Voyages Imaginaires: niche perfumes as journeys of discovery

Before the destination, there is the path, the dream of arrival, a transcendent and personal exploration. A getaway, whether real or fanciful, always entails a journey. Journeys can lead us to new and exciting places, but they can also take us to the intimate spaces of our personal experience. In this spirit, Voyages Imaginaires conceives each transportive niche perfume as an ‘olfactory head trip’, a sensory journey, a sojourn in the soul.

The fragrant creations at Voyages Imaginaires are skin-thin voyages reminiscent of something familiar even as they bring us into virgin lands. To smell them is to embark on an expedition through magnified matter, a pilgrimage to a land of sublimated memory, a trip through a dreamscape – anything is possible as long as your imagination is free and you allow the trail to carry you.

Fragrant journeys to the countryside of the soul

Voyages Imaginaires fragrances are created in complete freedom. The all natural niche perfumes invite us to see new horizons and to re-enchant life with poetry, daring and whim. They offer us an immobile voyage through time and through space, through the past and the future, into dream and reality and between body and soul. By showing us the ultimate change of scenery, they dare us to pass through the looking glass and travel towards our inner worlds, unlock our subconscious, our desires, the lost paradises of childhood, and rediscover the source of our inspiration.

Niche perfume creators with an impressive resumé

Voyages Imaginaires is a collaboration between world renowned perfumer Isabelle Doyen and Camille Goutal, daughter of the legendary Annick Goutal. In 1985, fresh out of the ISIPCA perfumery school, Isabelle Doyen became collaborator and confidant of Annick Goutal, eventually designing 39 perfumes for the house as the brand’s head perfumer. Later she became a professor at ISIPCA where she taught a number of perfumers including Francis Kurkdjian and Mathilde Laurent. Some of her most successful creations include L’Antimatière and Turtle Vetiver for Les Nez, Nuit de Bakélite for Naomi Goodsir, and Ce Soir ou Jamais designed together with Annick Goutal.

In 1999, when Annick Goutal’s health was in decline, she asked Isabelle to take her daughter Camille under her wing and train her in the perfume lab. Isabelle soon learned that Camille inherited her mother’s aesthetic and artistic sensitivity. A dedication to quality and honesty bound them together as they forged ahead in the changing Goutal brand. Together Camille and Isabelle created many perfumes for thel brand including Songes, Mon Parfum Chéri and Ambre Fétiche.

As the Annick Goutal brand began to depart from its niche perfume origins, Isabelle and Camille decided to embark on a new project that would embody the authenticity and spontaneity of the Annick Goutal legacy. Voyages Imaginaires, a brand born of their mutual love of travel, would draw inspiration from all corners of this fragrant world. In Voyages Imaginaires, niche perfumery would be a sensory journey – equal parts personal and beautiful.

The winning combination of experienced nose and perfume royalty DNA has given Voyages Imaginaires the sense of professionalism, and aesthetic sophistication you would expect from the most established big name brands. Camille’s background in decoration and studio photography was the perfect compliment to her olfactive training. Using “all her senses at once”, Camille has a distinctively visual approach to creation and has overseen the artistic direction of Voyages Imaginaires, from caps and labels to boxes and bottles. All photographs used throughout the brand are hers.

All natural niche perfumes from France

Sustainable perfumery is another shared vision at Voyages Imaginaires. All perfumes are 100% natural. Here luxury is the dedication to produce high quality items using only natural essences and molecules, which are often 100% more expensive than synthetic molecules. Not only do Voyages Imaginaires perfumes offer an environmentally friendly alternative to synthetics, they offer a naturally luxurious niche perfume style that is a unique song on each person’s skin – a melody that evolves and changes throughout the day.

The complex route of reinventing creation using a restricted palette and shunning the ever-present molecules of modern perfumery, as well as using 100% organic wheat alcohol, makes Voyages Imaginaires akin to Haute Couture in perfume form.

Niche perfume for the planet: environmentally friendly bottles

Voyages Imaginaires bottles are rectangular 75ml vaporizers of translucent glass. Their pure lines are classically faceted with a thick base and they are refillable. A poetic touch, the white label reveals a surprise on its flip side: a photo taken by Camille on her journeys delicately appears through the crystalline liquid of the bottle.