New French Niche Perfume Brands: Eight Young Houses
Eight of the French houses we carry belong to the 2010s and 2020s: Essential Parfums, Ex Nihilo, Fascent, Fragrance Du Bois, Les Eaux Primordiales, Maison Crivelli, Matière Première and Stéphane Humbert Lucas. Each gets a short section here, alphabetically and unranked, with one perfume and the notes on record for it.
France is the largest country in our catalogue, with thirteen houses. The five founded before 2010 are in French niche perfume houses; this guide takes the eight that belong to the 2010s and 2020s. They are listed alphabetically and not ranked, and each section names one perfume from among the most reviewed or rated in our research for that house. The map of all countries is in niche perfume houses by country.
What the young French houses share
Mostly a habit of saying who made the perfume. A perfumer, often called a nose, is the person who composes it, as our perfume glossary explains, and five of these eight houses name one for every perfume: Essential Parfums on the label, Ex Nihilo and Maison Crivelli on the product page, Fragrance Du Bois by sorting its site by perfumer, and Matière Première because it is the house of one. Several also list raw materials with their origin instead of a pyramid.
The eight houses
Essential Parfums
Founded in Paris in 2018 by Géraldine Archambault, with the stated mission of making haute parfumerie accessible. Each Eau de Parfum is created by a different perfumer, who signs the refillable bottle. Bois Impérial, by Quentin Bisch, is built around Akigalawood, which the brand says is upcycled from patchouli. Its materials are listed flat: Thai basil, Timut pepper absolute from Nepal, Haitian vetiver oil, Georgywood, Petalia, Akigalawood, Indonesian patchouli oil and Ambrofix. It sits with our woody perfumes, and the Essential Parfums guide has all ten.
Ex Nihilo
Founded in Paris in 2013 by Sylvie Loday, Olivier Royère and Benoît Verdier. The name is Latin, glossed by the brand as created out of the blue, and the house gives its perfumers carte blanche. Blue Talisman, by Jordi Fernández, is introduced as a lucky charm for the skin: pear, bergamot, ginger and mandarin on top, orange blossom and Georgywood in the heart, and Ambrofix, Akigalawood and musks in the base. We read that pyramid closely in Blue Talisman notes; the house is in the Ex Nihilo guide.
Fascent
The youngest: first perfumes in 2023, a company seat in Roubaix and eight perfumes so far, all unisex, made to be layered and sold in a refillable 30 ml bottle. Milky No Way opens with black pepper and hazelnut milk, has a whipped cream accord and tonka bean in the heart and ends on sandalwood, amber and cashmere wood. See the Fascent guide.
Fragrance Du Bois
The brand describes itself as a Paris house whose creations are composed in Paris and produced in Grasse, under the tagline Born in Nature, Crafted in France. Its signature, in its own words, is modern French perfumery built on exceptional naturals, especially responsibly sourced oud. Santal Complet, by François Merle-Baudoin, is a tribute to another wood: lemon and coconut on top, violet and black pepper in the heart, and musk, sandalwood, amber and vanilla in the base, which makes it one of our sandalwood perfumes. More in the Fragrance Du Bois guide.
Les Eaux Primordiales
Founded in 2015 near Arras, in northern France, by Arnaud Poulain. The house calls itself a manufacture de parfums and does everything from design to bottling on its own wooded estate, and it names its ranges after science terms: Superclassique, Supercritique, Superfluide, Supermassive. Ambre Superfluide pictures a winter day by the fire: honey, apple, cinnamon, sesame and bergamot on top, rose, cardamom and fir balsam in the heart, and amber, black vanilla, tobacco, rum and benzoin in the base. The Les Eaux Primordiales guide covers the ranges.
Maison Crivelli
An independent Paris house; the trade press places its founding in 2018 and names Thibaud Crivelli as founder and owner. Every perfume starts from a real experience he had with raw materials. For Oud Maracujá, an Extrait de Parfum made with Jordi Fernandez, that was passion fruit in an oud forest. The key raw materials are a passion fruit accord, saffron, rose absolute from Turkey, an oud accord, benzoin from Laos, cistus absolute from Spain, a leather accord, patchouli oil from Indonesia, vanilla and akigalawood. It is among our oud perfumes and in the Maison Crivelli guide.
Matière Première
The house of the perfumer Aurélien Guichard, grown out of the first fields he planted in Grasse in 2016. Every perfume is built around one central natural raw material. In Falcon Leather that is birch tar oil from Finland, with saffron, cistus labdanum from Andalusia and benzoin absolute from Sumatra; the picture is a falconer's glove warmed by the sun. You will find it under leather perfumes and in the Matière Première guide.
Stéphane Humbert Lucas
A Paris house that describes itself as the field of expression of its creator, a painter and poet. His first collection, La Collection 777, launched in 2012, and the house names the three levels of a pyramid Fulgurance, Métamorphose and Quintessence. God of Fire is named after Xiuhtecuhtli, the Aztec god of fire: mango, lemon, pink berries and ginger on top, blue coumarin, jasmine and dry woods in the heart, and oud, nagarmotha, musk and amber in the base. Read on in the Stéphane Humbert Lucas guide.
Choosing between them
- One creator, one hand: Matière Première and Stéphane Humbert Lucas.
- A different perfumer each time: Essential Parfums, Ex Nihilo, Maison Crivelli and Fragrance Du Bois.
- Made in one place: Les Eaux Primordiales, on its estate near Arras.
- Made to combine: Fascent.
To start from a season, an occasion or a scent family and not from a country, Find your scent asks five short questions.
Frequently asked questions
Which new French perfume brands does NicheGems carry?
Eight French houses from the 2010s and 2020s: Essential Parfums, Ex Nihilo, Fascent, Fragrance Du Bois, Les Eaux Primordiales, Maison Crivelli, Matière Première and Stéphane Humbert Lucas. Five older Paris houses have a guide of their own.
Which is the youngest French house in the catalogue?
Fascent. Its first perfumes came out in 2023, and by mid-2026 the collection counted eight. Essential Parfums and Maison Crivelli both go back to 2018.
Are all French niche perfumes made in Paris?
No. Les Eaux Primordiales works on an estate near Arras, Fascent has its seat in Roubaix, Matière Première grows raw materials in Grasse, and Fragrance Du Bois says its perfumes are composed in Paris and produced in Grasse.
