Our Maison
A FAMILY HISTORY: THE HERITAGE OF THE AVANT-GARDE
Le Jardin Retrouvé is a timeless, independent, artisanal, family-owned House of Fine Fragrance that has inherited the avant-garde.
In 1975, Yuri Gutsatz, a renowned master perfumer, rejected the constraints of traditional perfumery dominated by marketing and became the first perfumer to found his own House.
In 2016, Clara and Michel Gutsatz boldly reinvented Le Jardin Retrouvé, with a decidedly eco-responsible and digital approach, while retaining Yuri's delicate formulas and historical suppliers.
A troubling family coincidence
Yuri's father, David Gutsatz, was a chemical engineer in Saint Petersburg and, far from his son in France, worked on many of the synthetic ingredients essential to modern perfumery. Much later, Yuri learned that father and son - each without knowing what the other was doing - were at the same time contributing to the perfumery they loved so much, one in synthetic ingredients, the other in the construction of a new vision of the art of perfume !
A precious legacy...
Yuri left us his thousands of laboratory tests, his formulas since 1935, his involvement in the French Perfumers' Society, of which he was vice-president, and his participation in the creation of the Osmothèque (Conservatory of the perfumes of the past).
... and poetry
We also owe him an extraordinary volume of notes, as well as hundreds of poems about Russia and perfume, all preserved by his wife Arlette. It is thanks to her that we have inherited them and that we can share this treasure with you today.
An exceptional meeting
In 2016, perfumer Maxence Moutte joined the team to recreate the Yuri formulas, staying as close as possible to their composition. He met Clara and Michel at a wedding, where he expressed his admiration for Yuri's work. Thanks to this meeting, the perfumes were revived and a friendship was born. Maxence made his first creation for Le Jardin Retrouvé in 2018: the fragrance for the House of Mousse Arashiyama, followed by his skin scent in 2021, and another fragrance for the house, Osmanthe Liu Yuan.
Maturation time
Ingredients such as Bulgarian Rose or Haitian Vetiver are weighed according to the Perfumer's formula and mixed in an aluminium pot, in which they mature for some time. This maturation determines the degree of subtlety and harmonious balance of a perfume. The standard perfume industry usually allows around one week for maturation. Following Yuri's protocol, our maturation time is three weeks to ensure greater finesse.
Maceration time
Maceration takes place when the concentrate obtained from the maturation process is mixed with (organic) alcohol to create the perfume as it will be sold later. Perfume industry standards are usually around a few days for maceration, but Yuri was convinced that the optimal time was three weeks.
Road to Clean
In 2021, we decided to go beyond what was recommended by the regulatory authorities of the profession and eliminate all ingredients that could be harmful to health or to the planet. Our challenge was to maintain the same olfactory beauty that has made Le Jardin Retrouvé's reputation, while remaining true to our founder's legacy.
We replaced the traditional alcohol with organic alcohol
We got rid of three ingredients: one of them was not biodegradable , one was a potential endocrine disruptor and another, a potential allergen.
After numerous trials - 1 for Sandalwood Sacré! - and with the welcome help of Givaudan, Maxence Moutte met the challenge: the fragrances now shine as they did in the past, and the levels of natural ingredients all fragrances are now between 90 and 99%.
Victoires de la Beauté Clean 2022 : our Fragrances are winners!
We are very proud to be a winner of les Victoires de la Beauté 2021/2022 in the Clean category, for our whole fragrance range!
The one and only award testing the products blindly between 2 to 16 weeks.
A French reward for international competitors!
Art at the heart of our identity
Art is at the heart of the Jardin Retrouvé family identity. Beyond our founder, Yuri Gutsatz, a poet as well as a perfumer, there was his wife Arlette, a tireless designer of fabric patterns and creator of the brand's very first logo.
Clara, Arlette and Yuri's daughter-in-law, is also an international artist and a well-known author (under the name Virginie Michelet). It is thanks to her that each perfume is embodied by a garden, with its own visual, its video, its invented story. She has also designed an installation, a real multimedia olfactory journey, making the purchase of a perfume an artistic and multi-sensory moment.
Finally, as Creative Director, Clara has been infusing the brand with her ideas around enchantment and gardens since 2016, and leads collaborations with artists.
©Sébastiennotre
2021: a new identity
In 2021, centdegrés the design and brand identity agency, inspired by the roots of our Maison, created our new brand identity.
Our logo and symbol refer to the Enchanted Garden, its gateway and the water that springs forth to give life.
Our crafted glass bottles also represent the gates of the Garden, with the added bonus of the symbol on the bakelite cap, a sign of durability.
The illustrations on the secondary packs and on one side of the bottles were created by the centdegrés team for three of them and by the Jardin Retrouvé team for the other nine.