Première Note

Première Note is a French niche fragrance house based in Paris. It was launched in 2014 as the first perfume brand of Création Beauté International, a French beauty group that creates, produces and distributes fragrance and cosmetic labels [1]. Each of its scents is built around a single noble raw material, an idea reflected in the name: a "première note" is the opening impression of a perfume, and the house presents its fragrances as compositions in which that lead note stays dominant throughout [6].

The brand is styled in all capitals as PREMIÈRE NOTE on its own site, and some retailers list it without the accent. It remains active, with new fragrances catalogued as recently as 2025 [9].

Première Note was conceived within Création Beauté International, the Paris company founded and led by Hervé Josserand, whom editorial and retailer sources describe as a former L'Oréal director and entrepreneur [6]. The parent group's stated purpose is "to create, produce, stage and animate beauty brands," and it positions Première Note as its inaugural fragrance line [2].

Sources differ on the exact founding year. The brand's own site and the parent company's corporate site both state that Première Note was launched in 2014 [1][2], and Fragrantica's news coverage dates the first releases to July 2014 [7]. Fragrantica's designer summary instead gives 2015 as the year the brand was created [6]; that later date appears in fragrance-database records rather than in the company's own accounts. Glowpedia follows the 2014 date, which is corroborated by both the brand and its parent.

The first five fragrances — Orange Calabria, Lys Toscana, Rosa Damas, Cedar Atlas and Java Wood — were released in July 2014 and composed by perfumer Mélanie Leroux [7]. Each was named for a raw material and its place of origin, from orange in Calabria to wood from Java.

Première Note is owned by Création Beauté International, whose fragrance division, Création Beauté Parfums, also handles brands including Le Couvent, Zilli Parfums, La Manufacture and Salvador Dali Parfums. According to the group, it operates in more than 100 countries across roughly 6,500 retail locations [2]. Its headquarters are at 10 rue Singer in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.

The house describes its output as "a high-end collection of niche fragrances using the finest raw materials, harvested in the four corners of the world" [1]. Its central concept is to build each perfume around one carefully chosen ingredient — what the company calls sublimating "a raw material selected with care, at the heart of its place of origin." The result is framed as travel-inspired perfumery that reinterprets classic notes of French haute parfumerie for an accessible niche audience.

Signature raw materials cited by the brand include orange from Calabria, lily from Toscana, rose from Damascus, cedar from the Atlas and wood from Java. In its own words, "a wind of freedom blows through PREMIÈRE NOTE's travel-inspired fragrances" [1].

Beyond the original five, the range has grown to more than twenty fragrances organised into themed groupings such as a Garden Collection focused on botanicals and a Gold Collection built around richer, warmer notes. Later additions include Aura Tonka, an ambery gourmand with tonka, toffee and almond, and Himalayan Oud, a smoky woody oud. A roster of perfumers has contributed over the years, among them Nathalie Lorson, Karine Dubreuil-Sereni and Patrice Revillard.

The eau de parfums are offered in an accessible-niche price range, sitting below much of the traditional niche market. The brand and its parent distribute internationally through multiple retail channels rather than a single boutique network.

Première Note is active. Its site states that the range has been reinvented with "a new story" and redesigned products as part of an effort to make the brand "more attractive, more modern and more premium," while keeping its best-selling scents [1]. New fragrances continued to appear through 2025, including Citrus Garden and Berries Garden [9], and the label remains distributed via its parent group's international network.