Institut Très Bien

Imagining the original 1930s salon, its moods, spaces and clientele, is like traveling back in time. I imagine splendid waiting rooms with rare, exotic wood furniture, and a noble, herringbone oak parquet floor. African mahogany meets South American peltogyne and sycomore maple, walnut, and cherry wood. I surrender myself to the exhiliration of these rich, aged, turpentine essences each time I return to that space. I sit in one of these snug, leather couches in which ladies before me enjoyed each other’s company in tranquil anticipation of their beauty care. I picture the lush cloakroom where gloves and fur and leather coats await their owners, where soft notes of leather mingle with the floral scents of decorative bouquets. I proceed into the beauty care rooms, an intimate space where only clients and beauticians were admitted. Instantly a scent strikes me as familiar: remnants of the Cologne à la russe. A delightful amber vestige soaring out of rice powders and brushes and puffs, embroidered tissues, and other beauty accessories. The scents all blend together, the amber of the care rooms, the wood of waiting rooms, the leather of couches and gloves, a tribute to the traditional olfactory families of high French perfumery. Using this experience, Collection Tradition is gradually defined... A collection declined in Instant Perfuming (sprays for the home), or in Perfume that Illuminates (scented candles).