Upon opening in 1885, Les Bains Guerbois was Paris’s first spa and offered an unprecedented variety of massages, steam baths and treatments. The original plaque remains in place over the entrance to what subsequently became Les Bains Douches, one of the world’s hippest nightclubs around. Now in its third reincarnation as a luxury boutique hotel and celebrating its first birthday, owner Jean-Pierre Marois has teamed up with master perfumer Michel Almairac to create a complex and subversive unisex cologne.
The first of its kind, the Les Bains Guerbois cologne seeks to embody the spirit of the hotel and the myth of its past. ’We had a lot of fun creating it,’ says Marois of the process with Almairac. ’Michel had carte-blanche with just me to please.’
L’Eau de Cologne lures you in with warm ginger and cardamom top notes, followed by a patchouli, cedar and papyrus heart before drying down to a sultry finish of musk, amber and Frankincense. The intensity of the components make the scent linger much longer than a classic splash-on scent. The retro cut-crystal flacon is evocative of the bathhouse era, while the stopper features the facade’s stone Bacchus emblazoned atop.
The new cologne joins the ranks of the property’s signature candle, created by nose Dorothée Piot on the occasion of the hotel’s opening. The Atmosphère candle has the same top notes as the cologne, brightened by a nuance of violet before melding into wild leather, Frankincense and Tonka Bean. It comes in a hand-engraved Limoges porcelain holder for a hint of debauchery.
Both the cologne and candle will feature in an exhibition entitled ‘PARIS!’ at local Bon Marché department store between 1 September and 15 October, to further celebrate the city’s home-grown talent and products.
