Sabé Masson

Sabé Masson is a small Paris perfume house built around a single idea: perfume without alcohol. Instead of the alcohol base used in conventional fragrance, it carries its scents in what it calls "cosmetic matrices", sold either as solid perfume sticks or as liquid sprays. The company calls the result "le parfum de soin", or Skincare Fragrance, and presents it as perfume that also moisturises the skin.

The house was created by Isabelle Masson-Mandonnaud, whose career began in the Limoges perfumery that grew into Sephora. Trade press dates the start of Sabé Masson to 2013 or 2014, depending on the source. After a dormant period of about five years, the brand returned in the mid-2020s under new majority shareholders, with its earlier fragrances reissued on a new alcohol-free liquid base.

Isabelle Masson-Mandonnaud came to niche perfume from the retail side. In her own account to Fragrantica, she joined a small perfumery company in Limoges called Shop 8 at the end of her studies. Shop 8 had been created by Dominique Mandonnaud, the founder of Sephora [14]. She recalls that "we bought the brand from the Boots group, whose name we kept only to stage the new concept of self-service perfumery: Sephora." Fragrantica also reports that she and Dominique Mandonnaud later married.

Her first niche project came in 2004. Under the name Crazylibellule and the Poppies, she launched solid fragrances in stick form, a line that was later discontinued. Fragrantica describes Sabé Masson as the development of that work, carried on "in both solid and EDP form". The stick format, the solid texture and the absence of alcohol all passed from the first project to the second.

The founding date is reported differently. Premium Beauty News, in a 2025 article, writes that the story of Sabé Masson "started in 2013 with 'soft perfumes'" [12]. Fragrantica, in its 2023 history of the house, gives 2014 [14]. The company's own website does not state a founding year.

The early house was a Paris boutique business. In April 2015 Fragrantica profiled its shop in the Haut-Marais district, at 4 Rue de Franche Comté. The solid perfumes were then grouped by their carrier butters and oils (shea butter, tamanu and mango, and tiare). Scent names at the time included Zazou and Striptease Flowers, both still in the range, alongside La Reine Soleil and Rock, which no longer appear in the current collection.

The move into liquid perfume is told in two versions. According to Premium Beauty News, the collection was completed "as soon as 2015" with a liquid spray offering that was "also alcohol-free" [12]. Fragrantica's account is different. It names the 2015 liquid line Divins Alcools and describes it as a concentrated eau de parfum launched in summer 2015. Fragrantica places the first alcohol-free liquids two years later, when the house announced "Liquid Soft Perfumes" at the Esxence perfume fair in 2017, described as "a liquid Eau de Parfum without alcohol or surfactant-agent" [14]. Whether the 2015 liquids were already alcohol-free is not settled between the two sources.

Then came a pause. Premium Beauty News reported in March 2025 that the brand had been "dormant for five years for financial reasons" before coming back [12]. The article does not give the exact years of the hiatus.

The revival was under way by mid-2023, when Fragrantica reported a change in shareholders (see Ownership). The relaunch itself centred on a new liquid base. According to Fragrantica's 2026 coverage, the fragrances sold as Divins Alcools in 2015 became the Skincare Eau de Parfum collection in 2025, with "the aromatic compositions" unchanged [15]. What changed was the carrier: the reissued sprays use a water-and-oil emulsion called WPE® in place of alcohol.

The brand is operated by Parfumaré SAS, a simplified joint-stock company with its registered office at 35 rue Debelleyme in Paris's 3rd arrondissement [11]. Its roots lie partly outside Paris. Fragrantica wrote in 2023 that Sabé Masson "began its course as a member of the Upperside Group", which its 2015 profile places in Salon-de-Provence. That earlier article also says the founder set up Parfumaré while working with the group [13].

In June 2023 Fragrantica reported new majority shareholders: Boris Gratini, co-founder of the cosmetics brand Nailmatic, and Hélène Ortola, whom it described as an expert in luxury brands [14]. Premium Beauty News presents the pair slightly differently in 2025. It says the founder was "later joined" by Gratini and by Ortola, whom it calls a digital communication expert. Both outlets show the founder still involved in the house after the change.

Alcohol-free perfume is the brand's central argument. "We've always firmly believed that alcohol-free perfume is an ideal form of fragrance that's kind to the skin and the environment," the company writes. Its French slogan, "Sans alcool, notre peau est plus forte" (without alcohol, our skin is stronger), appears across the website. The English pages render it as "Without alcool, our skin has more power."

The company frames this as a matter of proportions. In traditional perfumery, it notes, the base is between 75% and 95% alcohol. In its own formulas the base is a cosmetic matrix that makes up between 82% and 86% of the product, with a perfume concentrate of 12% to 18% in both the solid and liquid forms [4]. On that basis, Sabé Masson says, it can "certify that all our fragrances are moisturizing". It describes itself as the inventor of the Skincare Fragrance and as "the first perfumery of excellence to be certified moisturizing". Its website does not name a certifying body or describe the test behind that claim. The brand also says its alcohol-free perfume "fuses with the skin" and harmonises with the skin's pH.

The house places its work between old and new. It cites the "sacred tradition of ancient perfumes" as one reference and "French molecular research" as the other. Founder Isabelle Masson describes the house's vocation as "a genuine stylistic approach that brings together the sense of smell, sight and touch."

That outlook is spelled out in a text the company calls its "Sentient Manifest", an ethical code for Skincare Fragrance. It is organised under six headings: The Dream, The Skin, The Art of perfume, Eco-design, The Sacred and The unifying work. The tone is poetic rather than technical. Under The Skin, for example, the brand writes that it refuses "to alter our skin through contact with alcohol".

The range is built on a small set of named scents, each offered in several formats. The current collection lists Et revenir à soi, Eu vent de vous, Georges et moi, Né des roses, Striptease flowers and Zazou. Most come as a solid perfume stick, as a liquid "skincare eau de parfum" in a refillable bottle, and as a "Rencontre" set pairing the two. Smaller Tiny-Roll formats, travel bottles and refills complete the line. The company describes Né des roses as "a rose of great sobriety" that turns "heady and chypre, with a musk base".

The two formats rest on different bases. The solid sticks use what the brand calls a 100% natural matrix of plant oils and waxes, enriched with essential waxes of clary sage and blue lotus. They are meant to be glided onto pulse points and, the company suggests, the roots of the hair.

The liquid sprays rely on WPE®, short for "Water Plant Emulsion", a microemulsion of oil and water that replaces alcohol. Its ownership is described in two ways. Sabé Masson calls WPE® "an exclusive patented technology" and "French", without naming the patent holder [1]. Premium Beauty News attributes the technology to AR2i, a separate company, and says its discovery "was key in that it offers both all-day perfume persistence and tested and proven hydration" [12]. Fragrantica described the 2025 collection as "the first perfume collection certified as a skin care and moisturizing product" and linked that status to WPE®.

The scents themselves come from outside perfumers. Premium Beauty News reports that the company works with resident perfumers at Robertet and IFF, two large fragrance suppliers. One scent, Et revenir à soi, was developed with Argeville and is described as 100% natural. The trade paper notes that while the cosmetic bases are fully natural, not every fragrance is. The brand's own pages credit unnamed "Artist-Noses" but do not name individual perfumers.

Beyond perfume, the house sells Les Maîtres-Nez, small ceramic scent objects made with Nadège Delaruelle, a ceramist and gilder based in the Batignolles district of Paris. The company says each piece passes through seven production steps, including 48 hours of firing and a gold-leaf finish, and is designed to absorb fragrance. In 2026 the website also promoted a limited edition, The 7th Skincare Fragrance, available in both spray and Tiny-Roll form.

The brand's environmental claims centre on reuse. Under the heading Eco-design, its manifesto says the aim is that customers can "keep and reuse everything" from their Skincare Fragrances, adding: "It is not a marketing concept, but our daily requirement." The liquid perfumes come in black bottles that the company says were inspired by old herbalist traditions. They are fitted with a wide spray and designed to be refilled, and aluminium refills are sold separately. The products are labelled as made in France. No third-party environmental or ethical certifications are documented for the brand.

No awards are documented for Sabé Masson. Its coverage comes mainly from specialist perfume and trade media. Fragrantica has followed the house at three points: its 2015 boutique profile, a 2023 article on the revival and new shareholders, and a 2026 piece on the reissued collection. In March 2025 Premium Beauty News devoted a feature to the relaunch under the headline "Sabé Masson, the revival of a forerunner of the perfume industry", a reference to the brand's early work on alcohol-free fragrance.

Sabé Masson is active. As of 2026 its official online shop sells the full collection and was promoting the limited-edition 7th Skincare Fragrance, together with a gift offer linked to Oden. Fragrantica covered the relaunched Skincare Eau de Parfum range in April 2026. In its March 2025 interview with Premium Beauty News, the company said it intended to open its own store in Paris, and "probably another later, abroad." Whether that store has opened is not documented.