FRAGRANCE
Natural Born Distillers Ormaie was founded in Paris by Marie-Lise Jonak and her son Baptise Bouygues. MarieLise, a fragrance professional, and her son, a creative director who had worked for brands such as Louis Vuitton and Givenchy, decided to create a range of fragrances that originated from a story, an emotion, a place or even a person. If that wasn’t difficult enough, they also agreed their scents would be 100 per cent natural, free from any synthetic preservatives – not an easy feat in the perfume world. Michelle Ruzzene sits down with Marie Lise to discover more about the family-owned, unisex, ethical and ecological fragrance brand.
also take much more time. When you are in the process of making a new creation, you cannot smell your modifications right away. You have to wait a few days before the natural molecules really assemble and develop their full beauty. It is a beautiful process but a very long one.
YOUR FRAGRANCES ARE 100 PER CENT NATURAL? WHY?
HOW IMPORTANT IS THE COMBINATION OF SUSTAINABILITY AND AESTHETICS?
There is something truly unique about nature. I believe it touches your soul. Natural ingredients are just exceptional and that is why we decided to make fragrances that were solely made out of the best natural ingredients. In addition, it was very important that everything was socially and environmentally responsible, and the best raw materials allowed that. Ormaie fragrances are made from 100 percent natural ingredients that are ethically sourced and environmentally responsible. The bottles are made from recycled glass, and the caps are manufactured from French beechwood. Each bottle is a small work of art.
In French “bon” and “beau”, “good” and “beautiful” are very close words. If we wanted to make something beautiful it had to be good. And that amongst other things had to take into account the social and environmental component. We could not make a fragrance like Yvonne, the name of my mother, if it was responsible. It would not have felt right.
WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES TO CREATING A FRAGRANCE THAT IS 100 PER CENT NATURAL? It was a know-how that had been forgotten. We had to work with a completely new pallet of scents. It was like making a painting with new colours. A lot of the process was learning. Natural ingredients 76| RETAIL BEAUTY WINTER 2022
HOW IS IT WORKING WITH YOUR SON? Amazing! But the difficulty is to address your negative opinion during a discussion. It can be taken as a mum/son disapproval, when in fact it’s just an opinion to another colleague. Apart from that there are only positives sides. Frankly, if your roles within the family business are different, as well as your talents, it’s very easy to conduct the adventure with simplicity and joy. Baptiste and I work exceptionally well together. Each fragrance has a wooden bottle cap with a different shape – why? Every cap is linked to the story of the fragrance.
