However, there are a couple of things to be considered when dealing with such a market: legal impediments, exotic business practices, unusual consumption habits and logistic tricks. Cosmetic products consumption varies from one region and another, with some unique local characteristics. Studies have shown that consumption is higher in the south than in the north, much higher on the east coast than in the western regions, and higher in cities than in the countryside.

China’s large market of hair care products is generally recognised to be approaching saturation, as many consumers have developed the purchase pattern of switching between several known brands, making it difficult for new brands to enter the market. While the market of skin care products is actually more receptive towards new brands, confronting domestic brands with foreign ones. According to surveys conducted by International Market Insight (IMI), “well known brand“, “right price” and “product feature” are the major considerations of consumers when buying skin care products. Skin care products cover products with special functions such as whitening, freckle removing, anti-wrinkle and moisturising.

The make-up market is expected to further increase thanks to the growing number of female workers in the business and other service sectors. Meanwhile, the moderate perfume market is rather small in scale and slowly growing because only a very limited number of mainland consumers use perfume, with most of them being light users.
Statistics about China’s beauty market.

According to the country’s first annual report on the beauty sector, recently released by four young Chinese economists He Fan, Ba Shusong, Zhong Wei and Zhao Xiao: Within 21 years, from 1983 to 2004, the sales volume of China’s beauty businesses has increased 260 times. With a 15 per cent annual growth, the beauty sector is turning into another huge money-maker after the boom in the real estate, auto, electronics and tourism sectors.

China is currently home to 1.54 million beauty parlors and nearly 3,800 cosmetic companies, and almost 8 million people are actually working in beauty-related businesses, plus another 4 million whose jobs are connected to the sector (2005 est.) A survey of five major cities in China: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Wuhan, shows that the most popular beauty items include SPAs, stone massages, Yoga, foot massages and nail treatments.

They are passionate individuals who venture out into still uncharted olfactory territory, on routes strewn with difficulties, like the path of an initiation to test their determination. And the results inevitably match their efforts with new creations that amaze and astonish the senses.

Mona Di Orio (Mona Di Orio in Parisian boutiques By Terry) travelled for fifteen years in the shadow of Edmond Roudnitska.

Today she creates her first compositions starting from exceptional ingredients.

In Etat Libre d’Orange we find subversive creations… with evocative names like Putain des Palaces (Hotel Slut), Sécrétions Magnifiques (Magnificent Secretions), or Real Blond… or the latest Vierges & Toreros! Quite a programme…

Perfume is dead, long live perfume! To obtain a truly original product Etat Libre d’Orange gave free rein to imagination: this is the rule Etat Libre d’Orange and its associated noses are committed to. With Etat Libre d’Orange, perfumers are hence freed from censure and have found a subversive and playful territory of expression where personal fantasy has the upper hand on marketing concepts. As if it were a return to the quintessence of perfume, to its raw animality, to its erotic energy, to the power of evoking the body and its urges.

What a way to shock sensitive souls!

This is how the creator describes some of his fragrances: « S is like sanguine, sweat, sperm, and saliva. A true olfactory intercourse, Sécrétions Magnifiques (Magnificent Secretions) takes us to the highest orgasm, to the instant that desire triumphs over reason.

For Putain de Palaces (Hotel Slut), it’s the absolute fantasy: What woman has not a Putain des Palaces lying dormant—or not—within her? Composition : Absolu Rose, violette, cuir, muguet, mandarine, gingembre, poudre de riz, ambre, notes animales…

With Vierge et Torero we are in Andalusia, a land dominated by fascinating and proud masculinity… Wood, musk and costus, in daring, unreasonably abundant proportions, would once and for all bite the dust in this arena dedicated solely to the glory of men.

Jasmin et Cigarette expresses the Gainsbourg type of elegance, the woman of the 80’s, smoky with Gitanes, claiming her eroticism, etc. ».

But the talented Etienne de Swardt declares her simple wish to satisfy a passion without a particular expectation… and, mostly, without an eye to profits.

These fragrances subvert the codes of perfumery and offer us a veritable recreation on the theme of the prohibited.

Stéphanie de Saint-Aignan’s creations are accompanied by a graceful text that tells us a story, that of the perfume.

Suzanne Lang travels the planet to bring us her rare and original essential oils.

Thank you to the precursors of this niche perfumery, like Serge Lutens and Frédéric Malle, and welcome to the new pioneers of perfume, crazy or passionate, who have decided to turn upside down yesterday’s parameters to offer us, hopefully, what will be tomorrow’s perfumery.

This is a perfumery in which creativity and noble ingredients are preserved, while perfumers apply the best of their talents and live their adventure fully.

A true declaration of independence, so… perfume lovers be warned!

Do we need to be reminded that a fragrance is the encounter between a scent and a person?

« Perfume is a vehicle for who we are », explains Francis Kurdjian, a talented nose of our times and creator of the label Indult (3 fragrances produced in 999 copies, a perfect luscious rose, a concentrate of patchouli and jasmine, and a highly refined infusion of vanilla)
So… breathe in, smell, but, mostly, dare…