The Galimard Studio des Fragrances celebrates 30 years in Grasse
Written on 11 July 2026
In 2026, our House of Perfume celebrates a special anniversary: that of an unmissable place in Grasse, the world capital of perfume. The Galimard Studio des Fragrances, our iconic bespoke fragrance-creation workshop, is celebrating its 30th anniversary. An opportunity to look back on its past, present and future.
A family story driven by a passion for Grasse and its expertise
First and foremost, the Galimard House of Perfume is a family story, driven by a passion for perfume and its expertise, for the Grasse region and the raw materials it offers us.
This family story began long before the Studio des Fragrances opened: in 1747, Jean de Galimard, Lord of Séranon, founded the House and became an official supplier of gloves and perfumes to the court of King Louis XV. Two centuries later, in the 1920s, Siméon Roux grew jasmine and orange blossom in Grasse; in 1950, his son Joseph Roux revived the historic brand by opening a boutique in a private mansion in Grasse. His son Jean-Pierre Roux continued this legacy with his sisters and developed the House by creating the Grasse Factory-Museum and then the Èze-Village factory.
This unwavering passion for perfume has always guided the management of the House. When the factory left the historic centre of Grasse to move to 73 Route de Cannes in 1980, tourism in the region was booming, and the Roux family did everything possible to share this passion with the many visitors arriving from all over the world. Guided tours were offered in several languages, allowing curious visitors to discover the fascinating world of perfumery and its behind-the-scenes work, before being introduced to the perfumes and related products created by the House and enjoying premium quality at factory prices.
The guided tour begins in the museum area, then continues through the production laboratory and the packaging department. Just before the boutique, visitors stop in front of the perfumer’s laboratory and its fragrance organ. This piece of furniture inspires wonder with its many bottles, whose contents and names are a mystery.
A visionary idea: making fragrance creation accessible to everyone
As the years passed, the number of visitors kept growing, as did the desire to show them even more of the wonderful world of perfume. It was then that CEO Jean-Pierre Roux shared a brilliant idea with the House’s perfumer, Jacques Maurel: “What if we made the art of creating perfume accessible to everyone?”
« Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. » (Victor Hugo)
The idea was born and began to take shape. Mr Maurel was given carte blanche to develop an original concept: creating a fragrance organ that would be, in a way, a miniature version of the perfumer’s own organ, with a sufficiently diverse palette of notes to allow thousands of original compositions, yet limited enough for everyone to discover fragrance creation in a playful way, without needing chemistry knowledge or spending too much time creating.
Mr Roux and Mr Maurel took their vision even further: each client’s formula would bear the name they had chosen and be recorded so it could be reordered endlessly. And while they were at it, why not also offer the possibility of recreating it as related cosmetic products?
From there, everything moved rather quickly. Mr Maurel studied the concept in detail, devised a preliminary scent test, then developed a range of notes organised by fragrance type and olfactory family: chypre, oriental, leather, woody, fougère, fruity, floral, and more. Five families for men, nine for women, three bottles of each note (base, heart and top) per family, plus one additional “unisex” vanilla base note. In all, 127 notes took their place on fragrance organs installed in a venue ideally located just a few hundred metres from the factory.
The icing on the cake: thanks to the multilingual Galimard team, fragrance workshops were offered in several languages – European languages, of course, but also Russian and Japanese!
1996: the opening of the Galimard Studio des Fragrances
In 1996, the Galimard Studio des Fragrances opened its doors, and a long and wonderful story began!
Would you like to enjoy this experience on your next stay in the region? Book your workshop at the Galimard Studio des Fragrances in Grasse and create your own bespoke perfume
From Grasse to Èze-Village and Paris: the reach of the Studio des Fragrances
Success came quickly, confirming Jean-Pierre Roux and Jacques Maurel’s intuition: making fragrance creation accessible to everyone was a visionary idea. A pioneer and leader in this field, the Galimard House of Perfume built on this success and, as early as 2007, opened a second, intimate Studio des Fragrances with six fragrance organs in the medieval setting of Èze-Village. The adventure then continued at Galimard Paris, where workshops have been offered since 2023, enabling an ever-wider audience to enjoy this unique experience.
Have you read this far? Congratulations – you have earned a little riddle: what do Boris Yeltsin, Louis Bodin (France’s weather presenter), Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls, and actors Goldie Hawn and Jean-Paul Belmondo have in common? You guessed it: they have all created their own perfume at the Galimard Studio des Fragrances, and the list is far from exhaustive!
The rest of this far-from-anecdotal list can be found in our article “Interview: Portrait of Jean-Pierre Roux”.
30 years of evolution: a House of Perfume that adapts
Over the years, and as we have seen in other articles, perfume is a field in constant evolution because it is subject to many factors: trends and customer expectations, of course, but also, more restrictively, changes in legislation and compliance with standards governing certain products. A raw material used only five years ago may be prohibited next year because of regulations relating to certain molecules. We must therefore always stay informed, adapt and respond.
At the Galimard Studio des Fragrances, this ability to adapt is one of the main driving forces. The 2026 fragrance organ is no longer quite the same as the one in 1996: many notes have been changed or replaced, and the workshop approach itself has been rethought and modernised.
Would you like to discover in detail which raw materials have joined the fragrance organ in recent years? Explore our selection in the article “New Fragrance Notes at Galimard”.
What has changed at the Studio des Fragrances
– The scent test has been removed, following advice and comments from our visitors.
– With the scent test removed, creators can smell all the base, heart and top notes. Our experts’ advice: smell them very spontaneously and briefly to avoid sensory saturation.
– The major innovation: the “masculine-feminine” classification has been discontinued. Labels have been changed so that only the olfactory pyramid is apparent, with no gender distinction.
– As a result, vanilla – then classified as “unisex” – found its place on the fragrance organ, which now contains 126 notes.
– The original label has been replaced with a more streamlined one.
– The design and size of the student perfumer diploma have been redesigned.
– The atomiser offered at the end of the workshop is refillable in order to reduce waste.
– Other workshop types have been added to the classic workshops: Signature, Studio No. 1, Heritage and more.
– A home fragrance diffuser has been added to the range of related products that can be reordered
What has not changed at the Studio des Fragrances
– The enthusiasm of our clients and their sense of wonder when they sit down in front of the fragrance organ.
– The quality, originality and diversity of the notes.
– The team’s ever-renewed pleasure in leading the workshops, because supporting clients is a privileged moment. Many clients return to create a different perfume every time they visit the region!
Thirty years of such a wonderful story also means a few figures. Let us start with the most impressive
232 000
the staggering number of creations made in Grasse and archived since the Galimard Studio des Fragrances opened in 1996! And by the time you read these lines, this number has already been surpassed!
126
the number of notes on the fragrance organ.
37
the number of fragrance organs available at the Galimard Studio des Fragrances in Grasse: 30 for so-called “classic” creations and 7 for private creations.
5
the number of related products clients can reorder from their formula: eau de parfum, perfume, body cream, shower gel and fragrance diffuser.
4
the number of languages officially offered on the workshop booking website (French, English, German and Italian). Yet we love the surprised smiles of Japanese, Dutch, Russian, Ukrainian, Portuguese or Korean clients who booked in English by default and arrive on a day when we can offer support in their own language thanks to the availability of the team present that day.
3
to finish on a high note and continue this wonderful story that began 30 years ago, we have saved the surprise for last! Building on our experience and driven by our attachment to our city, three fragrance organs have just been inaugurated in our boutique on Cours Honoré Cresp in Grasse, in the heart of the historic centre. There, you can enjoy the Studio No. 1 workshop or the Private Collection workshop
Enjoy the Galimard experience for yourself
Would you like to create a perfume that reflects who you are? Book your fragrance-creation workshop now at the Galimard Studio des Fragrances, in our medieval setting in Èze-Village, in Grasse – the capital of perfume – or at Galimard Paris, and leave with a bottle bearing your name.
A story cannot continue without those who bring it to life and help it evolve. And without you, our dear clients, this anniversary would not be possible.
We therefore thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your loyalty, your suggestions, your ideas and your enthusiasm… and invite you to join us for the next chapter in the history of the Galimard House of Perfume!
Frequently asked questions about the Galimard Studio des Fragrances
The historic Studio is located in Grasse, with a second, intimate space in Èze-Village since 2007 and workshops offered at Galimard Paris since 2023. Since 2026, a third space with three fragrance organs has also opened in the historic heart of Grasse, on Cours Honoré Cresp.
The fragrance organ at the Galimard Studio des Fragrances contains 126 notes, divided into base, heart and top notes, with no gender distinction.
More than 232,000 formulas have been created and archived in Grasse since 1996, and this number continues to grow every day.
Once the formula has been registered, each creator can reorder it as eau de parfum, perfume, body cream, shower gel or a home fragrance diffuser.
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