Ilse Marchetti
Head perfumer · since 2019
Trained in Grasse, then eleven years in Geneva doing flavour work before returning to fine fragrance. Responsible for the Hours.
Grasse, since 2019
The house
“We are not trying to make you smell good. We are trying to make you smell like somewhere you have been.”
Maison OÛR began with an argument. Ilse had spent a decade producing fragrances briefed as demographics — a scent for the confident woman, a scent for the modern man — and had concluded that the brief was the problem.
So the house works from scenes instead. A harbour at four in the morning. A greenhouse in August. A bar after the music stops. The formula is finished when somebody who knows the place recognises it, which is a slower and much less reliable test than a consumer panel.
There are nine fragrances and three perfumers. Nothing is reformulated. Roughly one in four projects is abandoned, which is the cost of the method and the reason the catalogue is small.
The perfumers
Jonas Weill
Perfumer · since 2022
Came from raw-material broking rather than composition, which is why his formulas start from a material rather than a brief.
Camille Ferrant
Perfumer · since 2023
Botanist first, perfumer second. The Garden Series is hers and she argues about it constantly.
Three principles
I
No reformulation
When a material becomes unavailable or restricted, the formula is retired. Reformulating and keeping the name is the one thing we have agreed never to do — it is why Sans Heure will not return.
II
Print the difficulty
Onze Heures opens bitter. Sept Heures lasts three hours. Trois Heures is austere and will not get you compliments. All of that is on the product pages, because the alternative is a return.
III
Samples always
Fragrance cannot be bought from a photograph. Every order includes two samples of your choosing, and the discovery set exists so nobody has to commit blind.
