Style Edit: Henry Jacques’ perfumes capture the essence of luxury
From cultivation and meticulous ingredient selection, to bottling its fragrances by hand, the French haute parfumier does things differently
The making of a grand cru burgundy or champagne takes patience, terroir and consummate skill. The creation of exceptional perfumes – from soil to harvest to pressing – is no different. And within the rarefied world of haute parfumerie, there are few houses that can match the craftsmanship or commitment of Henry Jacques. With a heritage spanning five decades, this family-owned business is quietly refining – with a passion equal to that of a great vintner – what it means to be truly luxurious in the world of scent.
Established in 1975 near Grasse – the sun-dappled heart of French perfume – Henry Jacques has always taken a slow, artisanal approach. Mass production is anathema at a house where fragrances are crafted to express the rare and carefully harvested floral and botanical ingredients that go into them.
Take the centifolia roses that it uses in some of its perfumes. These are meticulously cultivated on nearly 1.6 hectares of land situated – quite fittingly – on a wine estate in La Motte, near Saint-Tropez in the south of France. On the estate, which is also home to Henry Jacques’ new atelier and laboratory, the roses are grown on exceptional terroir, using an entirely organic process (even the ploughing is done by horses, not machinery).
It can take up to five years to produce a harvest, and it takes a ton of roses to produce merely a single kilo of the highly potent, intensely aromatic extract known as HJ Rose de Mai. This is precisely what the house of Henry Jacques means when it speaks about exclusivity.
