The Story of Bois de Balincourt Perfume
Not every perfume has a story that reaches back to the French Revolution and involves a pioneering botanist who was thankfully exiled to Madagascar—but Bois de Balincourt does!
Marie du Petit Thouars, who is the creator of this romantic perfume, now lives in Los Angeles, but she’s a member of a European family with a history that’s intertwined with scent. The story begins with Louis Marie Aubert du Petit Thouars who might have been beheaded during the French Revolution, but thankfully it was decided that he should be exiled. While exiled in Madagascar and the islands of La Reunion and Mauritius, he discovered a vast array of plants and collected more than 2,000 specimens that he brought back to France ten years later. Home at last, he was elected to the prestigious Académie des Sciences and continued with his pioneering botanical writing and meticulous botanical drawings.
Two hundred years later, his descendant Marie du Petit Thouars was growing up in Belgium. She remembers playing in her grandfather’s nursery while making candles and experimenting with scents in her mother’s greenhouse. After a stint as a fashion editor for the London Sunday Times, Marie moved to Los Angeles to become a fine art fashion photographer. Utilizing her expertise in fashion and design and wanting to share her love for luxury scent at a more attainable price point, she launched Maison Marie Louis.
Marie started with six delicate scents that were inspired by her family’s botanical history. One of these fragrances is her gorgeous Eau de Parfum No.04 Bois de Balincourt. It is inspired by Chateau Balincourt, the family estate outside Paris. The manor house is surrounded by an ancient forest where taking long walks was a favorite activity of multiple generations of the Thouars family. Marie’s memories of these walks inspired her to create Bois de Balincourt by using Cedarwood, Sandalwood, and notes of Vetiver, cinnamon, and nutmeg to create the scent of this magical forest after heavy rain.
While composing her perfumes and candles, Marie works to preserve the uniqueness of each fragrance element just as it is derived from nature. Along with her husband Matthew Berkson, Maison Louis Marie creates clean luxury fragrances that are affordable and can be enjoyed year-round. They contain no toxic or environmentally harmful ingredients. Their company uses sustainable packaging and has partnered with 1% for the Planet to support environmental organizations.
I am so happy to present Maison Louis Marie fragrances at Menus and Music. Every morning when I spray Bois de Balincourt on my wrist, it makes me relax and feel like the day ahead will be beautiful.
