Henry Jacques Perfumes Carries On Old World French Perfumery With A Luxurious Twist

The Les Classiques collection

Courtesy of Henry Jacques Perfumes

At the start of Avenue Montaigne, in the heart of Paris, stands the newly opened Henry Jacques Perfumes boutique. Though the family-owned French perfume house was launched in 1975, this is their first store in their home country. That’s because the location and building itself had to be perfect, with a rich history—no compromises or corner cutting, true to the heritage of Henry Jacques Perfumes. And flawless it is, with its Belle Époque exterior, and a private garden—a true rarity on Avenue Montaigne—with flowers that change with the season.

“It was my dream to enter the store through a garden,” says Anne-Lise Cremona, CEO of Henry Jacques Perfumes. “I wanted a house, a place where clients can come and spend time, because luxury is time for yourself—it’s very rare. We started with the idea of having a boutique concept, like a home, to have a bit of mystery to treat the perfume the best we could, with no limits on the quality or design.”

Designed by French interior designer Christophe Tollemer, who is also the Artistic Director of the brand, upon entering the store, patrons are immediately greeted with a glass display case with objects that tells the history of Henry Jacques Perfumes, giving it the air of a museum-meets-atelier. That’s very much an intentional effect, as Henry Jacques Perfumes has always celebrated their heritage and history while keeping an eye on the present and future. “The history of Henry Jacques Perfumes is very important,” Cremona says. “That was the best decision we made because today the history is here on a silver tray, and it’s time for us to go toward the future. We represent tradition and the bridge to the future.”

The Henry Jacques Perfumes boutique in Paris on Avenue Montaigne

Courtesy of Henry Jacques Perfumes

Henry Jacques Perfumes is haute perfumery, with a rich heritage that enables them to make modern creations with a wow factor. Founded by Henry Cremona to celebrate the old French perfume traditions, the maison’s creator was inspired by travel, culture, rarity and refinement, qualities which still drive the house today, which is now helmed by his daughter, Anne-Lise Cremona. She was working in the perfume world in London when she found out her parents wanted to retire and close the perfumery, but she didn’t want to see its legacy disappear, so she returned to France to lead it. She brought it into a new direction by opening retail while maintaining their identity.

“My parents are an incredible couple,” says Anne-Lise Cremona. “They have a passion for beauty and the work of hands. They have more motivation in building something than in the direct return. My father had an encounter with a nose; this man became his very close friend. As the industry started to change, he couldn’t recognize what he learned from generation to generation. The friendship has been really beautiful. Together they started building the laboratory and my parents dedicated their lives to it.” Her mother, Yvette, was instrumental in the laboratory.

When Cremona took over Henry Jacques Perfumes, her vision was to build upon and pay homage to the company created by her parents. She opened its doors in 2014 to the public after nearly 40 years of exclusively creating custom fragrances for private clients. To transition from a purely bespoke perfumery to offering a permanent collection, she parsed through records of every scent they had ever created, narrowing it down to 50 for Les Classiques collection, all of which are genderless. “The most difficult part was to dig deep into all the formulas,” she says. “It was really hard to reduce.” Each boutique also has a few fragrances that are exclusive to the location.

A selection of Henry Jacques perfumes

Courtesy of Henry Jacques Perfumes

“Very quickly I understood that the only way forward was to be completely independent and to be present only in our own boutiques, so the business model was completely unusual and never seen before,” Cremona says. Harrods soon approached her with an offer to have their own boutique within their flagship, so that was their foray into retail. They’ve since expanded into a total of nine custom-designed boutiques dotted across the globe, spanning Beverly Hills to Dubai to Singapore, with plans to open more in the future.

When clients come to shop for a fragrance it isn’t the typical experience of sniffing a few blotters. Customers are swept into the library, a lab meets exploration zone, where the expert staff guides them through an olfactory journey, with 1,200 ingredients. They’ll start out by asking them their mood that day, or how they’d like to feel, for example. Looking for an energy burst? They might present a few citrus notes or accords, with an in-depth explanation of each. Their perfumes can be applied as a splash or a spray, and the latter is invisible in the bottle, like magic. You won’t find any plastic in the bottles, as they use rare glass stoppers. There aren’t any added colors either; instead they rely on the natural hue. “It’s a different way to live with your perfume,” Cremona says.

Don’t expect to sniff any synthetics here—Henry Jacques Perfumes uses natural ingredients, sourcing the highest quality from around the globe, including rare ones like ambergris and orris. “Natural ingredients offer a lot of emotions,” Cremona says. “A simple example is the rose is very common; they are everywhere, in your deodorant and your washing machine, but you never feel emotion when you use your laundry detergent. But if you try a composition with real rose, suddenly you know why it touches deep feelings and brings something else in. That’s why we use natural ingredients. They’re rare and very difficult to work with. We use as many natural components as possible because it’s part of our history and our formulas.”

The Library in the Paris boutique

Courtesy of Henry Jacques Perfumes

If you’re on the hunt for a bespoke perfume, Henry Jacques still offers the experience. Clients meet for a consultation, then the in-house perfumers toil for months to create three options before it is narrowed down to the final choice. The Paris boutique has a sleek yet cozy room tucked away just for clients who are creating bespoke scents. “We wanted people to feel at home, like they could lose themselves in terms of taking the time to find their perfect vision,” says Sache Kalifé, Communications Director (who is also Cremona’s son). Cremona adds, “It’s a whole journey. When they create a bespoke scent they will be in our book and be part of the history. That’s something that people love because it can be transmitted from grandparent to parent to child. It’s like your heritage.”

Each bespoke experience is unique, just like the perfume itself. They often try to challenge and surprise the client, giving unexpected options and they often end up choosing a scent that’s different from what they initially imagined. It’s also an educational process.

“Sometimes clients just share emotions and they like the perfume to make them feel a certain way rather than saying components that they like,” says Corina Manea, International Sales and Training Manager. “Each consultation is very individual, but we have the different tools to accommodate every different style of consultation. Some people are really passionate about raw materials and we will take them through that experience, while others focus on emotions and incorporating the perfume to give them a certain feeling or memory to remind them of something very special. We try to extract as much information as possible so that we’ll have enough to work with. A consultation can get quite intimate and it’s a very beautiful, amazing moment to share and really precious to us as well. The privilege of when a client opens up to give us all this content at moments in their life, it really enriches us.”

Inside the Paris Henry Jacques Perfumes boutique

Courtesy of Henry Jacques Perfumes

All of the perfumers at Henry Jacques are trained in-house and they don’t have a star nose because they want everyone to share in their vision and knowledge. “The perfume is the king,” Cremona says. “It’s what’s inside. This is why we have those very classical bottles designed to enhance the production. You need a lot of humanity to stand out because it takes time. These are the values that make a difference.”

Henry Jacques Perfumes has reimagined fragrance with their Clic-Clac, a petite, elegant objet that holds a solid perfume with a mechanism borrowed from watchmaking, designed by Tollemer. Years in the making, it can be endlessly refilled and carried everywhere. Although their fragrances are all unisex, they aimed to create something just for men. “We wanted to find the perfect way for men to be able to travel everywhere with perfume,” says Kalifé. “Solid perfume is the most ancestral way to wear perfume, dating back to the Egyptians. It’s super primal in a way that you need to hold it in your hand, and it has weight to it. This is an object that will be given to your sons and grandsons.” Manea adds that men have few adornments beyond watches, so it’s a way for them to have something special. “Men will never walk outside with a perfume bottle,” she says. “It’s impossible for them to reapply otherwise and they are real perfume lovers. We’ve noticed this from our clientele that they’re overtaking women.”

Inside the Parisian boutique

Courtesy of Henry Jacques Perfumes

Despite their recent growth, Henry Jacques Perfumes is determined to remain an independent, family-owned brand. The philosophy of the company is to focus on creating olfactive works of art—not the bottom line. “The house was created with a passion for great perfumery,” Cremona says. “Most of the industry switched to a more global distribution of perfumes, so suddenly brands needed to be present all over the world in huge quantities. But quantity and quality doesn’t really match. When you arrive to this stage, you need to compromise somehow, and the industry really changed. My family, because of their passion for beauty and great perfumery, never wanted to follow this trend.”

That credo has guided them for nearly 50 years—and will lead their way as they grow into the future, continuing to expand to other locations around the world, as long as they can find the perfect spot, staying true to themselves. “Perfumery is the last adornment; when you remove everything then you still have your smell, your perfume,” Kalifé says. “This is what people will remember of you.”