ORMAIE

solely made of natural ingredients, ORMAIE PARIS’ poetic fragrances are created from special memories and emotions.

A grandfather who sculpted. A grandmother and her flowers. A mother passionate about fragrances. Family-owned, ORMAIE looks for excellence in art and has brought together artists and artisans to write each chapter of its story.

We had the opportunity to ask founder Baptiste Bouygues a few questions about the brand, the stories behind starting ORMAIE, how the use of natural ingredients and their responsible approach, touches upon the scent of feelings.

Interview NICOLE GAVRILLES
Photography & Art Direction PLUSIA ROMS
Florist & Set Design KASIA BOROWIECKA
Curator & Prop Sourcing KIARA GOURLAY

Tell us a little bit about your background.

I was raised in Thailand for the first years of my life and then I lived in the French countryside with my grandparents for most of my childhood. There, I grew a love for now-how watching my grandfather sculpting wood at night, fascinated by the precise gestures.

Then I started working for French luxury Maison in Asia, Louis Vuitton and then Givenchy in Europe. On my side, my mother was a director of olfactive creation in great perfumery houses. I was always interested in craftsmanship and art, I decided to create ORMAIE where these values would be at the center of the Maison.

What inspired you to launch ORMAIE? What gap did you feel was missing within the fragrance industry?

I wanted to create and express something very personal.

“Le Passant” for example is the scent I remember from my father; and Yvonne is the name of my grandmother. I believe the best creations must come from something very honest and personal. That is where the beauty resides. When you speak about something very personal it is what will resonate with people and somehow, they will probably have had the same feeling. Now looking back at this creation process, I realize that the brand is telling a lot of stories I didn’t realize I was telling. I feel now the brand speaks about the beauty of the French countryside for example, about the French family unit etc. A lot of things I lived in my childhood infuse in the brand.

What is amazing when you work with your mother in fragrances is that we have the same olfactive history. When smelling new fragrances together I can easily tell her: “this smells like the soap in my grandmother’s house and she will know exactly what I am talking about.” As a lot of olfactive memories come from childhood, it is really only with family that you can have this common link around fragrances.

What drew you towards making your brand sustainable?

What was important for me when creating ORMAIE was to create emotions, and this came through making no concessions on the creativity and on the beauty of the natural ingredients we use.

The fragrance industry mostly uses synthetic ingredients, but I wanted to tell our stories only using natural ingredients. Not at all because of a trend, but because I truly believed there was something unique about natural ingredients. They touch your soul in a way synthetics can’t. To achieve this, we had to go through a process of learning again a know-how, which along with the sourcing, took nearly two years.

What would you define as the key aspects that make ORMAIE stand out from other fragrance brands?

The stories we tell through our fragrances are so personal that by essence I believe they make ORMAIE unique. I hope through them the Maison stands out and creates a certain poetry. Creativity and know-how being also at the center of what we do, the handcrafted bottles also bring something very different, an object you want to bring in your living room or in your library. Finally, the fact that all our fragrances are 100% natural with only exceptional ingredients is something you can smell straight, and I think people can feel it.

“Now looking back at this creation process, I realize that the brand is telling a lot of stories I didn’t realize I was telling.”

Each bottle looks to have a story behind it, can you tell us the process on how the shapes came to be and the meaning behind them?

I remember my mother having lots of fragrance bottles as objects of decorations. Back in the day, fragrance bottles were pieces of art with great designers behind it. I wanted to find that again. I wanted the bottle to leave the bathroom and to find its place in the living room or the atelier of the artist. I worked with Jade Lombard who became a friend. I have always loved artist like Brancusi or design of the second half of the 20th century. Jade loves Jean Paul Goude among others. It’s these inspirations that created these bottles and every detail has a link to the story of the fragrances.

For example, 28° has a white circular cap, recalling the white sun in summer. For Yvonne we went for a round cap with a deep red color, a symbol of femininity. Then for Papier Carbone, we designed a piece in a joyful yellow color that can recall a child’s toy.

It shows that not just sustainability is the core of ORMAIE, but also ethics. When factoring in production and packaging, what areas are the most important to you?

The most important things are the quality of the object, where it is made and how socially and environmentally respectful it is.

As I said, I am very passionate about know-how and beautiful objects. That is why we try to work with artisans that have exceptional expertise. It so happens that from my experience, when you work with artisans with that level of quality, they are usually very careful about the environmental factor. They are usually family-owned artisans that deeply care about the social and environmental issues.

To give a brief example, we chose our glass maker because he have an exceptional know how in glass making. He makes some of the most exclusive spirit bottles for example. On top of that, on all of his process of manufacturing he only reuses renewable energies. That is why we chose to develop our bottles with him.

“I think the biggest one was making fragrances that are truly exceptional and 100% natural. The industry is so reliant on pétrochimistry and therefore synthetic that everyone told me it was impossible. All fragrances have been synthetic for the past 50 years, it was very much a paradigm shift.”

What's been the most challenging hurdle you have come across/overcome thus far?

I think the biggest one was making fragrances that are truly exceptional and 100% natural. The industry is so reliant on pétrochimistry and therefore synthetic that everyone told me it was impossible. All fragrances have been synthetic for the past 50 years, it was very much a paradigm shift.

To create natural fragrance was a very complex task. We had to re-learn and know how all over again and very much had to put the quality of the ingredients at the center of what we did. Today there is still a heavy lobbying from the all groups trying to find a way to say they are natural even when their products are actually not natural at all.

We’ve seen a huge shift in transparency within the fragrance and beauty industries. From listing every ingredient to transitioning packaging materials to recyclable and biodegradable options – what do you feel is next and where do you want to see change?

I think in the packaging, getting rid of plastic or at least making products refillable will be the most important. It is a complex challenge for a lot of actors, but I hope things are going the right way. Regarding the scents I truly believe the fragrance industry needs to take a step back from pétrochimistry and come back to the beauty of what it originally was. That is what we tried to do on our side.

What impression/legacy do you hope your work with ORMAIE will leave behind?

Protecting a know how is very important for me. In the near future I very much want people to be able to discover all of our know how. Fragrance making is very poetic and I want people to be able to experience that. I believe we are also an industry that can quite easily have positive external impact both socially and environmentally. I very much want ORMAIE to be at the forefront of this change.

Name a personal hero, can be related or unrelated to your field and why:

My grandfather has these countryside values that I’ve always admired. He is always present, very humble and always goes back to what is the right thing to do… even if it is the harder decision.

Something you're currently reading/listening to/watching:

I am looking at a lot of French artists, sculptors photographers, architects on my Instagram. I believe there is a real creative moment going on with people I really admire.

A few of them :
- In painting: Ines Longevial, Jean Claracq,
- I’m sculpture : Marc Vellay, Guy Bareff, Theo Mercier, Lea Bigot
- In designers: Amcaoval
- Photographers; Vincent Dessailly

One thing you’re looking forward to…

This weekend! Going to the countryside.

For more information about ORMAIE, follow on instagram. ORMAIE fragrances are available on ormaie.paris.

Interview published for ONE Magazine Online