ORMAIE: Fragrances Born from a Mother and Son’s Memories, and Sculptural Bottles

“The most beautiful books, paintings and works of art are always born when they speak of something personal.”

— Baptiste Bouygues (co-founder; translated from the Japanese article)

A wooden ring, a red sphere, a yellow geometric form. Each ORMAIE fragrance has a different sculptural cap on its bottle. Twelve glass facets reflect the light, while the wood retains the texture of a hand-finished surface. These are containers you might want to keep within sight even when not using the perfume.

Their form was created by a perfume house started in Paris by a mother and son. A grandparents’ home, a childhood school, a father’s perfume. Their intimate memories become starting points for fragrance, connecting with material choices and bottle shapes. To understand ORMAIE, it helps to begin with that family’s history.

Contents

Essential Information
The Founders and the Brand’s Beginnings
The Brand’s Particular Commitments
An Aside…
References

Essential Information

Founded:2018
Founders:Baptiste Bouygues and Marie-Lise Jonak
Based in:Paris, France
Fragrance creation:Marie-Lise works with perfumers, drawing on family memories
Official website:ORMAIE

ORMAIE centres its fragrance-making on natural materials and considers perfume and its container as one creative work. Its seven founding fragrances were made with 100% natural fragrance materials, but some current works also incorporate synthetics. Distinguishing the material philosophy from the specifications of individual current products makes the house’s evolution easier to understand.

The Founders and the Brand’s Beginnings

Early Childhood in Thailand and the Countryside of His Grandparents’ Home

Baptiste spent his early years in Thailand, followed by much of his childhood with grandparents living in the French countryside. In a 2022 interview, he recalled how strongly these two environments influenced his way of seeing. Before visits to city shops or art museums, the landscapes and smells around him had formed the foundations of his senses.

His grandparents’ home had a garden and his grandfather’s workshop. His grandfather carved wood at night, and Baptiste reportedly loved watching him work. Art was not only something viewed in a special place. It was also the act of making forms by hand in everyday life. This family background overlaps with ORMAIE’s later wooden caps.

A Mother with a Career in Perfume and Her Son’s Proposal

His mother, Marie-Lise, had long worked in perfume. The Fragrance Foundation France’s 2022 interview described her experience as spanning thirty years. Through her work with brands, she knew the process of conceiving fragrances and giving them form with perfumers.

Baptiste himself worked for Louis Vuitton in Asia and Givenchy in Europe. Drawing on that experience, in 2016 he proposed to his mother that they start their own perfume brand. A mother experienced in the perfume industry and a son who had worked in luxury sought to use their respective skills for the memories they shared as a family.

The division of roles did not mean that Baptiste wrote every formula himself. He communicates the stories and images that inspire the fragrances, while Marie-Lise develops them with perfumers. Collaboration with specialists was needed to turn their perceptions into fragrances that could actually be worn.

Two Years to Make Perfume from Natural Materials

The challenge they chose in preparing to launch was to create the fragrances they wanted using only natural materials. Even for his mother, this was not a task in which past experience could simply be applied unchanged. Time was needed to examine the properties of natural materials and retry their combinations. Baptiste has said in several interviews that development took around two years.

According to the Doolittle interview, the first fragrance his mother completed and showed him was Les Brumes. It layered bright citrus with the suggestion of trees in the morning. On experiencing the result, Baptiste began considering a bottle worthy of its contents. The concept for the container became concrete from this fragrance onwards.

ORMAIE launched in 2018 with seven fragrances. Its beginnings followed work on a creative challenge: how far could combinations of natural materials express the memories they wanted to convey? Synthetics would later be used too for expressive purposes, but the method of repeated trials and dialogue continues in its present work.

Communicating Shared Memories of a House and School to Perfumers

One strength of mother and son working together was the ability to shorten verbal explanations. They shared memories of the same grandmother’s home and had attended the same school. When discussing a room or a person, they could share even the fine details of its background. Fragrance concepts could begin with specific scenes rather than being diluted into generic “freshness” or “glamour.”

From there, the process involved exchanges with perfumers. In a 2022 interview, Marie-Lise mentioned work with TechnicoFlor and Robertet, and said she had created Marque-Page with Irène Farmachidi. Even to makers who did not share the family’s memories, they had to convey the intended landscapes and emotions and translate them into choices of fragrance materials.

The reluctance to rush completion also comes from his mother’s working practice. Marie-Lise told MECCA that she wears trials not just during the day but also at bedtime, assessing them within everyday life. Beyond the initial impression on a blotter, she considers how a fragrance remains on skin over time. Such accumulated experience supports their decisions.

Naming the Brand for a Family Landscape and Building a Parisian House

The name ORMAIE comes from the elm trees seen in the countryside where his grandparents lived. The family home, the garden, woodworking: the brand name contains the same scenes of daily life as its fragrances and containers. Even with Paris as its base, what he absorbed from childhood remains at the centre of its creation.

Baptiste has also paid attention to relationships with the people making glass, wood and labels, not only perfume. In a 2022 interview, he spoke of valuing visits to production sites with his mother and conversations with the makers. This means opening a family-founded business to the hands of specialists rather than keeping it self-contained.

Today, ORMAIE has expanded beyond eaux de parfum into extraits and small, portable bottles. In Japan, it is stocked by PHAETON FRAGRANCE, TOMORROWLAND and Mitsukoshi Isetan’s meeco. Even as new outlets and formats appear, the starting point remains handing a personal story to someone else in the form of fragrance.

The Brand’s Particular Commitments

Eaux de Parfum: Family Memories, Journeys and the Stage

ORMAIE’s eaux de parfum give distinct fragrant forms to memories of a grandmother or father, a childhood school and landscapes encountered while travelling. What Baptiste brings to his mother is a person or scene he wants to preserve in scent, rather than a predetermined combination of ingredients. Their shared memories provide a starting point for compositions of white flowers, lavender, rose, woods and vanilla.

Yvonne imagines Baptiste’s grandmother. Centred on rose and patchouli, it adds fruit expressions such as blackcurrant to the world of classic perfumes she loved. Rather than copying an old perfume, it reconstructs that world with a contemporary sensibility while recalling her presence.

Papier Carbone turns to the school attended by mother and son. Wood, paper and the liquorice familiar from childhood: these memories are translated into combinations including star anise, cardamom, coffee and guaiac wood. Layering materials creates impressions reminiscent of paper and classrooms.

Le Passant takes its cue from his father’s perfume, Caron‘s Pour Un Homme. Baptiste recalled first adding vanilla to soften its lavender. The fragrance proved difficult to compose, and they almost abandoned it. At the last moment, he remembered the benzoin scent of the Armenian paper his father always carried in his pockets. Adding that facet finally brought the fragrance into line with his memory. The paper in his pockets mattered as much as the perfume he wore.

Les Brumes depicts a morning in an Italian citrus grove. Lemon, mandarin and bergamot meet ginger before giving way to cedar, sandalwood and vetiver. The scene includes the dew-covered trees as well as the brightness of the fruit. It was also the first fragrance Marie-Lise completed and showed her son, making it a starting point for the house.

Toï Toï Toï takes its name from the German expression dancers use to wish one another luck before a performance. Its inspiration is the feeling of entering the Palais Garnier and the interval before the curtain rises. Incense and black pepper join cedar, sandalwood, patchouli and vetiver to evoke the polished wooden floor of the stage. The black rectangular cap also frames the stage where a performance is about to begin.

Marque-Page carries a memory of travel: the leather bookmark Baptiste’s father took on his journeys. Leather, oud and incense form its centre, with the delicacy of iris and white flowers layered around them. Marie-Lise has described working with perfumer Irène Farmachidi on a leather fragrance with woody and ambery accords.

28° captures a summer walk in the south of France. Jasmine, tuberose and orange blossom mingle with impressions of sunlight and monoi in the hair. Citrus leads into sandalwood, vanilla and immortelle, bringing together bright white flowers and the warmth of summer lingering on skin.

White flowers take an urban, twilight setting in Tableau Parisien. Drawing on Baptiste’s memories of his early days in Paris, tuberose, rose, spices and tobacco portray a woman at the hour when the terraces fill with people. Ginger and basil introduce the warmth of tonka bean and benzoin. Its elm-burl cap is also a tribute to Parisian Art Deco.

The name 18-12 refers to December 18, said to be Marie-Lise’s birthday. Lychee and mandarin bring brightness to rose, joined by cherry, almond and heliotrope. Where Yvonne pairs rose with patchouli in a classical composition, 18-12 expresses laughter and youthful joy through fruit and sweetness.

In L’Ivrée Bleue, vanilla and rum are joined by iris, violet and cocoa. Its subject is a jungle’s abundant vegetation and the dark allure within it. Powdery floral facets and patchouli keep the sweetness from becoming purely confectionery, building a dense tropical image.

Broadening Expression While Keeping Natural Materials at the Centre

The founding policy of 100% natural fragrance materials is not a figure common to every current product. Eaux de parfum including Les Brumes, Yvonne, Papier Carbone and Le Passant are described as having 100% natural ingredients, while 18-12 and L’Ivrée Nuit Extrait are listed at 95%. The distinction does not simply fall between eau de parfum and extrait.

In 2025, Baptiste discussed choosing to incorporate synthetics for the sake of what he wanted to express. Rather than ranking fragrances by the natural or synthetic origin of their materials, the question is how to achieve the desired composition. From that perspective, the conditions they imposed on themselves at the beginning are also being reconsidered.

Extraits: The Same Story at a Different Time of Day

Some of ORMAIE’s extraits rework stories first told in its eaux de parfum. Baptiste describes the idea this way: “It is like painting a landscape at two different moments of the day.” The change goes beyond making the same fragrance stronger, shifting the light between fruit, flowers and woods.

Yvonne Extrait retains the rose-and-patchouli chypre structure, contrasting a liqueur-like Damask plum with generous patchouli. Where the eau de parfum brings the brightness of red fruit, the extrait deepens the shadows of ripe fruit and wood. Jasmine, orange blossom and peach connect its rich fruity and floral facets.

Toï Toï Toï Extrait moves the scene to an evening performance at the Palais Garnier. Fresh ginger, creamy sandalwood and a roasted quality of vetiver meet a fruitiness suggestive of raspberry wood. It carries the original’s woods and incense into a sweeter, more opulent composition. Raspberry appears here as an element that changes the woody structure, rather than a fruit placed alone in the foreground.

32° Extrait depicts the same summer as 28°, with greater heat in its white-flower scene. Tuberose is surrounded by juicy pear, freesia and a solar accord that includes coconut and ylang-ylang, wrapped in impressions of white musk and suede. Compared with the citrus and white flowers of 28°, its emphasis is on the fullness created by fruit and musk.

L’Ivrée Nuit Extrait takes L’Ivrée Bleue’s vanilla to a night by the sea near the equator. In place of rum, iris and cocoa, mango, nectarine, milky vanilla, woods and musks come together. The tropical imagination shared with the original becomes softer and milkier, with a richer fruit character.

Les Facettes: Different Faces of Musk, Rose and Wood

Les Facettes comprises three extraits: Musc Miroir, Rose Mosaïque and Bois Océan. Its name connects the house’s twelve-faceted bottle with the many facets of a single material. Whereas a grandmother or a school provides the starting point for earlier fragrances, musk, rose and wood stand at the centre of these names and compositions.

The bottles express that focus too. All three retain the faceted glass but replace the wooden sculptures with metal caps. Their colour and material are inspired by the containers used to preserve the purity of ingredients in a perfumer’s laboratory. Alongside the family’s woodworking tradition, the tools used to store and combine fragrant materials become another source of design.

Musc Miroir explores musks reflecting one another and revealing different facets. Created by Marie-Lise with perfumer Dora Baghriche, it moves from pink pepper and an ambergris accord to a milky accord, musks and tonka bean. Benzoin, labdanum and sandalwood add warmth, bringing dry woody and animalic impressions into its skin-like softness. Its subject is the meeting of milky smoothness and a wilder character, rather than musk as cleanliness alone.

Rose Mosaïque was created by Marie-Lise with perfumer Amandine Galliano. Moroccan rose is surrounded by blackcurrant, plum, cinnamon, osmanthus and incense, leading into a structure of patchouli and leather. Like pieces placed in a mosaic, the composition assembles a rose with leaves and thorns as well as beautiful petals. Yvonne uses rose and patchouli to recall a grandmother’s perfume; here, fruit, spice and leather textures explore the complexity of the flower itself.

Bois Océan pictures the coast of Capri as day turns to night, with a trace of salt still on the skin. Italian lemon, bergamot, coriander seed and juniper berry meet a driftwood accord, sandalwood, vetiver and musks. Warm woods support the freshness of citrus and the sea.

Perfumer Vincent Ricord, who worked with Marie-Lise, described seeking a slightly masculine freshness surrounded by woods and musks. Atlas cedar and herbal elements give depth, while musks round out the composition. The aim brings warmth and refinement to the freshness. His description concerns the fragrance’s character; all three Les Facettes fragrances are offered without a gender restriction.

Les Iconiques, meanwhile, brings together works such as 18-12, Yvonne Extrait and Musc Miroir. It is a selection spanning eaux de parfum, extraits and Les Facettes, rather than a separate, mutually exclusive fragrance series.

Twelve-Faceted Glass and Hand-Finished Wooden Caps

The bottle’s twelve facets are linked to the twelve hours on a clock. The design translates the time needed for perfume development and handwork into the container’s shape. Baptiste worked on the bottle design with art director Jade Lombard. Beyond its visual impression, he wanted to give the approach to making fragrance a form that could be held.

The wooden caps used since the house’s early years are made of beech and polished by hand. Les Brumes has a ring that preserves the wood’s natural colour; Yvonne has a red sphere; Papier Carbone has a yellow abstract form. Differences between fragrances are communicated through colour and shape as well as the names on their bottles. This is why each looks like a small sculpture when arranged on a shelf.

The label, too, is more than a stage of adding information to a finished container. Marie-Lise has described visiting the printer Imprimerie du Marais and working face to face with its makers. Seeking the handwork appropriate to each of the different materials, wood, glass and paper, supports the impression of the entire bottle.

Refilling Small Bottles for Continued Use

The portable 20 ml Small Bottles offer a way to choose combinations according to preference and can be refilled with glass ampoules of the same capacity. Rather than simply selling a smaller version of a large bottle, the house considers another format suited to where it will be used and to continued use.

A sculptural bottle kept in a room, and a small bottle carried every day and replenished. The ability to choose according to the setting of use, not just capacity, is another interesting aspect of the house’s making. It creates different points of contact with a life that includes fragrance.

An Aside…

The grandmother for whom Yvonne was named reportedly never liked her own name. Baptiste did not tell either his mother or grandmother in advance that he would use it for the perfume. Even with a fragrance made for family, it is impossible to know how its subject will receive it until they are told.

Yet his grandmother was delighted that her name had become a perfume. In Lampoon’s 2022 interview, Baptiste said she had begun asking him to bring the fragrance for her friends too.

A name long disliked became the name of something she wanted to give to others. ORMAIE’s family stories do more than enclose the past in fragrance: they also bring small changes back into the family’s present life.