Portrait
Coralie Frébourg, founder of the Versatile Paris brand
Watching the cooking show Top Chef inspired Coralie Frébourg to create her own perfume brand: Versatile Paris. It's a brand that lives up to its name, with a collection of fragrances that can be changed according to mood, mood or time of day. Meet this passionate woman who is reinventing the way perfume is worn.
How did the desire to create your own perfume brand come about?
I graduated from the Ecole Supérieure du Parfum in 2019. In 2020, as I was finishing a CDD in marketing for a large luxury group, I thought I'd be hired on a permanent basis, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, hiring was frozen and I found myself unemployed. I hadn't planned to create my own brand, but after 6 months of waiting, I finally decided to put the skills I'd acquired in my previous professional experiences to good use and create my own brand - the gamble of a lifetime!
Why the name "Versatile"?
VERSATILE literally means a person who often changes his or her mind. I can claim to be a versatile person, being a native Pisces, so I spend my life being indecisive. As for the brand, we wanted a name that would resonate in France as well as internationally. This is also the brand's motto: to have a versatile collection of fragrances that you can change according to your mood of the day!
Can you tell us about the unique compositions of your fragrances?
Fun fact: what if I told you that the primary inspiration for our perfumes came from Top Chef? And yes, it was while watching this culinary show where each contestant is pushed to excel, surpass themselves and be creative that we said to ourselves"and why not in perfume?".
Let's not forget that the senses of smell and taste are intimately linked. Many brands choose to tell stories about the designer's origins or travels, far-fetched concepts... For us, none of that matters. Food, on the other hand, speaks to everyone.
Food is a moment of pleasure, of sharing, a convivial moment that feels good, and that's what we wanted for our perfume brand! (To) indulge. Our fragrances are therefore inspired by food (and beverages) such as Croissant Café a typical French breakfast with its buttered croissant and cappuccino, or Rital Date which pays homage to Italy with its original limoncello - pesto - toasted pistachio combination, or even Culot Thé with its blend of jasmine tea, apricot skin and wasabi.
"The sense of smell is our memory, we put it in a bottle and it works! Smells are addictive, they bring back memories to people, impactful smells, original but within everyone's reach."
What advice would you give us to help everyone find their own olfactory signature?
Free yourself from the clichés "flowers are for women, woods are for men". It's 2024, wear what you want, what will please you and make you feel good! We always recommend testing fragrances on the skin, as they are alcohol-free and formulated on a 100% natural oil base . After application and rubbing (the oil must be heated on the skin), the fragrance will reveal itself and adapt to each individual, as each skin is unique.
