THE HISTORY OF THE CREATORS
Le Jardin Retrouvé is a perfume house with a long history, which has always maintained its family character throughout its history, resisting the quality-destroying effects of mass production and remaining faithful to its avant-garde heritage. The founding act in 1975 was already an innovative response to the limitations of traditional perfumery. Yuri Gutsatz, a renowned perfumer (the first founder), was looking for new paths, and his compass always and exclusively pointed towards pure quality. His pioneering work was fueled not only by his own artistic inspiration and the French spirit, but also by his paternal heritage, as Yuri's father, David Gutsatz, a chemical engineer, acquired essential knowledge of synthetic raw materials for perfumery as a research associate in St. Petersburg. Thanks to this, Le Jardin Retrouvé's knowledge base dates back to 1935. Thousands of laboratory tests from this time and the recipes based on them form the foundation on which this unique enterprise was built.
REBIRTH
However, the carefully guarded heritage of the past is not associated with obsolescence or remanence. In 2016, Le Jardin Retrouvé heard the call of the new era and was reborn: Clara and Michel Gutsatz reimagined the entire operation of the fragrance house in the spirit of environmental awareness and digitalization. However, this refreshment could not detract from the purity of the original Yuri formulas and the quality of the perfumes. The outstanding perfumer talent, Maxence Moutte, who joined the Gutsatzes in 2016, helped preserve the founder's legacy. Maxence has since created several of his own fragrances (House of Mousse Arashiyama, Osmanthe Liu Yuan), and has remained completely faithful to the traditions of the fragrance house in his creations.
EXPERTISE AND QUALITY SINCE 1975
The creators carefully select the ingredients for their perfumes, not relying on large supply chains or relying on the descriptions of growers who produce huge quantities. They select all the ingredients themselves and only accept the highest quality. They seize every opportunity to maintain direct contact with flower growers. For example, tuberose, sandalwood and jasmine come to them straight from India, directly from the hands of a family of growers whose members began working with the founder of the fragrance house, Yuri Gutsatz, even before the creation of Le Jardin Retrouvé. Thus, the exciting prehistory of the perfumes that end up on store shelves spans a wide range of time and space.
Diligence over standards – “Good enough” is not enough
When creating Le Jardin Retrouvé perfumes, they always follow the founder Yuri's specifications for quality and care. Thus, each perfume undergoes a three-week maturation period and another three weeks of maceration. This two to three weeks is many times the time intervals accepted in the standards and generally used. In other words, it would be possible to produce (or manufacture) the fragrances much faster in the creative workshops of La Jardin Retrouvé, but then speed would come at the expense of quality. According to Yuri Gutsatz's conviction and recipes, two to three weeks is essential for the raw materials to come into complete harmony with each other and, when combined, to be perfectly expressed in the final olfactory experience.
Did you know? – Maturation and maceration
What happens during these two to three weeks? The two processes mentioned (maturing the raw materials and then macerating the concentrate resulting from the maturation) are critically important stages in perfume production.
During maturation, the various raw ingredients are mixed together in an aluminum container and then left to age. The standard perfume industry typically uses a maturation period of about a week, but Yuri's protocol calls for three times that time to ensure greater finesse.
During maceration, the concentrate created by the maturation is mixed with organic alcohol. The end result of this process is almost finished perfumes, which are finally bottled. Perfume industry standards only require a few days of maceration, but Yuri was convinced that the optimal time for this stage is three weeks.
From the brief technical information presented above, it is clear that Le Jardin Retrouvé does not strive for quantity, but still for quality, meaning that it is an unwavering believer in the highest purity of fragrance experiences and perfumes of perfect harmony.
CLEAN SCENTS, CLEAN ENVIRONMENT
The Le Jardin Retrouvé fragrance house not only exceeds the standards set by the authorities in terms of the purity of its ingredients (more precisely, the expectations that are considered sufficient), but also in terms of eco-consciousness. In 2021, the creators decided to do everything in their power, beyond the mandatory environmental measures, to ensure that not only the perfumes themselves are perfectly clean, but also that the procurement of the ingredients, the production process of the products and the packaging have the smallest possible environmental footprint. This is how they have arrived at solutions that far exceed the solutions recommended by the regulatory authorities of the profession Clean Beauty standards (CREDO Dirty List). All this was achieved, of course, while preserving the exceptional olfactory experience of their perfumes, which has been the basis of Le Jardin Retrouvé's reputation since the beginning.
The green renewal was possible thanks to the diligent and forward-looking work of Maxence Moutte, as a result of which the fragrances of the Gutsatz family perfume workshop shine just as brightly now as they did in the past, and the ingredients used in each fragrance are at least 93% absolutely natural (in some cases this value is 97%).
This result did not escape the attention of professional juries and major rating institutions in the perfume industry: in the 2021/22 season, the fragrances of Le Jardin Retrouvé won the Victoires de la Beauté Clean award.
And that was just the beginning!
Refillable packaging
Have you ever felt bad because you had to throw away the pretty, but heavy, empty perfume bottle you had left in your hand after you exhaled the last drops of perfume?
Clara and Michel could not rest until they found a satisfactory solution to this problem. Their main goal was (and still is) to minimize the environmental impact of perfume production - so they wanted to reduce waste generation in the first place.
They found the solution! They successfully developed the Le Nécessaire , the packaging method that the company still uses today, which frees the environment from the completely unnecessary waste generated by empty perfume bottles. It is a packaging method that makes the original packaging recyclable. The environmentally conscious customer can easily refill the empty bottle, so buying perfume now involves much less waste.
1% of the planet
However, Clara and her family saw that a truly responsible manufacturer cannot stop there. Le Jardin Retrouvé donates 1% of its annual turnover to environmental associations. They primarily support organizations that work to restore forests. This is in line with their activities and the credo of the fragrance house.
After all this, it can be said that in the case of Le Jardin Retrouvé, it is not just about "greening" the brand name, but also about real responsibility and serious eco-conscious efforts.
“Taking care of nature and the world around us is like taking care of our common heritage,” says the owners’ credo.
ART AND IDENTITY – A JOURNEY TO THE GARDEN OF SCENTS
In the case of Le Jardin Retrouvé perfumes, it is not poetic exaggeration to speak of art. Of course, perfume making is also an inspired creation, not mechanical, not impersonal, but a very expressive, muses-driven, truly human activity – at least in the Gutsatz family perfume house. So evoking the scents of fabulous gardens can be considered an art in itself, but here it is actually much more.
The founder, Yuri Gutsatz, was not only a talented perfumer but also a poet (in addition to his research and important notes, the family preserves many of his poems). His wife, Arlette, is a tireless designer of fabric patterns and the creator of the brand's very first logo.
Clara (Arlette and Yuri's daughter-in-law) is also an internationally renowned artist (under the name Virgine Michelet): she is the one who revolutionized the olfactory experience of perfumes, opening the door to the dimensions of other senses. Thanks to her, each perfume embodies a real garden, which we can not only discover with our nose, but also with our other senses. Clara has designed installations that reveal stories told in video, taking us on a true multimedia olfactory journey. In this way, buying a perfume becomes a truly artistic, immersive and multi-sensory moment.
SECURITY AND BLOCKCHAIN – ALL PERFUMES ARE AUTHENTICATED
In addition to preserving traditions and the originality of artistic creativity, the lightning-fast exploitation of the advantages of digitalization further distinguishes the Le Jardon Retrouvé perfume workshop from other manufacturers. Each of their products has a unique number that guarantees its authenticity and certifies ownership. This way, we don't have to worry about buying a counterfeit Le Jardon Retrouvé perfume. In addition, with the help of the unique number, we can access all the information about the fragrance or perfumed product we are holding in our hands (origin of ingredients, perfume certificates, production, company, etc.). All we have to do is scan the QR code of the purchased product (this is how we get the certificate).
What is blockchain?
All the information in the certificate is stored on the blockchain, which is a tamper-proof system. Le Jardin Retrouvé has chosen a public blockchain (i.e. one that is accessible to everyone and) that is low-power (only uses green energy). This blockchain is based on the technology of the French start-up SORGA, and Le Jardin Retrouvé is the first perfumery to own it.
THE FOUND GARDEN
So this is Le Jardin Retrouvé. Quality, pure and original scents, sustainable and safe operation, a responsible and traditional approach. The meeting of artistic and technological innovation with the values of our predecessors – all in a small bottle of perfume.
Anyone who buys Le Jardin Retrouvé perfume not only enriches their everyday life with a special fragrance experience (although this also happens to their greatest satisfaction), but also makes an environmentally conscious decision and becomes part of the long and successful history of a fragrance house that stands out from its rich historical past.