Scents-piration with Marie Du Petit Thouars, Founder of Maison Louis Marie

Maison Louis Marie is a fragrance brand with a rich history. Originated from a multi-generational family history with scent that begins with Louis Marie Aubert du Petit Thouars: a pioneer in French botanical history.

Now time for a history lesson, during the French Revolution, Louis Marie was exiled to Madagascar, La Reunion and the Mauritius islands. There, he discovered a vast array of plant specimens, collecting over 2,000 to bring back to France ten years later. Home again at last, he was elected as a member of the prestigious Académie des Sciences.

Fast forward two hundred years, Marie Du Petit Thouars felt inspired to build upon the botanical founded fragrance and lifestyle brand Maison Louis Marie and create accessible, clean luxury brand with scents that are inspired by Marie’s most treasured childhood memories and old family discoveries. Here we enlisted Marie Du Petit Thouars to talk all things scents-piration: 

What is your main inspiration when creating a scent and how do they reflect the brand's identity?

I generally draw inspiration from my family history and my childhood memories when creating new scents. Maison Louis Marie is deeply rooted in the legacy of my ancestor, Louis Marie Aubert du Petit Thouars, who was a pioneering botanist who discovered and cataloged many plant species. Through this deep botanical heritage, we use unique ingredients to craft sophisticated and complex fragrances.

The scents I create are designed to evoke specific memories, places, and experiences, blending tradition with modernity. My goal is to try to create scents and products with a feeling of timeless elegance that aligns with our commitment to quality and sustainability. 

A lot of the scents are inspired by your personal experience; how do you translate that to a scent? 

I really try to capture the essence of a moment, place, or memory through a carefully chosen combination of notes. This process often begins with a deep reflection on the specific experience that the scent aims to evoke. So for instance, in our No.04 Bois de Balincourt I focused on my childhood scent memory of walking on a trail around our country house outside of Paris called “Lover’s Lane” where I distinctly remember the smell of damp sandalwood so I started with that note and then worked to create a fragrance around that that gave warmth and earthiness to it since it has always been such a fond memory of mine that evoked happiness from being outside in nature.  

Can you walk us through the process of developing a new fragrance from concept to final product? 

Usually, it starts with developing the concept from an idea or inspiration from my family history or my past. I usually will think deeply about the moment in time and try to associate a scent note or feeling from that time to start building the idea and where I want to go with the scent. From there I being working with our fragrance house to further develop the scent where there is a lot of back and forth to get to where I want to go. Then I will usually sit with the scent in it’s almost final form for weeks before maybe adjusting and fine tuning a few more times until it is right. 

 How do you source your ingredients and what role does sustainability play in that process? 

We work very closely with our fragrance and raw material suppliers to make sure the source of our ingredients come from sustainable suppliers that pay attention to not only the quality of the raw materials but what affect the harvesting or manufacturing of those ingredients have onto the environment. 

What is clean fragrance and why is this important to you? 

The definition of clean fragrance has been a constantly evolving journey which has many different standards according to different people, but I think it coalesces around formulations that avoid certain harmful ingredients that have commonly been used in fragrances for years. Early on in clean fragrance the focus was on removing all parabens, phthalates, sulfates and many synthetic dyes which are not healthy to be spraying on your body and now it continues to evolve to focus on fragrance preservatives like BHTs and many other harmful allergens as well. Through more research I feel it will continue to evolve which is super exciting. 

With clean fragrance there is also the association to the whole approach of a brand’s products like sustainable packaging and sourcing to making sure the source of the raw materials used in the products are ethically sourced and don’t harm the environment or the habitat of endangered species. 

All of this is super important since it is an honor to create products that people love that enhances their life in some way and we want to do our best to make sure our customer can have confidence that the formulation we use aren’t negatively affecting them in any way. We also want to strive to make sure our products and our company as a whole are doing the best we can for the environment with our sustainable packaging and also our work with such amazing non profits like 1% for the Planet, Climate Neutral and the National Forest Foundation. 

How do you envision your fragrances being used in the daily lives of our customers? 

I would love to think our products bring joy to people in their daily lives. Like that signature scent someone has found from us that gives them a sense of confidence or emotional comfort to the person who finds time to relax while lighting our candle that sets the perfect mood. Also using our skincare in their daily routine. I sincerely hope our products just simply enhance the fleeting moments of everyday life that help make it just a bit richer and filled with beauty.