Creative Perfumery

Meaning
Creative perfumery does not need to be complex, on the contrary. We advocate accessible, simple and unpretentious perfumery that you will want to use every day. With original fragrances and olfactory notes that are recognisable at first sight. Each home perfume or Eau de Cologne we offer is unique and original, and for this, we have surrounded ourselves with perfumers renowned for their excellence and know-how, located in Grasse.
Grasse: a traditional and ancestral know-how
A bit of history
It all starts in the 16th century. Grasse was then known for its know-how in leather tanning thanks to its glove industry. To mask the strong smell of the leather (tanned using excrement and urine), craftsmen used the essences of flowers from the Grasse region. During this century, the profession of perfumer developed in the area and many craftsmen began to specialise in distillery and perfumery.
At the end of the 16th century, the demand for perfumed products exploded and a factory dedicated to the production of all these scents emerged. Little by little, the master glove-makers gave up tanning entirely to devote themselves to perfumery and to the cultivation of flowers and aromatic plants, thus embracing the profession of perfumer.
Faced with this growing demand, new plantations were created. While in the 16th century, the fields of Grasse were generally composed of lavender, orange blossom, tuberose and pistachio, in the 17th century we find plantations of mimosa, violet, rose and jasmine. Everything needed to create those pleasant floral notes!
Grasse's fame goes beyond the borders and the city is awarded the title of world capital of perfume, where the majority of the essences that make up the bottles of perfume, eau de toilette, eau de parfum or eau de Cologne, for men or women, come from... This award is notably due to the know-how inherited from generation to generation in the extraction of the plants: nowadays even if the plants can be distilled in the country of origin, the delicate process of transformation of concrete into absolute is still often done in Grasse.
Nous sommes fiers que nos fragrances pour le corps et la maison soient élaborées dans cette région gorgée de traditions.
Ingredients & traceability
All our perfumes respect the European REACH regulation and the IFRA (International Perfume Association) standards which aim to ensure the safety of perfume raw materials for health and the environment.
Each time we create a new perfume, we also ask our perfumers to respect precise and safe specifications during the formulation, so that you can perfume your rooms in complete safety. Our perfumes are free of CMR substances (Carcinogenic, Mutagenic, Toxic for Reproduction) and without controversial substances (Formaldehyde, EDTA, phenoxyetanols, parabens...). We do not add any UV filter or colorant.
This way, we are sure that each La Belle Mèche scented product (scented candle, scented diffuser, scented solid soap, pure soap detergent...) will be the best possible, for you, or to offer.
Natural or synthetic?
Both, sir!
Our fragrances are the result of a clever blend of ingredients of natural and synthetic origin to offer you the best of an olfactory creation.
Synthetic molecules, i.e. those reproduced in the laboratory, have the advantage of offering a much wider range of notes (more than 4000) than those from nature. Correctly chosen, they do not represent any risk to health and the environment and easily replace animal raw materials (for example musk and amber are odours originally derived from animal secretions) or plant raw materials threatened with extinction or participating in the plundering of the planet's resources.
We believe that there is no point in opposing the two (natural vs. chemical), it is simply necessary to select quality raw materials, in order to be able to offer a rich and varied choice of fragrances, for men or for women.
Traceability: the major challenge for the perfume industry
The perfumery sector is still very opaque. Because of the many intermediaries, it is often difficult to go back up the chain to ensure the origin of the raw materials.
Where and how did the material grow? Who harvests it, under what conditions? For what income?
We work on these issues with our perfumers for more transparency. So we have raised our level of requirements by specifying our specifications beforehand. For example, by asking for certificates on the origin of the raw materials and by favoring raw materials from solidarity programs.
So that in our small way, we can participate in a better world, while offering you exceptional perfumes that you will be delighted to use.