French Perfume Brands

Circana's Mathilde Lion describes a market that gains value through premiumisation: higher concentrations and bottles at the top of the price range grow fastest, while body sprays do well at the other end of the shelf. Gifting keeps its own calendar. Valentine's Day and Black Friday hold up better than Christmas, Mother's Day and Father's Day, a pattern Lion calls specific to France.

Where people buy is changing. Most beauty is still bought in shops, but e-commerce has been gaining ground fast, and pharmacies and single-brand chains are growing in importance. France still sells far less online than Britain, Lion says.

Abroad, French perfume keeps winning. Perfume exports have more than doubled in six years, FEBEA says, and perfume is the country's second-largest cosmetics export.

Grasse, in Provence, is still home to the raw materials. Roses, jasmine and bitter orange blossom are grown nearby for distillation into perfume materials, and Britannica notes that perfume dominates the local economy, with multinational groups behind most of it.