Ormaie – the naturalist perfume

Baptiste Bouygues and Marie- Lise Jonak, son and mother, have been working since long time in the fashion industry. Marie-Lise used to be a fragrance consultant and her son Baptiste, has worked in communications for Louis Vuitton and Givenchy.

Their perfume line ORMAIE is based on all the elements to create a one of a kind, 100% natural scent, that comes in a modernist design that fits in our times .

We had a chat with Baptiste about how to create things special in a crowded beauty market .

Marie-Lise Jonak and her son Baptiste Bouygues, founders of ORMAIE

IRMA: How did your former jobs prepare you for creating a beauty product in an already very crowded market?
BAPTISTE BOUYGUES: Since I was a kid, I was always very passionate about know-how. My grandfather used to sculpt at night when he came back from work and I could watch him for hours.

I still have that passion for craftsmanship in every sense. Working in the fashion industry was important for me to learn how to structure that creativity and to be surrounded by very creative people also.

My mother worked for a very long time in the fragrance industry. When it comes to fragrances, she always has that touch of genius that will make an exceptional fragrance. As I wanted to make our fragrances only out of natural ingredients her expertise and creativity was priceless. All of the fragrances are mostly made out of synthetic ingredients and only someone with her experience and know-how could help me to tell the stories we wanted to tell while using no synthetic.

As far as a crowded market I knew we needed to make something unique creative and honest and I feel that people get our philosophy.

 

IRMA: What means nature to you and your product?
BAPTISTE BOUYGUES: It was very clear to me that it was important to make fragrances that were only made of natural ingredients. Nature has an elegance that synthetics do not have. The time it takes to grow the flowers, the people that are cultivating it, the link to earth has a romanticism that is unique. Nature has a soul that synthetic do not have.

OMAIE products

IRMA: Your flacons are made of recyclable glas, you work very sustainable, what are your next plans thinking in that direction?
BAPTISTE BOUYGUES: We are very careful about everything we do. In French bon « good » and beau « beautiful » are very close words. It is important for us to make something that is good if we want to make it beautiful. Today the wood we use on the caps of the flacon is from sustainable forests  in France, the paper from our packaging is very high-quality paper from Italy, partly recycled and partly from renewable forests. In the sourcing of our raw materials it is also very important that they are as well as amazing quality, respectful socially and environmentally speaking. In every development we have today we take this into account.

 

IRMA Can you tell us a bit more about the modernist design of your flacons? Especially the tops which are handmade out of wood remind me of modernist sculpture.
BAPTISTE BOUYGUES: It is very sculptural. I designed the bottles with Jade Lombard, and when we started designing the bottles it was important for us that the bottle would come out of the bathroom and be also a piece of art in your living room, or in the atelier of an artist. I have always loved Brancusi, Jade has always loved Jean Paul Goude and I think you can really see both of our influences in the flacons. The glass is more classic, with twelve facettes which remind us of time, and the cap in wood organic with this shapes that make the flacon very modern.

 

IRMA: How important is it to your opinion to put only natural ingredients onto your skin? 
BAPTISTE BOUYGUES: I am always very careful about what I put on my skin, but all synthetics are not bad, they have allowed to do some beautiful things. I just find there is an elegance to natural that is unique. It is like wearing a beautiful cashmere jumper, it is special.

look at the names

IRMA: How do you come up with the name of each scent?
BAPTISTE BOUYGUES: Every fragrance is a moment or someone that mattered to me. After it is like finding the tittle of a book, I guess.

Le passant for example is the smell I remember of my dad as a kid. He used to wear a beautiful lavender fragrance, he used to smoke also, and there is that touch of vanilla. « Le passant » means the man passing by. My father was rarely at home, so it is that idea of a man passing by.

Papier carbone is a work on memory, the souvenir I have of my childhood school in the countryside. It has that touch of paper, wood of the library and liquorice I used to love as a kid. Papier Carbone means carbone copy, for me, it is a paper with memory.

IRMA: Does art inspire you for your life and work? If so how?
BAPTISTE BOUYGUES: Of course, in every sense. In everything we create we have so many inspirations, for the flacon I gave some of them, but when you were asking about the names of the fragrances before you can be inspired by different writers, poets, even songs.

In life in general I do believe man imitates art.