VAUCLAIR

La maison · depuis 1927

One organ, four hands

The perfumer's organ Aurèle Vauclair built in 1934 has been composed on by his daughter, his grandson and, since 2011, his great-granddaughter. Nothing about it has been modernised except the chair.

The perfumer's organ, built 1934

The organ, Grasse. Built 1934; the chair is from 2011.Pl. 01

Isaure Vauclair-Mendès

Isaure Vauclair-Mendès · Paris, 2026

Le nez

The fourth Vauclair at the organ, and the first to say no more often than yes.

Isaure trained in Grasse under her father and in Versailles at the school that did not exist when he trained. She took the organ in 2011 and composed Bois de Minuit within the year. Since then she has composed one extrait for the collection and one hundred and sixty-two private commissions.
She smells every harvest herself, keeps the ledgers by hand, and has declined more commissions than she has accepted. The maison is smaller under her than it was under her grandfather. This is deliberate.

Trois refus

  1. 01

    We do not launch.

    A new extrait appears when one is finished, which has happened seven times in ninety-nine years. There is no calendar.

  2. 02

    We do not discontinue.

    Every formula in the ledger can still be composed. If a material disappears, we wait, or we stop making that extrait until it returns.

  3. 03

    We do not dilute.

    Everything the maison sells is an extrait. There is no eau de parfum, no eau de toilette, no body line, no candle.

Maceration room, Grasse. Nothing is hurried.
The archive at rue de Varenne

The archive · formulas 1 to 1,214

  1. 1927

    Aurèle Vauclair composes Néroli 27 in a rented room above a Grasse distillery.

  2. 1931

    Vespérale, for the soprano Élise Darcourt. The first private commission.

  3. 1938

    The maison takes the former saddlery at 9 rue de Varenne, Paris 7e.

  4. 1954

    Cuir Varenne. The salon's ground floor is smelled, then bottled.

  5. 1966

    The ambergris mother tincture is made. It has never run dry.

  6. 1989

    Ombre Rouge. Rationed to forty flacons a month since 1994.

  7. 2011

    Isaure Vauclair-Mendès, fourth generation, takes the organ.

  8. 2024

    Larmes de Cire. The seventh extrait, and the last for a while.

The organ can be seen by appointment. It cannot be photographed.

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