PARIS — The Estée Lauder Cos.’ L’Atelier at La Maison des Parfums, being inaugurated Tuesday mixes magic and math — two key elements of fragrance.
“We are super excited about this milestone, because it marks a defining moment for the Estée Lauder Companies in our strategic intent to accelerate fragrances around the world,” said Stéphane de La Faverie, chief executive officer of the Estée Lauder Cos.
Situated at 14 to 16 Rue Volney in central Paris, the 21,530-square-foot, five-story building called La Maison des Parfums, or The House of Perfumes, was designed to federate excellence, innovation and craftsmanship under one roof, de La Faverie explained. For this purpose, it contains a large quotient of cutting-edge technology, especially artificial intelligence.
“For me, Paris — France — is the cradle of perfumery,” de La Faverie continued. It is where the Estée Lauder Cos. can gain access to world-class perfumer talent; be close to suppliers in Cosmetic Valley, the cosmetics industry hub close to Chartres and Orléans, as well as other creative resources nearby.
The executive said La Maison des Parfums is synonymous with quality and stepping up speed to market for all the company’s fragrances.
A detail from the wall of solid fragrance compacts.
Courtesy of the Estée Lauder Cos.
“We are bringing the best of the magic of the brands that we have to offer, but also with the math,” de La Faverie said. “I talk a lot about the math and the magic.
“Fragrance is such an emotional category,” he continued. “It’s so about the magic.”
A scent can elicit a different feeling for each person.
“But today, the math can help create new ingredients, new molecules, [while enabling] us to go faster to market simply by using AI tools that allow us to match our fragrances with the ever-evolving regulatory environment around the world,” de La Faverie said.
La Maison des Parfum, along with its top-floor Atelier, completes the Estée Lauder Cos. research-and-innovation center global ecosystem, which counts other hubs in the United States, Canada and China. Each has its own beauty product category specialty.
The site in Paris is a prospective innovation arm centered around fragrances. Some existing capabilities have been moved to this location.
“Why Volney?” said Sumit Bhasin, senior vice president global fragrance innovation, product development and R&D at the Estée Lauder Cos. of the location. “It sits nicely between Cambon and Place Vendôme — the heart of a lot of the fragrance and fashion district.
“With the Atelier we are reimagining the way the fragrance innovation process happens,” he added. “These are just not laboratories; they are living expressions of Beauty Reimagined, where we use math and magic. Where art and science come together … imagination meets precision, and where collaboration results in the expression and development of breakthrough ideas and innovation.”
The Salle des Lumières.
Courtesy of the Estée Lauder Cos.
De La Faverie’s Beauty Reimagined strategy for the Estée Lauder Cos. includes the group hardwiring AI through its processes.
“AI is enabling us to do things at speed, to enhance creativity,” he said.
Fragrance as a product category is at the center of the Estée Lauder Cos.’ strategy.
Perfume has long been a part of the Estée Lauder Cos., since 1953, when its founder Estée Lauder created Youth-Dew bath oil.
“She was a developer herself,” Bhasin said. “And quite an innovator at that time.”
Youth-Dew was a game-changer, since it redefined the notion of self-indulgence with fragrance.
“She democratized fragrances in so many ways,” de La Faverie said.
Estée Lauder’s late daughter-in-law Evelyn Lauder was a fragrance developer, too, especially in the late ’60s and ’70s. In 1963, the Estée Lauder Cos. launched Aramis, the first prestige men’s scent sold in department stores worldwide that became an industry bestseller.
The Salle de Musique’s fragrance organ.
Courtesy of the Estée Lauder Cos.
“There is a deep heritage in fragrance within the company,” said Jo Dancey, global brand president, lifestyle fragrance brands, overseeing Jo Malone London, Kilian Paris and Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, more recent acquisitions to the Estée Lauder Cos.’ lineup.
The group’s other niche perfume brands include Le Labo and Tom Ford.
“It’s given us a really strong hold in luxury fragrance, together with a push into prestige fragrance through Aramis, Estée Lauder and Avestan,” Dancey said. “We’ve got this amazing portfolio to address a breadth of consumer trends.”
Since the pandemic, the demand for luxury and prestige fragrance has been vibrant around the world, even in the East, in countries such as Japan, South Korea and China, which formerly were not major perfume markets.
“That gives enormous potential,” de La Faverie said.
While fragrance is expected to lead prestige beauty’s growth in coming years, trends are evolving quickly from a consumer point of view and a competition perspective.
“From olfactive preferences through to how consumers wear and use fragrances, to how many fragrances they own, all of that has a huge influence on the need for innovation, as well,” Dancey said. “Consumers are looking to understand the additional benefits that you get from fragrance.”
“The Atelier comes at the right moment,” de La Faverie said.
The Aura Room.
Courtesy of the Estée Lauder Cos.
La Maison des Parfums is in a stately Haussmann structure.
“The whole ethos of the building and the way we envisioned it was very much on [how] fragrance is constructed,” said Bhasin, referring to top, middle and base notes.
Moldings of spring flowers spangle the wall to the left of the entryway, representing the more volatile top notes, while bronze work connotes middle notes and travertine, base notes.
The ground floor is where homage is paid to Estée Lauder Cos.’ fragrance heritage. Upon entering the building, the reception desk depicts a fragrance organ.
Further in, the Salle des Lumières relates the company’s history, with iconic, archival perfumes and newer fragrances back-lit on shelving.
Photos of the company founder and her quotes — like “Fragrance exists in the mind, not just in the senses” — are on display.
“It’s heritage meets innovation in the presence of our brands,” said de La Faverie.
Down the hall, one entire wall is decorated with compacts — in fun-filled shapes like the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty holding a lipstick, a crown or heart — that once held solid perfumes. Below, drawers like treasure chests contain heritage pieces, such as a cloth napkin on which Estée Lauder had the menu written for a dinner party.
There is a board room and café for employees.
Between the ground floor and top floor are offices for the likes of Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle and Kilian Paris’ global operations and Le Labo’s European operation.
The Atelier, four stories up, has six spaces for co-creation and innovation. That is anchored by the Salle de Music, or Music Room.
“It’s where the magic starts,” de La Faverie said.
“Perfume borrows a lot of the language from music,” Bhasin said, explaining a note gets turned into an accord, which then is made into an expression of a perfume.
The room has a perfume organ, giving easy access to fragrance ingredients.
The bright Aura Room highlights fragrance innovations from the Estée Lauder Cos. over the past 12 months.
It’s end-to-end. In close proximity, one can conceive an idea, characterize the perfume through analytical equipment and compounding. The blending studio is where fragrance can be mixed with the latest technology bases.
“We are exploring different forms, from body washes to bath salts to new formats,” Bhasin said. “We have a strong AI backbone, where you’re capturing all this data to allow us to drive speed and agility.”
Cabins in the Evaluation Room.
Courtesy of the Estée Lauder Cos.
State-of-the-art evaluation rooms have specific airflow depicting various environmental conditions.
“You can evaluate from a candle through a diffuser to a fine fragrance,” Bhasin said. “We’ve got proprietary evaluation and emotional attribute techniques, where you can measure the science and the emotion through sensory profiling and neuroscience.”
CO2 supercritical extraction and GCMS molecule analysis are possible, as are real-time monitoring of patents and regulatory modeling.
New proprietary ingredients from here will come to life soon and be used in many of the Estée Lauder Cos.’ perfume brands.
“Our focus continues to remain in defining new olfactory white spaces for us,” Bhasin said, adding the Atelier will enable the company to plunge further into the realm of fragrance’s emotional benefits, plus its more personalized and customized attributed.
The Estée Lauder Cos.’ fragrance brands’ creative processes remain independent from each other.
Art — by the likes of Polly Apfelbaum, Cig Harvey and Marc Quinn — is sprinkled throughout La Maison des Parfums and its Atelier.
“Perfume and art for me are part of the same world,” de La Faverie said.
He wanted the space to feel like a Parisian apartment. It has many refined details.
“Which perfume is all about,” said de La Faverie.