Moreover, its crystal bottles are all fitted with stoppers. Instead of spritzing the perfume, you delicately dab it on your neck and wrist, and it becomes part of your ritual, an intimate secret known to you and you alone. As Henry Jacques artistic director, Christophe Tollemer, poetically puts it, “It’s personal, emotional, and almost as if you’re protecting yourself in a bubble. It’s sensual, seductive and elegant.” 

Furthermore, Henry Jacques holds a personal significance to its CEO, Anne-Lise Cremona, as she is the daughter of its founder Henry Cremona. He established Henry Jacques in the south of France in 1975 as a counterbalance to the mass‑produced perfumes pervading the market. Today, the Henry Jacques laboratory has about 3,000 formulas in its archives, and has hired a fifth-generation nose who learnt the vocation from his ancestors. 

Scent trail

Apart from its bespoke scents, Henry Jacques also boasts four main collections, of which two caught our attention: Les Caves à Parfums and Collection Joaillerie. The former houses the bottles in 19th-century wooden chests that were carved by Jean Pierre Alexandre Tehan. As an architect and interior designer, Tollemer is currently renovating the Château de Versailles hotel, and has access to an incredible treasure trove of antiques. The Collection Joaillerie is perhaps the most emblematic of the brand’s decadent aspirations: the crystal bottles come embedded with gold and precious gemstones such as diamonds and turquoise. They were sold in London for £200,000 each, and a special collection is currently being made for the perfume house’s new boutique in Singapore.

Should the wearer wish to, he can also customise the bottle. It is a crucial part of the sensory experience, and Tollemer tells us that the new crystal bottles from the Les Classiques line took almost a year to perfect according to his stringent requirements, as he was adamant that the stopper should reflect light. He enthuses, “Your perfume is a part of life, a part of you. It’s the most intimate adornment, and what people remember of you. We live in a brutal world, and when you hold this, it creates an invisible shield. The small bottles go with you everywhere.”