Overview
Adopt, marketed as Adopt Parfums, is a French perfumery company founded in 1986 by the Gironde entrepreneur Dominique Monlun [6]. It began life under the name Réserve Naturelle, opening its first store in Bordeaux, and built its catalogue around affordable eau de parfum sold at a fixed low price. The company remains active and expanding, reporting 24 million bottles sold and around €170 million in revenue for 2024.
Its model is built on accessibility. Rather than promote a small number of flagship scents, the company offers a wide catalogue — more than 150 fragrances across the main olfactory families — with a 30 ml eau de parfum priced at 11.95 euros. Adopt summarises this positioning under the slogan "French Fragrance Revolution," and describes its aim as making high-quality, French-made perfume available to everyone.
Origin and founders
Dominique Monlun, an entrepreneur from the Gironde region, founded the business in 1986 as Réserve Naturelle, beginning with accessories before moving into perfumes [6][8]. The first store opened that year in Bordeaux. Sources agree on the 1986 founding date, but differ on when the Adopt name took over: the editorial outlet Marques de France records the rebrand to Adopt Parfums as 2014 [6], while the trade publication Premium Beauty News dates the renaming to 2015, attributing it to the investment fund that bought the company [7]. The two accounts are otherwise consistent, with the transition completed in the mid-2010s.
History and milestones
After three decades trading mainly as Réserve Naturelle, the company entered a period of rapid change. An investment fund acquired it in 2015 and renamed it Adopt [7]. In 2019, Frédéric Stoeckel became chief executive and refocused the business on perfume. Growth accelerated through the early 2020s, supported by a funding round in 2022. By 2024 the company reported 24 million bottles sold and revenue of around €170 million [6], a scale captured in a 2022 trade-press profile headlined on the claim that the brand "sells a perfume every five seconds" somewhere in the world [7].
Ownership
Following the 2015 acquisition, the investment manager NextStage AM held a majority stake alongside the Loyez family [7]. In 2025, Arkéa Capital, part of the Crédit Mutuel Arkéa group, entered the company's capital alongside its existing shareholders, with international expansion stated as the goal [6]. A note attached to the source material records that Adopt was at one point speculated to be linked to the maker Réauté Cosmétiques, but no source confirmed this connection.
Philosophy and positioning
The company positions itself around democratised perfumery. According to Adopt, it is "committed to offering everyone access to great, high-quality fragrances," pairing low prices with French manufacturing. Its know-how pages describe a creation process that can take up to twelve months and a deliberate rejection of "overpriced muse or ostentatious bottles." Alongside accessibility, the company lists inclusivity, biodiversity protection and eco-design among its stated values. A hummingbird serves as its emblem, standing for the idea that small individual actions add up — summarised by the company as "I'm doing my bit."
Products and innovation
Adopt's range centres on eau de parfum but extends to body care, facial skincare, makeup and home fragrances. Popular scents named by the fragrance encyclopedia Wikiparfum include Verveine Fizz, Eau des Thés, Rose Noire and Coco Lada. The company also markets skincare lines built around shea butter and argan oil, with vegan skincare formulations and certified-natural options. According to Adopt, 85% of its formulas are made with more than 85% naturally derived ingredients, and individual products carry sustainability features — the Monoï des îles eau de parfum uses upcycled ingredients, and the Les Voyages collection uses bottles made from 90% recycled glass.
Sustainability
Sustainability is a recurring theme in the company's own materials, organised around three commitments: protecting biodiversity and perfumery know-how, eco-design, and building a more sustainable value chain. Adopt holds ECOCERT COSMOS natural and organic certifications for skincare products, an ISO 14001 environmental certification covering its offices and main production site, and an EcoVadis silver rating. In 2021 it launched the Hummingbird (Colibri) programs, a set of sourcing partnerships with fragrance houses including Firmenich, Symrise and Robertet for ingredients such as jasmine, vanilla and rose, intended to support growers and improve water and energy use.
Recognition
Adopt's packaging work received a Gold Award in the recycled-packaging category at the CosmétiqueMag Awards [4]. The company has also been the subject of French trade and brand-history coverage, including a 2022 Premium Beauty News profile of Stoeckel and a 2024 Marques de France feature on the rise of low-cost perfume.
Manufacturing
The company describes its production as "100% French." Its corporate headquarters are in Cestas, in the Gironde department [6]; this is distinct from its creation and production bases, which the brand site places in Grasse and Paris for fragrance creation, with Bordeaux as an earlier production location and Château-Renard in the Loiret as the main manufacturing site within France's Cosmetic Valley.
Current status
Adopt is active and growing. Its most recent reported activity dates to 2025, with the Arkéa Capital investment and a new production facility at Château-Renard. The company says it operates across roughly 40 countries through several hundred stores and points of sale [7].
Sources
T1 primary · T2 secondary · T3 note- [4]T2adopt.com/en/know-howadopt.com (brand site)
- [6]T3marques-de-france.fr/magazine/lere-des-parfums-pas-chers-lascension-dadopt-parfums/marques-de-france.fr
- [7]T3premiumbeautynews.com/en/adopt-sells-a-perfume-every-five,21844premiumbeautynews.com
- [8]T3wikiparfum.com/en/brands/adoptwikiparfum.com

