Les Eaux Primordiales
Founded in northern France in 2015, a fragrance house shaped by science, art and local craft.
France
About Les Eaux Primordiales
Les Eaux Primordiales is a French fragrance house founded by Arnaud Poulain in 2015. Based near Arras in northern France, it connects the creation of perfume with the working traditions and industrial history of the region where its founder grew up.
History
Poulain studied mechanical engineering before discovering perfumery in 2007 and training with Amélie Bourgeois, who became his mentor and long-term collaborator. In 2021 he acquired a château in Acq that he had watched from across the road while selling vegetables with his grandfather as a child. Set in a fourteen-hectare wooded estate, Domaine Primordial became the setting for the house's workshop and its continuing work in the region.
Philosophy and Signature Style
The name comes from Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and refers to primordial waters associated with the beginnings of life. Science, art and northern France's industrial heritage inform the house's visual and creative world. Its workshop manages the stages from the receipt of fragrance concentrate through maturation, maceration and bottling, bringing attention to the physical production of each perfume.
Notable Fragrances
Couleur Primaire and Ambre Superfluide are among the perfumes Poulain has singled out for his personal attachment to them. Elevation, created to celebrate ten years of work, draws on pear from Couleur Primaire, sesame from Ambre Superfluide, and woody, spicy vanilla from Rose Supercritique, bringing elements of earlier creations into a new composition.
