The Osmothèque broadens scope in the heart of Versailles

“The Osmothèque has reached a milestone: it is now fully independent, well-established, and it keeps growing on a regular basis,” says Thomas Fontaine. Inaugurated in late September 2025, the new 300-m2 venue is located in the heart of Versailles. It boasts an exhibition and conference room, a laboratory for historic perfume weighings, archiving rooms, offices, a store, and an 80-m2 green patio.

6,000 fragrances

Over the past 40 years, the institution’s collection has consistently broadened: it now counts 6,000 fragrances, 1,000 of which have disappeared. However, if it mainly contains lost perfumes and perfume formulas obtained from donations, there is also a documentation centre with rare books, perfumers’ personal archives, including those left by Jean Kerléo, Jeannine Mongin and Pierre Bourdon, and thousands of collections of news cuttings given by Michael Edwards. These documents help put fragrances back into context: not only the creative and social situation, but also a company’s history and the evolution of chemistry, among others.

“The Osmothèque was a pioneer in keeping traces of a peculiar heritage, evanescent by nature, and in preserving works of art which, despite optimised preservation conditions, have the specificity of regularly self-destructing. We need to reweigh them regularly, although some ingredients no longer exist,” explains Anne-Cécile Pouant, Director of the Osmothèque. Since the archive’s perfumes are neither marketed nor worn, they do not need to be compliant with IFRA’s standards. “We hold stocks of rare or lost materials, like animal-derived musk or ambergris in the form of tinctures and infusions, allowing for exact reconstructions, in particular for perfumes created in the late 19th and 20th century,” explains Fontaine. The third President of the institution was the one to decide to open the collection to functional perfumes, which account for a whole chapter of the collective olfactory memory.

A temple guardian

The Osmothèque has built its reputation on rigour. Its scientific committee has set up the Nomen classification to “clarify the degree of historical realism and the share of interpretation, or even inspiration, of the olfactory immersive experiences increasingly offered in museums.” Its collection of 6,000 fragrances mainly contains “reweighings”, i.e. fragrances reconstructed based on the original formula, with its synthetic and natural molecules, and the bases historically used.

But the Osmothèque is also the only one to hold the original versions of Paul Poiret’s perfumes (Parfums de Rosine) and François Coty’s masterpieces. “Many of these brands are reemerging now. We have regular visits to smell the original copies. However, the formulas entrusted to the archive remain in the strongroom; they are used only for heritage, not commercial purposes. Confidentiality prevents any conflict of interest, so the Osmothèque carries an independent voice,” emphasises the President.

An advantage for the industry

Some groups have perfectly understood the role of the Osmothèque and have already called on its services. For example, perfume culture cycles are often offered at Chanel, but also at the LVMH Research Division.

Very recently, the L’Oréal and Luzi groups also signed sponsorship agreements to contribute to the Osmothèque’s development. The industry is represented by FEBEA (the French Federation of Beauty Companies), which accounts for 10% of the institution’s budget. Also, some companies offer non-monetary contributions – donations of raw materials for the laboratory, or of lost perfumes reweighed based on their formulas –, and the association has implemented a membership system.

“Brands have a lot to learn from the past, even if they aim to free themselves from it. It is also the role of the Osmothèque to serve as inspiration. Our olfactory archives are designed to both fuel today’s creation and pass on the trail of a rich olfactory History to tomorrow’s professionals,” concludes Pouant.