Since July 2024

An enthusiast first, a distributor second. I choose the houses one by one, and mass distribution alone is enough to rule one out.

  1. 1

    What rules a house out before I open the bottle

    Mass distribution. A house you can already find everywhere does not need me, and it is no longer niche. It is the only criterion I apply without having smelled anything. All the others take time.

    The criterionMass distribution
  2. 2

    What I look for

    Little-known houses, worth bringing to light. The catalogue is not built on names the public already asks for: it is built on houses that deserve to be seen and that nobody shows in France.

    In the catalogueTwelve housesSee them all
  3. 3

    How I test

    The scents first, then how they evolve: a perfume is not judged on its opening, it is judged on what it becomes after several hours. In parallel I study the house: its history, its positioning, what it says about itself and what it actually delivers. The two have to answer each other.

    What I examineThe scents, the evolution, the positioning
  4. 4

    What makes me say no

    The DNA. Of the perfumes, or of the house. Sometimes everything is sound and it is simply the brand identity that does not follow. A refusal is not a verdict on quality: it is a disagreement about direction, and it is better said straight away.

  5. 5

    Two years for one house

    Aaron Terence Hughes took me two years. What finally settled it was not a commercial argument: it was the human contact with the team. A house is also judged by the people who make it, and two years is how long it took for both sides to be sure.

    • Aaron Terence Hughes
    The longest to secureTwo years
  6. 6

    What the twelve have in common

    Niche. Not a style, not an olfactory family, not a country: the refusal to be everywhere. It is the only thread that ties them all together, and the one I will not give up.

    The common threadNiche
  7. 7

    What it changes when you order

    Being an official retailer is not a turn of phrase: each house authorises me by name to distribute it in France. The bottles are in our own stock, not at a third party; they ship from here. And since nobody can smell through a screen, every order goes out with a 2 ml sample. Delivery times depend on destination and customs: France 2 to 5 working days, Europe 5 to 10, international 7 to 15.

    StatusOfficial retailer in France

Pierre-Yves

Founder