Bienaimé 1935

Bienaimé 1935 is a French fragrance and beauty house based in Paris. It was founded in 1935 by Robert Bienaimé, a chemist and perfumer who had earlier led the house of Houbigant [3]. The original company closed in the decades after the Second World War, and the name lay unused for a long stretch until Cécilia Mergui, a collector of Art Déco objects, bought the dormant brand in 2019 and relaunched it in November 2021 [12][15].

The revived house presents itself as a meeting of classical French perfumery and durable, refillable design. Its products — eaux de parfum, soaps, balms, candles and beauty accessories — are made in France and Belgium and are sold online, through the brand's own Paris boutique, and via roughly 119 stockists across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. In some early records the company appears under the name Parfum de Bienaimé [10].

Robert Bienaimé was born in 1876 and studied in Paris, qualifying as a chemical engineer before he entered perfumery. According to the company, his vocation began in 1909, when he met Paul Parquet, the master perfumer behind Houbigant, who hired him despite his being a newcomer to the trade. Working at Houbigant, Bienaimé is credited with Quelques Fleurs, described on the brand's history page as the first true multi-floral bouquet fragrance and remembered for an unusual lilac accord built on aldehydes. The brand's own writing dates this creation to 1912, while Wikipedia places it in 1910 [4][10].

After Parquet died in 1916, Bienaimé took charge of Houbigant's perfumery and stayed into the early 1930s, building its catalogue with scents such as Mon Boudoir and Le Temps des Lilas. He then left to start his own house — prompted, the company's founder profile says, by the sudden death of a close collaborator — and the Bienaimé brand was established in 1935, with its headquarters in suburban Paris. Accounts differ on how many fragrances launched in that first year: the history page names four — Éveil, Fleurs d'Été, La Vie en Fleurs and Vermeil — while the brand's own founder profile refers to five, and Wikipedia lists six, adding Sur les Aimes and Cuir de Russie [3][10]. Alongside the perfumes, Bienaimé built a cosmetics line of tinted creams, powders, lipsticks and nail varnishes for the well-dressed woman of the 1930s. Colleagues remembered him as a generous figure, and the company notes that one fragrance, Jours Heureux, was named in connection with his partner, Marie-Louise.

Beyond his own house, Bienaimé held a prominent place in the trade, presiding over France's national perfumery body, the Syndicat National de la Parfumerie, on several occasions between 1923 and 1942 [3].

Accounts of the original company's end do not agree. The brand's history page says that after Bienaimé's death in 1960 the name was "put to sleep" for several decades before its revival. Wikipedia, citing a perfume-history source, states that the original house had already gone under during the later 1940s — placing its commercial close well before the founder died [10]. On either reading, the label was inactive for roughly sixty years.

The modern chapter began with a chance find. The company recounts that Cécilia Mergui, a longtime enthusiast of Art Déco design and a collector of objects and furniture from the period, came across a refillable Bienaimé powder compact while browsing an online antiques site; struck by its period look and reusable construction, she researched the house and resolved to revive it. She acquired the brand in 2019 and relaunched it in November 2021 with three eaux de parfum — Vermeil, Jours Heureux and La Vie en Fleurs — together with soaps and a body balm [15]. A flagship boutique opened in 2022 at 30 Rue Saint Roch in central Paris, designed by the studio of Paul de Saint Maur.

Following the 2019 acquisition, the brand is owned by Cécilia Mergui [12]. No parent company or holding group is identified in the available sources, and the house lists no sister brands.

Bienaimé 1935 frames its outlook around durable design and transparency. The company says it "combines its love for beauty with the planet," and its manifesto is organised as a set of wordplays on the name: Bien...fait (well-made), Bien...fondé (well-founded), Bien...veillant (caring) and Bien...aimé (well-loved). Under these headings it commits to refillable perfume bottles and reusable secondary packaging conceived as decorative objects, to full disclosure of ingredients and methods, and to close partnership with French artisans. The design language draws openly on the 1930s. Mergui has said the house is indebted to Art Déco, and that aesthetics were central to the project because "often refillable products are not pretty" while "in the 1930s, objects were decorative as well as functional" [11].

The brand is candid about its ingredient choices. On its ingredients page it acknowledges that some substances considered controversial — it names the preservative BHT — appear in its formulas where it has found no satisfactory alternative, and says it expects suppliers to phase such ingredients out before long [6]. Positioned at the luxury end of the niche-perfume market, the line carries reference prices around €145 to €165 for a 75ml eau de parfum, with lower-cost refills. The company also describes a charitable strand, donating products to an association that uses beauty and wellbeing services to help women in difficulty.

The current range centres on eau de parfum — including Vermeil, Jours Heureux, La Vie en Fleurs, Fleurs d'Été and Vesprée — and extends to scented candles, hand cream, body balm and accessories. The relaunch fragrances were drawn from the brand's archives and reworked for a contemporary audience by outside perfumers, with individual scents attributed to noses including Patrice Revillard and Marie Schnirer.

A defining feature is the refillable bottle. The company says its perfume flacons can be refilled indefinitely, using eco-designed aluminium refills, so that the original case is kept rather than discarded. The house places weight on French manufacturing: its glass bottles are produced in Normandy by Waltersperger, a glassmaker holding France's Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant ("Living Heritage Company") label, perfume is made in Grasse, liquid soap and body balm in southern France, and solid soap and lip balm in Belgium [12]. The brand states that it does not test its products on animals.

Coverage of the relaunch has come largely from the niche-fragrance and design press. UpscaleLiving Magazine ran a feature on the revived house in 2022, and a trade article on its packaging and French production circulated through industry channels the same year. The perfume community site Fragrantica published several pieces on the comeback and on individual scents, and French outlets including FashionNetwork reported on the brand's return. No formal awards are recorded in the available sources.

Bienaimé 1935 is an active company. It operates an online store, a Paris flagship boutique and, by its own store locator, around 119 stockists internationally, spanning France, Italy, the United Kingdom — including Liberty and Fortnum & Mason — other parts of Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific. The most recent dated activity in the sources is a brand-journal article published in September 2024. The present business is the revived entity that has traded continuously since the 2021 relaunch, distinct from the original house that ceased operating in the mid-20th century.