What is old is new again: THE REBIRTH OF BIENAIMÉ

Founded in 1935 by renowned Houbigant perfumer and one of the greatest noses of his era, Robert Bienaimé, BIENAIMÉ was a gorgeous French perfume house… that shuttered its doors during the war. 

Beinaimé was un peu lost to history until 2021, when a woman named Cécilia Merguil purchased and relaunched the brand. Her love of Art Deco style, the era, the scents and sensations, the memory and aesthetic AND the five original scents of Robert Bienaimé now live and thrive in the French-made perfume line and in their GORGEOUS Paris boutique at 30 Rue Saint Roch in the first arrondissement. 

I had the incredible pleasure of visiting the perfume house recently, and I will tell you now: it was one of the best memories and experiences of my time in Paris. I was enveloped and transported into a different time and a different version of myself. Enraptured by the sensual lines of bottles and soft rosey colors of soaps and ribboned boxes, tended by the most beautiful shopkeeper dressed in an homage to 30s style, I fell into mad love with Bienaimé. 

Vermeil, the primary fragrance and original to the 1935 formula, includes notes musk and balsam, rose and raspberry, aldehydes. It’s a Time Machine. I was transported to a different experience of femininity, style, moving through the world. I bought the hand cream (yet I must confess I long for the heavy glass bottle with its gold shell, to sit atop my dresser, to hold heavy in my hand, to mist across my décolletage). 

I am listening to Edith Piaf, reading Anaïs Nin, wearing silk and black velvet, a pearl necklace drips down my throat, my lips are red, my nails are lacquered dark. I dance mad into a wild evening and buy myself flowers in the morning as I walk home. I wear Bienaimé.

*All illustrations and photos are copyright to Rugged and Fancy LLC.