Bourbon French Parfums
New Orleans' oldest perfumery, since 1843.
Bourbon French Parfums is the oldest continuously operating perfumery in North America, founded in 1843 by August Doussan in the Vieux Carré of New Orleans. Doussan, recently arrived from France, set up shop on Bourbon Street and began composing fragrances for the city's wealthier households; one of his earliest creations, Kus Kus, is still in the catalogue today. Ownership has changed hands across the generations — from Doussan to Marguerite Caro, then to her granddaughter Alessandra Crain, and since 1991 to Mary Eleftorea Behlar — but the house has stayed within the French Quarter and continues to compound each formula by hand in small batches. Custom-blended scents remain part of the work. The house feels less like a contemporary brand than a working remnant of nineteenth-century American perfumery: Creole florals, vanillas, and powdery classics, made on the premises.
Releases
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.
