Binet Papillon
17th-century French perfumery, organic and small-batch.
Binet-Papillon draws on two distinct lineages. The Binet family name traces to Sylvestre Binet, a master perfumer working in Paris in the eighteenth century, whose forebears served the court of Louis XIV. The Papillon element enters through founder Virginie Choné, a Paris-born marketeer who worked in Guerlain's French marketing division before turning to independent perfumery. Together they constitute a house that is at once genuinely old-rooted and freshly conceived. Choné formulates the compositions in Grasse using organic wheat alcohol and ingredients that are more than ninety percent natural and eighty-four percent certified organic — an unusually high bar for a house at this price tier. The aesthetic navigates between classical French perfumery references and contemporary minimalism, with each fragrance numbered rather than named, allowing the compositions to be encountered without genre preconceptions. Binet-Papillon occupies the growing niche for small-batch, ethically sourced French perfumery that can speak with architectural credibility about its history and materials. The combination of legitimate historical heritage, Grasse production, and clean formulation gives it a rare trifecta of authenticity claims in a market crowded with invented backstories.
DNA over time
Each column is an era. Each colored band shows that family’s share of accord weight across every perfume the house released in that window. Bigger band = the house leaned harder on that family.
