios, blue clay from Ukraine: traveling the globe, he unearthed these disappearing beauty treasures one by one.

His encounter with Bully was a chance discovery. Coming across an old nineteenth-century product catalogue, Ramdane was captivated.

“When I found the original nineteenth-century catalogue, I was captivated. I could see a kind of magic in it, as though I had discovered a new world of beauty. A treasure trove. Today, when fashion, food and everything else move so quickly, there is something deeply satisfying about reviving a brand with a solid past and a sense of history.”
— Ramdane Touhami

Initially, Ramdane intended to create just one store as a showcase. Packaging, bottles, labels, scents, textures: he would design everything himself from A to Z, demonstrating his creative abilities. Companies seeing it would commission him for other work. It was, in essence, a concept for an agency.

In 2014, the first boutique opened at 6 rue Bonaparte in Paris’s sixth arrondissement. Victoire researched original materials at the National Archives in Paris, translating the world of formulas and products in nineteenth-century Bully catalogues into the present.

“Ramdane and I found that world of nineteenth-century catalogues fascinating. You could buy not only rose perfume, but rose oil and rose-petal powder to make your own products at home.”
— Victoire de Taillac

The original idea of a single-store showcase was quickly overturned. The shop caused a sensation, followed by a second, a third, and more. In 2017, LVMH’s minority investment fund, LVMH Luxury Ventures, invested in the business. In October 2021, LVMH acquired Buly outright. LVMH Chairman and CEO Bernard Arnault said:

“Buly fits perfectly with the philosophy found in the houses of the LVMH group: an incomparable heritage, craftsmanship and a unique experience in exceptional boutiques. We will give our full support to this wonderful family entrepreneurial adventure, led by Victoire de Taillac and Ramdane Touhami, as it continues to grow within the LVMH family.”
— Bernard Arnault

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The Brand’s Distinctive Commitments

“Aesthetic Deglobalization”: A Philosophy of Store Design

One of Buly’s most distinctive features is that every store around the world has a different design. Ramdane calls this “aesthetic deglobalization.”

“Any retail business must necessarily take account of what is particular to the city or region where its brand is located. That intellectual effort, both in graphics and in marketing, is essential to success. Look around you and incorporate what is already there. Isn’t that a sign of intelligence?”
— Ramdane Touhami

The first Paris store recreated a nineteenth-century French officine, or dispensary, with polished walnut cabinets, marble counters, alchemists’ stills and retorts, and ceramic and glass containers. By contrast, the Daikanyama store in Tokyo blends a French half with a Japanese half, with Ramdane himself designing the Japanese side as well. In Taipei, he brought an “ultra-French” design into a Taiwanese building, reportedly finding the result unsatisfying; in Seoul, he took an “ultra-Korean” approach. The Hong Kong store has vintage Italian terracotta tiles, New York is Art Deco, and Milan is designed to harmonize with its local character.

Ramdane designed sixty-five or sixty-six different stores individually, never repeating the same design.

A Thorough Commitment to Going Plastic-Free

Plastic has been eliminated across Buly’s entire product range, with lip balm the sole exception. Bottles are glass or aluminum, and caps are metal. Packaging features nineteenth-century engraving-style illustrations, with mythological and botanical motifs rendered with a hand-drawn touch.

Calligraphy: A Tradition Born by Chance

One thing every Buly visitor encounters is the staff’s handwritten calligraphy. The service, in which a customer’s name or message is beautifully written on a purchased product’s label using a quill and ink, actually arose from budget constraints.

“We didn’t have the money to make separate packaging for every product. So we thought, let’s write the labels. Let’s write them by hand.”
— Ramdane Touhami

Searching for a calligraphy teacher, they found and hired a professor whose business was struggling. He taught calligraphy to 400 to 500 staff members, and a three-month training program has given Buly employees worldwide the art of writing by hand.

“Nobody writes by hand anymore. They just type on phones or computers. Handwriting will disappear within a generation. I don’t want to see it go. Everything I do has a political intention. Zero plastic is for nature. Calligraphy is about awakening people’s desire to return to handwriting.”
— Ramdane Touhami

Origata: The Japanese Art of Wrapping

Gift wrapping uses the Japanese technique of origata. The skill was learned from a family that had passed down the art of wrapping exclusively for the imperial household for 450 years. The folds and the manner of wrapping themselves carry meaning.

Traveling the World to Gather Ingredients

The raw materials used in Buly products were sought out by Ramdane and Victoire themselves on journeys around the world: the finest camellia, or tsubaki, oil from Japan’s Gotō Islands; Moroccan argan oil and rhassoul; sponges and mastic resin from Chios in Greece; Ukrainian blue clay; and black soap from Côte d’Ivoire. Sourcing disappearing traditional materials at the highest quality is fundamental to the brand.

“Our watchword is ‘one foot in the future, the other in the past.’ You have to find the right balance. Copy and paste is never interesting. You have to give the impression that the brand has passed through different eras.”
— Ramdane Touhami

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The Fragrance Collections

Eau Triple: The World’s First Water-Based Perfume

At the heart of Buly’s fragrance collection is its distinctive water-based perfume, Eau Triple. It contains no alcohol or ethanol whatsoever and took two years to develop.

Conventional perfumes are alcohol-based: when they first touch the skin, the smell of evaporating alcohol comes first, and the top notes take time to open. Eau Triple overturned this, achieving a formula in which the fragrance’s full character unfolds from the very first second after spraying. A milky-white, gel-like aqueous solution containing only a dozen or so ingredients, it blends directly into the skin without drying it. Considerable time was also spent developing a dedicated atomizer, designed to create a cloud of fragrance with every spray.

The permanent collection consists of fragrances connected to places around the world.

• Forêt de Komi: Russian pine forests, with woody and mineral scents.
• Héliotrope du Pérou: Peruvian white flowers, tonka bean and violet.
• Lichen d’Écosse: Scottish moss, sage and patchouli.
• Tubéreuse du Mexique: Tuberose, vanilla, clove and musk.
• Makassar: Indonesian woody iris, amber and tobacco.
• Berkane Fleur d’Oranger: Moroccan orange blossoms and leaves.
• Sumi Hinoki: Japanese hinoki cypress and the scent of ink.
• Miel d’Angleterre: English honey, musk and cedarwood.
• Yuzu de Kiso: Japanese yuzu, mint and bay laurel.
• Oud de Médine: Smoked cypress and burning incense.
• Bergamote de Calabre: Italian bergamot.

In 2023, the Classic Collection added Cèdre du Liban, or Lebanese cedar; Ambre de Madagascar, or Madagascan amber; Iris de Malte, or Maltese iris; and Myrrhe d’Érythrée, or Eritrean myrrh.

The Les Jardins Français collection, meanwhile, offers six fragrances inspired by French gardens. Unexpected combinations of vegetables and herbs, such as verbena and basil, sweet potato and carrot, and currant and tomato, evoke gardens through all the senses, from the scent of freshly tilled earth to bouquets that suggest the warmth of the sun.

The Louvre Collaboration, 2019: Giving Masterpieces a Scent

In 2019, the Louvre collaborated with a perfume brand for the first time in its 226-year history. Its chosen partner was Buly.

In this unprecedented project, eight leading French perfumers were invited to choose freely a work from the Louvre’s collection of 35,000 pieces and create its scent.

“Considering their scale, we were an unusual choice. This was the Louvre’s first collaboration with a perfume brand, and surely none of the famous houses would have turned it down.”
— Victoire de Taillac

“The perfumers had complete freedom. There wasn’t even a budget. I told them just one thing: no Mona Lisa. It would be far too obvious.”
— Ramdane Touhami

The eight resulting fragrances were Venus de Milo, The Winged Victory of Samothrace, La Grande Odalisque, Nymph with a Scorpion, The Bolt (Le Verrou), Conversation in a Park, Saint Joseph the Carpenter and The Bather. A pop-up store was installed beneath I. M. Pei’s glass pyramid, operating until January 2020.

Other Product Categories

Buly is not just a perfume brand. As a comprehensive beauty emporium, it offers around 700 products.

• Body care: Huile Antique plant-based oils, Lait Virginal body milk, and assorted clays and powders.
• Face care: Crème Pogonotomienne beard treatment and other products.
• Soap: Savon Superfin, a pH-neutral soap that can be embossed.
• Fragrance accessories: Alabastre stone fragrance diffusers and Papier d’Encens scented sheets.
• Candles and incense
• Beauty tools: Japanese-made combs, Egyptian loofahs and traditional tools from various countries.

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Incidentally…

• Balzac and Bully: The protagonist of Honoré de Balzac’s 1837 novel César Birotteau is said to have been influenced by Jean-Vincent Bully. Its story of a Parisian bourgeois who achieves glory as a perfumer only to fall into ruin bears striking parallels with Bully’s own life.
• Why the name lost an “l”: The original spelling was Bully, but one “l” was removed out of consideration for English-speaking customers, since bully has a negative meaning in English. Ramdane has also said it was to give the name a fresher impression.
• Calligraphy as a cost-saving measure: The handwritten calligraphy service that now symbolizes the brand began as a resourceful solution when they could not afford printed packaging.
• A unique acquisition from LVMH Ventures: Among companies backed by LVMH Luxury Ventures, Buly is the only one to have been acquired by the LVMH group itself.
• Ramdane was made a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2020.
• Books: Buly’s history and philosophy are explored in detail in The Beauty of Time Travel, a volume of more than 400 pages published by gestalten. Victoire’s book An Atlas of Natural Beauty has been published in six countries.

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