FRAGRANCE: ORMAIE

Natural Born Distillers

Ormaie was founded in Paris by Marie-Lise Jonak and her son Baptise Bouygues. Marie- Lise, 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.

YOUR FRAGRANCES ARE 100 PER CENT NATURAL? WHY?

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.

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 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.

HOW IMPORTANT IS THE COMBINATION OF SUSTAINABILITY AND AESTHETICS?

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.

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.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE PACKAGING?

It was important for us to have a beautiful box, something you want to gift. We work with l’imprimerie du Marais in Paris to print our logo on the old Heideberg machines. There is something moving about that know-how. We then send the paper to Italy to make the box that fits perfectly around the bottle. When you open your box only the sculpture will appear. There is something exciting about that.

CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE INSPIRATION FOR EACH SCENT?

28° - Baptiste had the idea of 28° when he was in the south of France. Sometimes when you walk in the south of France you can just smell jasmine or orange blossom. He remembers walking with a friend after an afternoon at the beach and still smelling the monoi (an infused perfume-oil made from soaking the petals of Tahitian gardenias in coconut oil) on her hair, but at the same time, smelling those beautiful white flowers which were surrounding them. That is what 28° is about- summer.

Les Brumes -

This is very much about the idea of a morning walk in a citrus field in Italy. It’s those beautiful citruses and you can smell the morning dew going from the fruit onto the wood. For me, it’s a super complex smell that seems simple, which makes it very sophisticated. It’s very “rive gauche” as we will say in French.

Papier Carbone –

This is a work on memory. Papier Carbone means carbon copy. The paper that has a memory. Baptiste went to the same school as me, and we wanted to create a scent that reminded us of it. It’s that idea of the wood of the library, of the paper of the books. I also loved liquorice as a child. There is badiane (star anise) in it which will remind you of liquorice.

Yvonne -

All of our fragrances are unisex. But I love beautiful feminine fragrances. I really wanted to work on a classic feminine but adding modernity to it. Yvonne is the name of my mother. And she loves fragrances. Yvonne was very much the idea of having the beautiful codes of classic feminine perfumery with patchouli and rose, while bring modernity to it with red fruits and blackcurrant. It’s really a timeless fragrance.

Le Passant -

It means the man passing by. It is the smell Baptiste remembers from his father. He used to wear a beautiful lavender fragrance, and Baptiste has always worn lavenders. We wanted Ormaie to have one. And as he was also carrying Papier d’Arménie (perfumed paper strips) in his pockets, the mix of the smell with the lavender were making something special . It’s that souvenir we have tried to bring back to life. Le Passant is really a beautiful lavender made smoother with vanilla tonka benzoin and ambrette. It’s a certain idea of masculinity for me.

L’Ivrée Bleue -

This is a very narcotic scent. It’s the scent of the jungle, Baptiste used to work as a student in mines in South America. L’Ivrée Bleue is really the idea of the craziness that can be born in the jungle. There is something animalistic and addictive to it. With the rum, the dark vanilla, the cacao. But there are also touches of colour, like a painting from “le douanier Rousseau” (a French postimpressionist painter) with iris and lily.

Toï Toï Toï –

It means good luck in German. With that scent we wanted to recreate the memory of one evening at the opera or ballet. Think the smell of the wooden boards, the expensive curtain fabrics, the wax of the shoes, the incense; and it’s why the fragrance is called Toï Toï Toï. It’s the phrase used by the ballet master to wish the dancers good luck, which translates to “break a leg” in English.

Ormaie also has a range of soaps and candles available.

Ormaie is distributed in Australia through Agence de Parfum https://agencedeparfum.com.au