Let’s start from the beginning! Tell us a little about the journey that led you to where you are now.

My path to Maison Louis Marie wasn’t exactly a straight line. I started my career in fashion in Paris before moving to Los Angeles, where I focused on my work as an artist and had a little studio in Echo Park. I began making candles at home as a hobby and would give them to friends. The response was so good that what started as a creative project gradually became something more.

The inspiration was also very personal. I grew up surrounded by plants and flowers, and my family has a long botanical history. My great-great-great-grandfather, Louis Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars, was a pioneering French botanist. That connection to nature, along with my background in art and fashion, ultimately became the foundation for Maison Louis Marie.

Maison Louis Marie launched with six signature scents inspired by your family’s rich botanical heritage. How have those original fragrances continued to ground and shape the brand’s assortment today?

Those original fragrances really established my olfactive language for Maison Louis Marie. They were rooted in botanicals and built around scents I naturally gravitated toward, particularly woods, florals and earthy notes. That same sensibility still guides everything we create today.

No.04 Bois de Balincourt in particular has become such an important part of the brand, but I love that the original collection still feels relevant alongside everything we’ve introduced since. As we grow, I always want a new fragrance to feel like it belongs in the same world, even when it explores something completely new.

Fragrance has the power to transport us to another time or place and become part of our own personal stories. When crafting a new scent, what comes first: the story, the emotion, the memory, or the fragrance itself?

It really depends on the fragrance. Sometimes it begins with a memory or a place, and other times I become obsessed with a particular ingredient and build from there. I tend to think very visually, so even when I start with a specific note, I’m usually imagining the atmosphere around it, the colors, the landscape and how I want it to make you feel.

For me, the best fragrances eventually become their own little worlds. I love that someone can wear one of our scents and create an entirely different memory or association with it than the one that originally inspired me.

Sustainability is clearly a core pillar of Maison Louis Marie, from your use of clean, naturally derived ingredients and recycled packaging to your longstanding partnerships with environmental nonprofits. How does sustainability influence the brand’s decisions, and what commitments are you most proud of?

Sustainability has been part of Maison Louis Marie from the beginning, and as we’ve grown, we’ve tried to become more thoughtful about the impact of every decision we make. It influences everything from our formulations and packaging to the partners and suppliers we choose to work with.

I’m especially proud to be a member of 1% for the Planet, which holds us accountable to donating 1% of our annual sales to environmental nonprofits. We’ve had a longstanding partnership with the National Forest Foundation, and through our donations we now help plant more than 10,000 trees every month. We’re also Climate Neutral Certified and have expanded our support to organizations including TreePeople here in Los Angeles, Pact, the National Park Foundation and Planet Haus. There is always more work to do, but I’m proud that our environmental commitments have continued to grow alongside the brand.

How would you describe the relationship between fragrance and interiors? How can we incorporate this connection into our own homes?

I think fragrance is such an important part of an interior because it creates atmosphere in a way you can’t see. We spend so much time thinking about furniture, art, lighting and the objects we surround ourselves with, but scent can completely change how a room feels.
I love using fragrance almost as another layer of a space. A candle or diffuser can make a room feel warmer and more intimate, or fresh and open depending on the scent. And over time, those fragrances become connected to our homes and our memories of them, which I think is really beautiful.

Tell us what a typical day-in-the-life looks like for you.

My mornings are actually pretty consistent. I start at home with my family and getting our son off to school, and then I go for a run every morning. It really grounds me and gives me a little time to clear my head before the workday starts.

Once I get to the office, no two days are exactly the same. My day can include anything from developing a new fragrance or product formulation to working on packaging, reviewing creative and meeting with our team. I also try to make time for my ceramics studio, which has become another creative outlet for me outside of Maison Louis Marie. With a fourth grader at home, our evenings tend to keep us on a pretty normal schedule, which I actually really appreciate. I love ending the day back at home, having dinner together and stepping away from work for a bit.

How do you seek to incorporate balance in your life?

I think balance for me comes from making sure there are parts of my life that have nothing to do with work. Running is really important to me because it clears my head, and ceramics gives me a creative outlet where there isn’t the same pressure or expectation that comes with creating for the brand. I also love to cook, especially for my family and friends. It’s another way for me to be creative but also completely switch off from work.

Most importantly, spending time with my family keeps everything in perspective. I love my work and I’m always thinking creatively, but I’ve learned how important it is to have time when I’m simply present at home.

Looking ahead, what’s next for Maison Louis Marie? What impact are you most proud of, and where do you hope to grow?

I’m excited to continue expanding the world of Maison Louis Marie beyond fragrance while staying true to what has always made the brand feel like us. We’ve been exploring new product categories, and opening our Silver Lake flagship gave us the opportunity to bring the brand to life in a much more immersive way. We designed it to feel more like an apartment than a traditional store, bringing together fragrance, art, objects and interiors in a way that really reflects how I see the brand.

As we grow, I want to continue doing it thoughtfully, both creatively and environmentally. I’m incredibly proud that we’ve built an independent brand with such a strong point of view, while also being able to increase the impact of our environmental commitments along the way. I hope we can keep growing without ever losing that sense of intimacy and discovery that was there from the beginning.

Favorite place to visit to spark inspiration?

The Geffen Contemporary or an art bookstore.

Colors or neutrals?

Color for clothing, neutrals for home.

Most nostalgic scent from childhood?

Peeling a mandarin at school.

One product that’s always in your bag?

My Goop lip gloss.

Favorite space in your home?

My bed.