Essential Parfums founder Géraldine Archambault wants you to know who made your fragrance

THE FRAGRANCE industry has, historically, operated within a creative anomaly. It’s one of the few art forms where the artist has, traditionally, been kept out of sight. (Watches have a similar model, for those interested.)

The nose who created the blend, built the accords or conjured illusions of having stepped inside a bakery, wandered through a field of fresh cut hay or walked past a burning building rarely saw their name anywhere near the bottle. That space belonged to the house, the couturier or the face of the campaign.

Géraldine Archambault, founder of Essential Parfums, wanted to change this. Now the artist is given their due. Every label carries two names, the brand’s and, beneath it, the perfumer’s: Bois Impérial by Quentin Bisch, Néroli Botanica by Anne Flipo. Or The Musc by Calice Becker.

“These artists, and they are artists, have always been hidden behind the brands,” Archambault tells Esquire. “But like any artist, I want them to sign their masterpiece with their name.”

Archambault, 54, was raised in the perfume business. In the 1970s her father held a senior role at Rochas, opening subsidiaries in the US and Lebanon, and in 1984 her parents launched a brand of their own. Her interest in the industry started young, and her father made her earn her place there. “He said, ‘Okay, you want to work in the perfume business? You’re going to learn first.'” That meant selling bottles behind a counter in Mexico, in Spanish and English, then taking on internships across several perfume houses across three decades.

Along the way, Archambault made herself a promise. “I promised myself that I would never ever have a brand,” she says. “So my first lesson was, never say never.”

The idea for Essential Parfums actually came from her youngest brother, working in the US, while Archambault was overseeing the growth and expansion of niche brands. Pricing for the fragrance market was undergoing rapid inflation. Bottles that might have once cost well below $200 were seeing an increase of 20 per cent at least. 

This narrative was the spark that drove Archambault’s brother to ask the question: Why couldn’t a brand do away with the category’s increasingly “indecent prices” and, more radically, put the perfumers up front? 

Online shopping, social media and perhaps a touch of mass-market fatigue had made consumers more curious about what they were spraying on themselves. Provenance was also becoming a bigger question – where did it come from, how was it made, what did the brand stand for. “I think we took consumers for stupid for too long…” says Archambault. “Consumers today, they know. They know how to pick a juice. They’re not a perfumer, but they know just by the notes if the product is qualitative or not.”

Smaller companies also didn’t hide behind layers of marketing, so it felt like you had a more direct conduit to the human behind the brand.

The company officially launched in September 2018 with five fragrances, created by some of the most respected noses in the industry: Antoine Maisondieu. Nathalie Gracia-Cetto. Bruno Jovanovic. All their names front and centre on their bottles.

It was also presented as environmentally principled. No unnecessary plastic wrapping, glues, or dyes. And priced accordingly. At the time, a 100ml bottle would cost a buyer €69, or $110 AUD. (Today, it’s $209 for 100ml of an EDP.)

“People looked at me and said, ‘This is never ever going to work, impossible,'” she recalls. Her point was simpler: not everyone can spend that much on a fragrance. What she hadn’t expected was retailers thanking her for bringing in younger customers they had struggled to reach. “I think what pleased me the most is that it worked thanks to the quality of the juices.”

Sustainability is built into the entire creation model. Compositions sit between 86 and 93 per cent natural origin, with no added colourings, and bottles are refillable. Alcohol comes from beetroot. Each perfumer must include at least one sustainably sourced ingredient. 

All these facets struck a cord with consumers who wanted to associate with a brand that stood for something, That was transparent, authentic. That didn’t hide its artistry.

Of course, when Archambault credits Frédéric Malle with giving the noses credit first. It’s just that her version goes further, she says, giving each perfumer more room and a contract covering the use of their image. “We cannot just say change a picture and do whatever we want. They’re a part of the process.”

When Archambault tapped wunderkind Quentin Bisch to create Bois Imperial in 2020, it drove the brand into an entirely new audience. It’s accord of basil, the fresh and almost chilly pepper timur, vetiver and Bisch’s (signature) akigalawood created a hauntingly beautiful interpretation on the woody genre. It was wood from another planet, one that was almost metallic in structure. It has gone on to become the brand’s most popular bottle, sought out by fans of Bish, fans of the brand and those who have stopped people on the street to ask complete strangers what they’re wearing. (True story – I first smelt it while in an elevator and plucked up the courage to ask my fellow passenger what that aroma was. I’ve since passed on the gospel to others.)

 “Quentin is probably the most bankable perfumer today,” Archambault says. “And probably the most talented to be honest. Because not only he’s famous and the fantastic thing, he’s famous because of his work.”

And it seems olfactive lightning has struck twice for the house, with the latest creation Ambre Latte created by the most buzzed about name for 2026, Jordi Fernández. Ambre Latte blends a fascinating hierarchy of woody sweetness, with caramel notes, almond and benzoin over the soapy-like notes of georgywood and white musks. There’s no coffee mentioned, but the illusion is there.

It also marks the first time the brand hasn’t build a fragrance around the impression of a solifore, or sole note. Previous bottles could have been seen as archetypes of the fragrance world: an iris, a bergamot, a rose. A musc. A wood. Ambre Latte is arguably a gourmand, despite its “woody oriental” description. Just try stopping your mouth from watering when you smell it.

Next year brings new candles built around mango, basil and tobacco leaves, and an oud paired with mandarin. Something in the oud’s opening bothered her. “We added just something at the top note to make a link between the mandarin and the oud.”

Keep scrolling to see the best Essential Parfums for men according to us

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