The house
Parfumerie Lenoir has made perfume in the same two rooms of the Grasse old town for nearly fifty years. We have never wanted to be larger than two pairs of hands.
Hélène Lenoir, who had trained as a chemist and then apprenticed at one of the Grasse distilleries, took the lease on a shop on the rue de l'Oratoire and began bottling a single rose perfume for friends and the shops of the old town. That perfume became Oratoire, which we still make.
Her daughter Camille grew up among the essences and took over composition in the 2000s. Under her the range grew — slowly — to the six perfumes we make today, but the principles did not change: natural materials, local where possible, and no perfume sold before it is ready.
The workshop is still two people and a part-time apprentice each season. We supply a handful of independent shops in France and post to customers who have visited or written to us. We have no shop window beyond the one on the street, and no plans for one.