The Grand Musée du Parfum was a Paris perfumery museum that operated from December 22, 2016, to July 6, 2018.
It was founded by entrepreneur Guillaume de Maussion and overseen by industry experts including
Jean-Claude Ellena
Jean-Claude Ellena (born 1947, Grasse, France) is a French perfumer and writer.
Career
At an early age, Ellena picked jasmine with his grandmother in Grasse to sell to perfumers.
Beginning with menial jobs, he became an apprentice at the fact ...
, then the in-house perfumer at Hermes;
Mathilde Laurent
Mathilde Laurent is a French perfumer. After studying perfumery at ISIPCA in Versailles, Laurent began her career as an apprentice to Jean-Paul Guerlain. She went on to work at Guerlain for 11 years. Since 2006, she has been the in-house perfum ...
, house perfumer at
Cartier Cartier may refer to:
People
* Cartier (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
* Cartier Martin (born 1984), American basketball player
Places
* Cartier Island, an island north-west of Australia that is part of Australi ...
; and
Sylvaine Delacourte
Sylvaine is the solo music project of Norwegian metal multi-instrumentalist Katherine Shepard. The project began in Oslo in 2013 and has released four albums to date. In 2019, Shepard became the first woman to earn a nomination for best metal alb ...
, director of fragrance for
Guerlain
Guerlain () is a French perfume, cosmetics and skincare house, which is among the oldest in the world. Many traditional Guerlain fragrances are characterized by a common olfactory accord known as the "Guerlinade" (fr). The house was founded in P ...
.
The museum, developed over two years for $7 million, was located in the ''
hôtel particulier
An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the British townhouse or mansion. Whereas an ordinary ''maison'' (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a ...
'' (townhouse mansion) at 73,
rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
The Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré () is a street located in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Relatively narrow and nondescript, especially in comparison to the nearby Avenue des Champs-Élysées, it is cited as being one of the most lu ...
,
once the residence of the
Roederer champagne family and later the location of fashion house
Christian Lacroix
Christian Marie Marc Lacroix (; born 16 May 1951) is a French fashion designer. The name may also refer to the company he founded.
Lacroix's designs combine luxury and insouciance. He prefers artisanal trades, fringe, bead, and embroidery. He's ...
.
Entry cost between 5 and 14.50 Euro. Exhibits included a recreation of the laboratory of French perfume house
Houbigant (founded in 1775 at 19, rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré), using items on loan from the
Musée Carnavalet
The Musée Carnavalet in Paris is dedicated to the history of the city. The museum occupies two neighboring mansions: the Hôtel Carnavalet and the former Hôtel Le Peletier de Saint Fargeau. On the advice of Baron Haussmann, the civil servant who ...
(the museum of the history of Paris).
It also had a "garden of scent" with white sculptures that each released different scents.
References
{{reflist
Museums established in 2016
Museums disestablished in 2018
Museums in Paris
Defunct museums in Paris
Cosmetic industry
Perfumery