It takes patience to create something this precise and conviction to keep it untouched by trends. ORMAIE was founded in Paris by Baptiste Bouygues and his mother, Marie-Lise Jonak, a veteran artistic director whose career in fine fragrance has included guiding creations for houses such as Guerlain while at Symrise. She later held key roles at Takasago before establishing her own consultancy. Together they set out to bring back a sense of individuality, creating perfumes that begin with memory, are shaped by hand, and carry the elegance of French craft.
The process is slow and deliberate. They work only with natural ingredients, allowing each formula to rest for months before bottling. Every detail speaks of artistry: glass bottles from the only French maker that recycles its own magma, hand-carved caps in beechwood from renewable forests, gold-stamped labels pressed on vintage machines in Paris. Even the brand’s manifesto is written as a poem.
Each fragrance begins with a personal moment. For Bouygues, it might be the scent of paper in a childhood classroom or the lavender his father wore. That memory became Le Passant, a fragrance that opens with bright bergamot and herbal lavender, then softens into vanilla, tonka bean, and warm woods. It feels like catching the scent of a stranger in passing, fleeting, intimate and unforgettable.
When we spoke, Baptiste reflected on the quiet work behind each bottle, the discipline of growing slowly, and the ways ORMAIE has kept its shape in a market that moves faster every year.
Q&A with Baptiste Bouygues
ORMAIE describes itself as a house built on family, art, and nature. These are big, almost mythic ideas. Can you take us back to the beginning and share what sparked this project and how you shaped it into what it is today?
The idea for ORMAIE was born from a very personal place. It was a real need. I believe that creation isn’t something you simply want to do; it’s something you feel. ORMAIE is a family house. I founded it with my mother, Marie-Lise Jonak, who is also our Creative Director. She’s the one who passed on to me, from an early age, a deep love for fragrance. Art is also essential to ORMAIE, it is about the creative process, with all the time and discipline it demands. And finally, nature. It inspires us, and we love working with exceptional ingredients.
ORMAIE fragrances are 100% natural, but you decided to add 5% synthetics. Could you explain why?
Creating fragrances with natural ingredients is both a challenge and a privilege. Nature doesn’t allow shortcuts. It asks for time, precision, and deep understanding. That said, creativity is what matters most to us. While ORMAIE is founded on natural ingredients, we sometimes allow for a touch of carefully chosen synthetics. This is never about compromise, but about precision and performance, when nature alone cannot express the exact emotion. 18-12 and our Extrait de Parfum include synthetics, and remain true olfactive compositions. These synthetics serve the story, they elevate the raw materials rather than replace them.
ORMAIE’s visual identity is strong and sculptural. The bottles, the caps, the photography all feel considered. Nothing about the presentation is generic. How do you approach design alongside fragrance creation, and how do you protect that integrity?
To me, a perfume is not just something you smell. It’s something you hold, you keep, you live with. As a child, I grew up gazing at my mother’s FiFi Awards. They felt like mysterious treasures, symbols of a world I admired long before I fully understood it. I think that’s what inspired me to give so much meaning and beauty to our fragrances. From the very beginning, we wanted our bottles to feel like unique objects inspired by design. The glass is faceted twelve times, symbolising the twelve hours of the day, a reminder of the time each creation takes. Every wooden cap is hand-carved, each one unique, made from sustainably sourced wood. We wanted to create something with a presence, not just a packaging.
The industry often uses the term niche too loosely. What does niche mean to you, and where do you think ORMAIE sits in today’s fragrance landscape?
ORMAIE was never created to fit a category. We are led by creativity, not by marketing. Every creator should be able to infuse their personal story into their work, and quality should always come before quantity.
Some of your fragrances feel like poetry in scent: Toï Toï Toï, Papier Carbone, Marque-Page. What role does storytelling play in your creative process, and how do you translate an abstract idea into something olfactive and wearable?
I always want to tell a feeling, someone or something. Even if we do not express it in words when the fragrance comes out there is always a story told in our fragrance. So the first step is that need to tell a story. I then share it with my mother and a process that can last for years starts. We can make hundreds and hundreds of trials, to get to what we want, and when we get there it is like an evidence.
You offer 20ml and 50ml sizes and have built a refillable system. These choices show a real respect for both sustainability and the consumer. Can you walk us through your thinking around sizing, accessibility, and longevity in product design?
Every decision at ORMAIE is made with intention. We chose the 20ml and 50ml formats to reflect how people truly live with fragrance. The 20ml is refillable, designed to be carried with you. ORMAIE’s small bottles are refillable with glass ampoules of the same size. The 50ml is designed for a more immersive wear.
The transparency around your ingredients, suppliers, and even maceration dates feels refreshingly rare in this space. What made you commit to that level of openness, and how have customers responded?
Thank you for saying that. Transparency was never a strategy, it was simply the obvious choice. We value the craftsmanship of artisans too much not to speak about their work. Their savoir-faire deserves to be acknowledged.
From natural sourcing to French production, everything about ORMAIE seems intentional. How do you balance the desire to stay artisanal with the demands of growth in a very crowded market?
We’ve made peace with growing slowly. ORMAIE wasn’t built for scale at any cost. It was built for meaning. That naturally limits how fast we can grow. It also protects what makes ORMAIE special. For us, growth means finding the right partners, the right homes for our fragrances. It’s not about being everywhere. It’s about being where it matters.
Many brands rely on nostalgia or fantasy, but ORMAIE feels rooted in culture. There is a sense of literature, sculpture, French heritage. What references shape your world when you’re building a fragrance?
That’s a nice observation, thank you. The creative process is deeply personal, so every inspiration comes from our surroundings: books, architecture, design, art. Depending on the project, I might be inspired by a painting, or a film, a song. Anything can become a source of creation. Literature of course plays a role, the idea that a fragrance could be read like a poem or a short story. Sculpture too. Our French heritage runs through everything we do: a love for precision, and know how…
As independent fragrance becomes more popular, we are also seeing an influx of greenwashing and formulaic launches. What advice would you give a customer trying to find something meaningful, and what should they look for in a brand today?
Take your time. In a world that moves quickly, real perfumery reveals itself slowly. Look for brands that show you what they’re made of, not just in ingredients, but in intention. And if it makes you feel something that’s when you have found something real.
Elevated Classics Classification
Primary Category: Creative Director-Led
Secondary Tags: Independent, Family-Owned, Sustainable Materials, French Production, Sculptural Design, Narrative-Driven, Transparent Sourcing
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