Pain Perdu emulates french toast, Papier Carbonne is inspired by his elementary school. Baptiste Bouygues has built Ormaie on memories
A mother-son brand
Ormaie was founded in late 2018, by Baptiste Bouygues and his mother Marie-Lise Jonak, the creative director. Bouygues tells the stories and she translates them with the perfumers into fragrances, candles and soaps. In Ormaie, family is central – it is a legacy, which means there is a long-term vision, no shortcuts.
The production takes place in Grasse and Marseille, but the creative process happens in Paris. Ormaie’s creative process takes at least 3 years. In this process the perfumers complete hundreds of trials to find the fragrance that will best tell Bouygues’ story. Ormaie was the first maison to create one hundred percent natural fragrances – the process takes longer than other materials. The perfumers have to wait three weeks between every trial to smell it, as they have to wait for the molecules to come together. When it comes to production, they have to wait another three months for the fragrances to mature. The perfume is then bottled. «It’s just like an old wine» says Bouygues.
The dark exoticism to L’Ivrée Bleue
The perfume, which is the latest addition to the Ormaie collection, has a narcotic note. The black vanilla, ethically sourced from Madagascar, combines with a touch of rum and creates an intoxicating smell according to Bouygues. «We guarantee to buy the vanilla crops three years in advance from Madagascar», he states as he reiterates that Ormaie is an organic fragrance brand.
L’Ivrée Bleue has top notes of rum, mandarin and lilly; middle notes of violet and iris, and bottom notes of vanilla, patchouli, benzoin and cacao. The combination of these notes results in evoking the exoticism of Gauguin and the jungle of Douanier Rousseau according to Bouygues.
Yvonne: a feminine fragrance
Yvonne was named after his grandmother. The notes of the perfume are roses, patchouli and red fruits – especially raspberry. All the natural materials are picked from all over the world for Ormaie products. In Yvonne’s case, the roses are from Grasse; a town on the French Riviera – in the hills north of Cannes. Grasse is known for its long-established perfume industry. The patchoulis are from India. Bouygues wanted to create something personal – all of his creations are personal and tell the stories of his childhood.
Initially, he didn’t inform his grandmother or mother that he would be naming the perfume Yvonne. His grandmother dislikes her name, but when she heard about the perfume, she was overjoyed. «She’s living in the countryside and every time I go back, she insists that I bring some Yvonne for her friends», mentions Bouygues.
The modernity of the bottles
Bouygues mentions that he always designs the fragrances as objects of decoration. He would like people to buy the perfumes for their living room. The bottles of Ormaie are all renewable and have twelve facades. Bouygues wants to capture the essence of time with these designs – the twelve hours of a clock. The glass bottles are ecological and the bottle caps are made from wood, from a renewable forest. Ormaie’s vision is to make something organic that has longevity. Moreover, the paper used for packaging is recycled.
When opening the package, the first thing you see is the sculpture – the cap. The caps give the perfumes an architectural vision, a sense of modernity. The logo, on the other hand, is four years old. When Bouygues and his mother created the logo, they wanted to emulate an idea of time and legacy. As a result they put the image of the caps of the seven original fragrances into the logo.
Ormaie Candles: A product inspired by places
The wax of the candles is made from coconut oil, French beeswax and European soy. They are made with natural materials similar to the perfumes. Bouygues mentioned that the candles are inspired by places he has been. The fragrances are inspired by the people he met. One of the candles, eight square meters, is named after his fathers 8 square meter mint and rosemary garden. The perfume Le Passant is inspired by Bouygues’ father again – it means the man passing by and the smell reminds him of his father, who left when he was a child. The candles porcelain is made by hand – it carries the same design of the fragrances. The facades are present like the perfumes.
Ormaie soaps are also made with natural ingredients and is their latest venture. The packaging changes but keeps the same codes and the logo remains the same.
Birth of the qualified natural raw materials
The natural raw materials come from every corner of the world. 28 degrees, one of the fragrances, has jasmine and tuberose that are from Grasse. Les brumes de citrus found its raw materials from Italy. Le Passant’s lavender comes from the South of France. The patchoulis in Yvonne are from India. Ivre Bleue’s dark vanilla is from Madagascar. «We take sandalwood from New Caledonia; every time one partner cuts one tree they replant twenty to account for a circular chain».
There is a process behind the scents that Ormaie creates – Bouygues mentions what they’re doing emulates the job of a chef who has his own garden in the countryside. He brings the ingredients from his garden, to the city, to his five-star restaurant; «I am from the French countryside, we want to show the beauty of it».
The source of inspiration
Bouygues often draws inspiration from his childhood – Yvonne is his grandmother, while Le Passant is his father. His elementary school inspired Papier Carbonne. It translates to carbon copy. His childhood teacher used to write on carbon copy paper and he remembers the smell from when he was a boy: «It is like wood paper, almost like a library you can smell».
Pain Perdu is a candle that emulates french toast. His grandmother used to make him this lunch after school when he was a boy. Everything about Ormaie has a connection to his personal life. The house he grew up in, his grandmother’s house in the countryside, is the main source of inspiration for Bouygues. The garden, the kitchen, the school, the old smells – it all inspires him.
Ormaie
Ormaie is a luxury perfume brand founded by Baptiste Bouygues, and his mother Marie-Lise Jonak in late 2018. They produce fragrances, candles and soaps.
