Paul Parquet

Paul Parquet (* 1862; † 1916) was an influential French perfumer and joint owner of Houbigant.

Contents

Career

Paul Parquet joined the perfume house of Houbigant as a part owner in 1880, and was the nose behind their most famous early creations,[1] such as

He was the chief perfumer of the house, succeeded by Robert Bienaimé, the creator of Quelques Fleurs (Houbigant, 1912).

Importancee

With his use of coumarin in Fougère Royal, juxtaposed to lavender, citrus and woody notes, he revolutionized perfumery in being the first perfumer to ever use a synthetic fragrance material in his creations, and in conceptualizing a scent that was not an imitation of a natural smell, as ferns (fougère is French for fern) are basically odorless. Until its disappearance from the market in the late 1960s, Fougère Royale was often imitated and became the most typical representative of a whole family of related fragrance, the so-called fougère perfumes.

Famous Quote

"If God gave ferns a scent, they would smell like Fougère Royal", Paul Parquette[2].

References

  1. ^ Nigel Groom, The New Perfume Handbook, 2. Aufl., Blackie Academic & Professional, London, 1997, ISBN 0-7514-0403-9, p. 248.
  2. ^ Patricia de Nicolaï, "A Smelling Trip into the Past: The Influence of Synthetic Materials on the History of Perfumery". In Current Topics in Flavor and Fragrance Research, Philip Kraft and Karl A. D. Swift (Eds), Verlag Helvetica Chimica Acta, Zürich, and WILEY-VCH Verlag, Weinheim, 2008, ISBN 978-3-906390-49-9, p. 305–314.