Les Senteurs Gourmandes

Les Senteurs Gourmandes is a French artisanal fragrance house built almost entirely around vanilla. It positions itself as a maker of affordable, French-made perfumes, with prices starting at 20 euros and a stated focus on the quality of the scent rather than on packaging or advertising [1]. Since 2022 it has been part of Groupe Novi, a family-owned beauty and wellness group based in the Périgord region of south-west France [7]. The brand remains active, trading directly through its own online store and through other retailers across France and several European markets, including the Nordics.

⚑ Thinner sourcing. The article relies largely on the brand's own statements (T2–T3). Glowpedia is seeking independent sources.

The brand's founding year is not documented by any authoritative source, and the question is genuinely unresolved. Its own website gives no date of creation, and low-tier retailer and aggregator listings disagree sharply: one states the house has existed "since 1987", another that it was "created in France in 2000", and a third attributes a 2008 founding to a person who in fact founded different companies — a clear case of mistaken identity rather than evidence [9]. Because none of these can be corroborated, the founding year is treated here as unknown. The earliest concrete trace is the fragrance catalogue itself: third-party perfume databases list the brand's oldest recorded edition in 2013 and its newest in 2024 [8].

The clearest documented event in the brand's history is its 2022 acquisition by Groupe Novi, which folded it into the group alongside the organic-care label Pur Eden as part of an expansion into natural perfumery [7]. Groupe Novi itself traces its origins to a perfumery opened in Périgueux in 1973 and has since grown into a larger beauty and retail group.

Les Senteurs Gourmandes describes itself as "a brand of Groupe Novi" [2]. The group acquired it in 2022, presenting the move as a way to strengthen its range of natural products and care. Within the Groupe Novi portfolio the brand sits beside names such as Beauty Success, Physiomins and Esthetic Center, with the parent company active in beauty retail and wellness. No founding date for Les Senteurs Gourmandes is given in the group's own account of its history; the brand was integrated as an already-existing business.

The house frames itself as "an ode to poetry and fragrance" and organises its outlook around three words it repeats as a kind of creed: love, simplicity and authenticity. Its stated mission is to imagine generous, subtle, gourmand perfumes and offer them "at very gentle prices to as many people as possible, without compromising on quality" [3]. To do that, the company says it concentrates spending on the scent rather than on elaborate bottles or marketing, so that French-made artisanal fragrance stays within most people's reach.

Manufacturing is presented as French and artisanal, made "in respect of the tradition of the master perfumers", with compositions developed over a 21-day maceration period. The brand also points to a short distribution circuit and deliberately simple packaging as part of an environmentally minded approach, and describes its fragrances as being of natural origin. It states that its products are formulated with a high proportion of natural ingredients, though the figure it cites is not consistent — 96 per cent on its homepage and 90 per cent on its press page [1][4]. No third-party certifications, such as Ecocert or cruelty-free seals, are claimed.

Vanilla is the brand's defining material, and its catalogue of roughly two dozen fragrances returns to the spice in many forms. Among its best-sellers are Vanille Monoï, Vanille Patchouli and Vanille Noire, sitting within wider gourmand, floral, fruity, woody and citrus families. Alongside its perfumes the brand sells alcohol-free scented mists, gift sets and discovery sets. Hero notes recur across the range — vanilla paired with benzoin, monoï, tiaré, jasmine and ylang-ylang.

The brand's press page collects coverage from French media. Marie Claire featured its Vanille Monoï as a sweet, floral scent evoking childhood, while the Journal des Femmes covered its summer fragrances and singled out the gourmand blend of vanilla, benzoin and monoï [4]. These are brand-curated mentions; no formal awards are recorded.

Les Senteurs Gourmandes is an active, trading brand. Its online store was running current seasonal promotions in 2026, and its most recent catalogued fragrance edition is dated 2024 [8]. It operates as part of Groupe Novi and is distributed both directly to consumers and through European retailers.