Perfume house · Grasse, since 1921

ORRIS

One flower, cold-pressed at dawn, and eighteen quiet months in the cellar — a house built for slow mornings, late light, and a trail that stays close.

See the collection

The flacon is the house's compass.

Hand-poured lead-free crystal, weighted at the base so it sits like a stone, capped with a turned olive-wood stopper from the same valley as the harvest.

1921
Maison founded in Grasse
18
Months drying in the cellar

The garden keeps the formula honest.

Four hectares of iris, neroli and vetiver on the same terraces the house has picked by hand since the first harvest — no absolutes bought in.

Six expressions

The Collection

One orris base, six ways of standing next to it. Every bottle is filled, corked and numbered in the same room the flowers are dried in.

Orris Butter on the limestone kerb of the reflecting pool

Orris Butter

Velvety. Warm. Skin-close.

The intimacy of orris wrapped in soft woods and creamy musk.

  • Woody
  • Musky
  • Creamy
€185 · 50 ml Discover
Grasse-distilled on a dry-stone terrace wall above the pool

Grasse-distilled

Fresh. Powdery. Timeless.

Hand-distilled in Grasse for a pure, elegant floral heart.

  • Floral
  • Powdery
  • Green
€195 · 50 ml Discover
Extrait 22% on a limestone ledge above the terraces

Extrait 22%

Intense. Long-lasting. Rare.

A higher concentration for depth, longevity and quiet presence.

  • Intense
  • Woody
  • Resinous
€310 · 50 ml Discover
Bitter Peel beside a cut bitter orange on the pool kerb

Bitter Peel

Bright. Pithy. Lifted.

Bitter orange peel and petitgrain lift the orris into a clean, sunlit dryness.

  • Citrus
  • Aromatic
  • Bitter
€175 · 50 ml Discover
Orris Water at the head of the reflecting pool

Orris Water

Cool. Mineral. Clear.

Orris rests in cold spring water, with wet limestone and a faint saline edge.

  • Mineral
  • Aquatic
  • Saline
€165 · 50 ml Discover
Suede Accord on folded cloth with saffron threads

Suede Accord

Dry. Supple. Glowing.

Pale suede, saffron and apricot skin fold around the orris, leaving a soft, warm trail.

  • Leathery
  • Spiced
  • Fruity
€230 · 50 ml Discover

The palette

Five things, and water

Everything the house builds with is grown on the terraces or combed off them by hand. There is no sixth material and nothing is bought in.

Five raw materials laid in a row on one limestone slab
  1. A dried iris rhizome on limestone

    01 Iris Pallida

    Lifted in the third year

    Three years in the ground, eighteen months drying, and only then does it smell of anything.

  2. Orange blossom on limestone

    02 Neroli

    Picked before the heat

    Blossom off the bitter orange, distilled the same morning it comes down from the terrace.

  3. Ambrette seeds on limestone

    03 Ambrette

    Pressed cold

    The only musk in the house, and the reason nothing here needs a synthetic one.

  4. A bundle of vetiver roots on limestone

    04 Vetiver

    Washed, never bleached

    Roots from the lowest terrace, where the soil holds the water longest.

  5. A resin nugget on dried bark

    05 Labdanum

    Combed by hand

    Resin taken off the cistus leaves in the heat of the afternoon, a few grams at a time.

Two copper alembic stills in the distillery

The atelier

Two stills, one charge a day.

The room has not been re-plumbed since 1953. It limits how much the house can make, which is the point — the ceiling is set by the harvest, not by demand.

  1. 01

    Harvest

    Rhizomes are lifted in the third year, never the second.

  2. 02

    Drying

    Eighteen months on open trays in the cellar, turned by hand.

  3. 03

    Distillation

    Two copper alembics, one charge a day, no more.

  4. 04

    Maceration

    Six months in the dark before the first assay is drawn.

1921
Founded in Grasse
4
Hectares under iris
18
Months drying
2
Copper alembics

From the valley

Notes from the terraces

Visit

Maison Orris is not a real house. This page is a demonstration build — the address, the telephone number and the appointments are invented, and nothing on it can be bought or booked.

The maison is open by appointment.

Tuesday to Saturday, from nine until the light goes. Bring an hour; the tour ends at the pool and nobody has ever wanted to leave quickly.

Chemin du Vallon
06130 Grasse, France
+33 4 93 00 00 00