HOUBIGANT- world’s oldest parfume
Favoured by kings, queens and movie stars, Houbigant was once one of the most famous names in fragrance.
Now, as its signature scent Quelques Fleurs is relaunched for the 21st century, let’s explore the history of the world’s oldest perfume.
Jean Francois Houbigant opened his perfume store, A la Corbeille de Fleurs in 1775 at 19 rue de Faubourg St Honore, in an arrondissement of Paris that he helped to make fashionable. (The sign over the door- a basket of flowers- is still the brand’s signature today).
Listed among Houbigant’s early clientele were Marie Antoinette, who is said that when she was fleeing to Varennes to escape the French revolutionaries, she made a detour to have all her perfume bottles refilled at Houbigant. ‘Later, legend has it that the deposed queen tucked three phials of Houbigant down her dress to wear it to the guillotine,’ says fragrance guru Roja Dove, the “Indiana Jones” of the perfume world and a walking encyclopaedia of perfume facts, always on a quest for long lost treasures to showcase in his Harrods fifth floor Haute Parfumerie.
For a century and a half, Houbigant continued to bewitch the rich, the famous and the crowned heads of Europe with fragrances with irresistible names, decanted into dazzling bottles- some designed by Lalique and Baccarat.
Lurking in Houbigant’s precious archive you will even find a receipt of Napoleon’s dated 17the May 1815- which means that it’s entirely possible he fought the battle of Waterloo, exactly one month later, in a haze of Houbigant.
He commissioned the perfume for his wife, the Empress Josephine, too.
Fast forward a few years to 1838 and Houbigant was awarded the licence of perfumer to Her Majesty Queen Victoria of England.
The fragrance house went on to create Le Bouquet de la Tsarine for the Russian Empress Marie wife of Alexander iii, while other customers over the years included Napoleon’s sister Princess Mathilde, Tolstoy and the queens of Italy and Holland.
The fact remains that fragrant jewel in Houbigant’s crown created a standard by which floral fragrances were judged from that moment on.
Houbigant was snapped up recently by the Italian fragrance- loving, castle owing Perris family, who knew the perfumery’s past, but had a vision for its future, too.
Their brainwave: to enlist Roja to re- create the original Quelques Fleurs.
In 1912, when it wafted on the market, it was an instant hit(the actress Sarah Bernhardt was an early fan).
Serendipitously, its recipe still existed in the Houbigant archives and , like a sleeping beauty, was ready to be revived and restored to its former glory.
“My first job was to contact the firm who’d supplied the oils for the original Quelques Fleurs”, – explaines Roja.
It featured 313 different floral essences – including carnation, tuberose, heliotrope and orris as well as the central trio- with its classic heart of jasmine, ylang-ylang and rose, had spring like green top notes, and ambery wood base notes that emerged when warmed by the body, giving it a lingering powdery softness.
“The simple truth is that it transcends fashion and age” insists Roja. “Older women love it; young beauty editors are wearing it”.
Now a bestseller in his Haute Parfumerie, Quelques Fleurs L’Original has a special edition flacon, hand painted by Elisabetta Perris herself, swirled with gold leaf. Even at £ 975 for 100 ml , it’s been flying off the shelves, and now there’s a luxurious fruity-floral twist too-the Royale version, which starts at a more affordable £92 for 100 ml.
(Source : You magazine; by Jo Fairley).