A French brand is shaking up the codes of perfumery. Low prices, constant renewal and local manufacturing: a portrait of unexpected success.
Low prices, gourmet scents and colorful vials: a French brand is reinventing perfume in its own way. Born in train stations, compared today to a “Zara of perfume”, it is seducing a whole new generation. And seeing teenage girls putting on perfume as we try on outfits, it’s hard not to smile… or to resist trying one too.
“My mother wears Chanel, I change according to my mood.“In this sentence slipped between two customers at the Gare de Lyon, everything is said. For the youngest, perfume is no longer a fixed luxury, but an everyday accessory, to be collected. Where their mothers defended “their” fragrance as an identity signature, girls now juggle between gourmet scents, floral or vanilla notes, depending on the mood of the day. This new relationship with perfume, joyful and uninhibited, tells a lot about the generation’s relationship to femininity and freedom.
With a bottle sold every second, Adopt has invented a form of fast fashion in perfume: twenty new creations per year, all at low prices (€11.95 for 30 ml). A model reminiscent of Zara in ready-to-wear – accessible, fun, constantly renewed – but which remains entirely made in France, in the Loiret. Its CEO, Frédéric Stoeckel, formerly of Lancôme, wanted to shake up the codes of a market that had remained frozen for a long time. “We invest everything in the juice, not in the muse or the case“, he repeats in an interview with Le Parisien. Result: the brand is climbing at record speed and is now aiming for the top 3 in France alongside Sephora and Nocibé.
Many women aged 40–60 are rediscovering, thanks to Adopt, the simple pleasure of varying scents, of wearing several, of breaking away from the myth of “the one perfume for a lifetime”. Some have fun stealing their daughter’s “Coco Mango” or “Dreams”, others offer these bottles to their granddaughters as a first beauty gesture. It’s a reverse transmission: the novelty comes from the youngest, but reactivates a desire for play and spontaneity among their elders.
At a time when large bottles sometimes exceed €150, these small perfumes remind us that luxury is not only in the price, but in the use. Formulated in high-end, refillable and recyclable composition houses, they combine sensory pleasure, ecological consistency and accessibility – a unique equation in French perfumery.
Ultimately, whether you choose a Chanel N°5 or a Wonderful, it’s all a matter of emotion. In a world saturated with images, these smells become a discreet link between generations: they create a conversation between mothers and daughters around this small gesture that says so much. Perfume remains an affirmation of oneself – simply, its codes have changed.
