When Ramdane Touhami bought the more than 110-year-old Buly 1803 Pharmacy in Paris’ Rue Bonaparte, he didn’t need to change much. He just kept the essence of the true and beautiful, packaged in a very special way. IRMA shops at Buly — and talks to the owner.
In the heart of St. Germain, one buys the beauty essentials as in days gone by: beautiful tubes, jars and flasks, their contents made exclusively of natural ingredients and individually packaged by hand, are labelled in calligraphic handwriting.
IRMA: Vinaigre de Bully is over a hundred years old. Which of your products today resembles that?
Ramadan Touhami: None of them. We recreate all the products, and we think that we will produce the Vinaigre again very soon.
IRMA: How do you plan to revive the Golden Century of beauty?
R.T.: Using the good word, creating fantastic products and using a very high level of packaging.
IRMA: How did you get the inspiration for your beautiful packaging?
R.T.: I have been collecting for a long time old beauty catalogues from the 19th century.
IRMA: Why did you change the name from Bully to Buly?
R.T.: Because Bully in English means something I don’t like…
IRMA: You are very active in the creative world. Your idea is to always generate new concepts. What are you doing for this today and where do you get your inspiration to create something new?
R.T.: I try to don’t look too much at Instagram etc. The creative world seems to produce the same images because people look at the same sources and images. Without copying, they still all create the same.
IRMA: What is your guideline in life?
R.T.: Never two days the same… I hate routine.
Buly 1803
6 rue Bonaparte
75006 Paris
A German version of this IRMA article was published in Icon magazine. Read it here.