List of products by brand MOLINARD
Molinard is a French perfume brand founded in 1849.
Until 1901, Molinard operated as a small cosmetics and perfume shop, but at the height of the economic revolution, it was acquired, along with other companies, by Albert Joseph Sitler's cooperative. Twelve years later, Sitler's son-in-law, the perfume chemist Henri Bénard, joined the entrepreneurs. In 1914, René Honorat, who owned a company producing essential oils and other aromatic raw materials, became their partner. At the end of 1919, the company purchased an abandoned building in Grasse and opened its first office there (it now houses the brand's museum and boutique, an important tourist attraction in Provence).
A year later, the partners opened the doors of the Molinard boutique in Paris, where, among other things, they sold some of the first solid perfumes, as well as Habanita—a popular fragrance of the time, originally released as a sachet to mask the smell of tobacco (interestingly, it has only been reformulated twice: in 1988 and 2012). Subsequently, the fragrance became a repeated bestseller for the brand; it was released in limited editions in crystal bottles by Lalique and Baccarat, and the design of one of the editions inspired the design of the current versions of Nirmala and Bel Air. From the Great Depression until the end of World War II, the company continued to operate largely by producing soap, talc, and other essentials; throughout this time and to this day, the business has been run by the Lerouge-Bénard family.
In 1955, after a long hiatus from the "big" perfume industry, the brand introduced Nirmala, a composition aimed at a younger audience and positioned as a reflection of absolute purity. Over the following decades, the brand's portfolio was filled primarily with seasonal creations and single-perfume fragrances, which played no role in its global development. Molinard experienced another wave of success with the appointment of a new CEO, Célia Lerouge-Bénard. She became the first female manager in the brand's history and, following her father, Molinard president Jean-Pierre Lerouge-Bénard, since the 1960s, defined the line's stylistic direction, developed the collection structure, discontinued unpopular fragrances, and launched numerous new ones. Among her most notable creations are the modern version of Habanita and the flanker L'Esprit, the limited edition Les Amoureux de Peynet, a new interpretation of Nirmala, and others.
With the start of this "new chapter," the brand attracted the attention of a mass audience, conquered new markets, and launched the production of anniversary editions: the most recent include the 160 fragrance in a Swarovski-adorned bottle (2009) and last year's Bel Air.
In 2014, the portfolio was expanded with the "haute" line La Collection Privée, dedicated to the perfume history of Grasse. The brand celebrated 2015 with the high-profile premiere of its flagship collection, Les Éléments, featuring a nude ad campaign featuring the brand's CEO (she represented the Cuir fragrance). Simultaneously, the Les Éléments Exclusifs series was released, featuring new compositions as well as reissues of the most popular launches of previous years. Les Feminins, Les Masculins, and Les Éléments Prestige were also launched at that time. In the following years, the brand gradually developed new collections, attracting attention with the launches of Habanita La Cologne (2016), Molinard de Molinard (2017; a reissue of the classic 1979 composition), and Nirmala (2017).
In 2019, Molinard celebrated its 170th anniversary with the release of Bel Air Eau de Toilette and also introduced the La Fraîcheur series of refreshing waters.
