Some fragrance brands just have really beautiful perfume bottles that tempt me to buy the fragrance just for the bottle. Then I remember that I always keep my fragrances in their boxes anyway to protect them from the light so I’d only be able to display them once they’re empty, and I rotate perfumes so much that it’s rare for me to ever finish one. However there are certain perfume brands that just always seem to release beautiful bottles, or mini-collections that feature really pretty bottles that make me want the perfume no matter what it smells like. There’s definitely more brands to talk about than just these five that I picked out, but for now I’ve chosen to focus on The House of Oud, Floraïku, Memo Paris, Dries Van Noten, and the Blue Bottle collection by Histoires de Parfums.
There were so many other brands and collections that I wanted to mention – Alexandre J, Stora Skuggan, Courrèges, the Personal Collection by Molinard, Areej le Dore – I could go on and on. I’ll just focus on these first five brands for now, and pick out three bottles by each that I really like.
The featured image is a photo of my bottle of Dries Van Noten’s Voodoo Chile.
Just a note on the Blue Bottle collection – I’ve found it referenced online as both ‘This is not a Blue Bottle’ and ‘Ceci n’est pas un Flacon Bleu’, and its name is based off René Magritte’s La Trahison des Images (The Treachery of Images) painting which shows a pipe and the words Ceci n’est pas une pipe (This is not a pipe). To be honest I prefer the French version since that’s the language on the painting. The blue on the bottles also made me think of Yves Klein and his 1961 painting Blue Monochrome.
Image from lacma.org
Moving on to the fragrances and the bottles themselves, for each brand I picked out three perfumes and prepared an image with the key details – year of release, perfume type, perfumer (if I found that information), and the top, heart, and base notes – click the image to enlarge it. I’ve also provided shopping links in EUR, GBP and USD in case you’d like to purchase these perfumes.
The House of Oud
The House of Oud is a brand by Andrea Casotti, who comes from a background of engineering. The bottles are made up of a painted egg (the bottle) resting on a gold platform. There are a number of collections within the brand, such as the Royal Stones collection, made up of Ruby Red, Sapphire Blue, and Emerald Green, each bottle (ie: egg) painted to resemble the precious stone. The fragrances I’ve picked out are Dates Delight from the Klem Garden collection, and Keep Glazed and Up to the Moon from the Universe collection.
Floraïku
Like The House of Oud, Floraïku has an interesting bottle design – each bottle is shipped with a separate travel size spray that can be fitted into the cap and carried around separately. Floraïku is a Parisian brand set up in 2017 by Clara and John Molloy who are also the founders of Memo Paris. The brand is inspired by Asia, with Clara being a haiku poet and John having worked at the Japanese fashion house Kenzo. The fragrances pay homage to ceremonies in Asian culture which involve flowers, tea, and incense. There are a number of collections within the brand that reflect these different focuses. The three fragrances I’ve chosen are Just a Rose from the Enigmatic Flowers collection, In the Rain from the Forbidden Incense collection, and Sleeping on the Roof from the Shadowing collection. Some of these bottles seem to have had an update, and there are different versions available for sale online. More to collect I guess!
Memo Paris
Memo Paris was founded in 2007 by Parisian-Catalan poet Clara Molloy and her Irish husband John, with a focus on fragrance as a journey. As mentioned above, they also set up the brand Floraïku. The bottles feature beautiful images and patterns – I first saw them at KaDeWe in Berlin and they immediately caught my eye. I sampled so many and they were all lovely, but my favourite was Tiger’s Nest which is from the Fleurs Bohèmes collection. I’ve included that below, along with Ilha do Mel (also part of the Fleurs Bohèmes collection), and Italian Leather (part of the Cuirs Nomades collection).
Dries Van Noten
I had already written about the Dries Van Noten perfumes as I loved the bottles (and fragrances) so much. I ended up buying Voodoo Chile, but I’m looking to add more to my collection, especially Rock the Myrrh, Cannabis Patchouli, and Santal Greenery. These bottles are refillable thanks to a little key that comes with each refill that lets you unscrew then reattach the pump of the original bottle, and also a funnel to prevent spills. Dries Van Noten’s perfume line was launched in March 2022, along with a set of 30 lipsticks, and there are other complementary products such as hand creams and soaps scented with perfume. I’ve chosen to feature Voodoo Chile, Soie Malaquais, and Santal Greenery.
Histoires de Parfums – Ceci n’est pas un Flacon Bleu collection
This collection takes its name from Belgian Surrealist René Magritte’s painting The Treachery of Images which depicts a pipe above text saying “This is not a pipe”. Histoires de Parfums was established in 2000 by Gerald Ghislain, with fragrances falling into a number of different collections, including En Aparté, Three Golds, and This is not a blue bottle.
