Quick answers
History of the house
Maison Crivelli was founded in 2018 in Paris (France) by Thibaud Crivelli, a French entrepreneur born in Paris and raised between central France and Provence. From 2006 onward, Crivelli spent close to ten years living in China and across several Asian countries, an itinerary that shaped his attention to raw materials and his appetite for sensory memory.
The founder's family background, recounted in published interviews, draws on a layered geography. A mother born in Morocco, a grandmother raised in Vietnam, a grandfather who passed through Lebanon, and Italian roots tied to the Crivelli name compose a multicultural lineage that the house has framed as a source of olfactory curiosity. The biographical narrative, repeated across Twisted Lily, a specialist perfume site and the official site, supports the editorial reading of the brand as a perfumed travel diary rather than a Parisian heritage exercise.
The house launched in 2018 with four opening perfumes: Rose Saltifolia, Bois Datchai, Santal Volcanique and Fleur Diamantine. The four releases set the editorial principle of the house. Each composition starts from a precise sensory experience lived by Thibaud Crivelli, then passed to a guest perfumer chosen for the brief. The first releases were composed in collaboration with Bertrand Duchaufour, Nathalie Feisthauer, Dorothee Piot and Quentin Bisch.
The catalogue then expanded at a measured pace of a few releases per year. Absinthe Boreale, composed by Nathalie Feisthauer, arrived in 2019. Hibiscus Mahajad was released in 2021. Tubereuse Astrale, signed by Quentin Bisch, translated a memory of tuberose blossoms observed under the Milky Way. Additional compositions, including Papyrus Moleculaire, Iris Malikhan, Osmanthe Kodoshan, Citrus Batikanga and Lys Solaberg, progressively enriched the offer.
Olfactory signature
Maison Crivelli writes a contemporary sensorial signature structured around narrative compositions. Each perfume begins from a scene lived by Thibaud Crivelli: an absinthe tasting under northern light, sandalwood burning on the slopes of an active volcano, a walk through a rose field swept by sea wind. The scene is then handed to a guest perfumer chosen for the central material and the contrast at stake.
The house works on a consistent principle of unexpected accords. The signature material named in the title meets a counter-accord: rose paired with a marine note, sandalwood paired with a volcanic warmth, tuberose paired with a cosmic freshness. The result is a recognizable olfactory grammar built on the tension between a classical material and a contemporary twist. The writing favors transparency and spatial depth over heavy concentration, and aligns with the broader contemporary French perfumery sensibility of the late 2010s.
Raw-material sourcing is a stated axis of the house. Thibaud Crivelli has reported visits to vetiver and patchouli plantations in Indonesia, and the brand communicates on its preference for durable agricultural practices, including soil preservation, the avoidance of synthetic chemical fertilizers and traceable quality control. The narrative is part of the wider movement of French independent houses that integrate sourcing as an editorial argument rather than a back-office function.
A contemporary French niche house written as an olfactory travel diary, with each perfume confiding a personal memory to a different invited perfumer.
Key characteristics
The collections
At Maison Crivelli, the collections are not a filing system but the very concept of the house: Thibaud Crivelli structures his catalogue by type of olfactory encounter, each family staging a different way of stepping into a fragrance. Shock, escape, mystery and experience name as many sensory states the house pursues, and it is this grammar of emotions, more than any olfactory family, that organises how the catalogue reads. Every line extends the founding principle: a precise memory entrusted to an invited perfumer.
Olfactory Shocks
Olfactory Shocks stage the abrupt encounter, the perfume that seizes you from the first inhalation. The house builds unexpected contrasts here, where the signature material confronts a powerful counter-accord with no transition and no cushioning. Oud Maracujá, oud struck by the tart brightness of passion fruit, captures exactly this intended collision and has become one of the house's emblems. Bois Datchai (2018), a spicy woody composition with berries, and Cuir Infrarouge extend the same logic of immediate tension. It is the family that carries the boldest side of Maison Crivelli's identity.
Olfactory Escapes
Olfactory Escapes stage the encounter with elsewhere, organised around oud and musks, two materials the house now declines into distinct sub-lines. Each perfume works a single material in several directions, like the successive stages of an itinerary. Oud Cadenza on the oud side and Musc Nurāsana on the musk side show how one material can become both landscape and movement. The collection carries Thibaud Crivelli's olfactory travel-diary instinct, attached to the climates and cultures he crossed in Asia.
Olfactory Mysteries
Olfactory Mysteries stage the encounter that withholds itself, the deep, enigmatic composition charged with tension. These perfumes unfold slowly and reward patience, playing on shadow, ambiguity and chiaroscuro rather than frontal impact. Safran Secret, an emblematic house creation, illustrates this restrained register where the material advances masked. It is the most introspective side of the catalogue, the opposite of the immediate shock.
Olfactory Experiences
Olfactory Experiences stage the total encounter, where the fragrance deploys the full range of multi-sensory storytelling the house holds dear, weaving together atmosphere, memory and material. Presented as extraits de parfum, this collection pushes Maison Crivelli's narrative principle to its most accomplished and most concentrated form. Tubereuse Astrale (2024), entrusted to Quentin Bisch, shows the ambition: a tuberose projected into a cosmic freshness. It is the tier where the house commits its densest writing.
Notable perfumes
The Maison Crivelli catalogue is composed in collaboration with several perfumers selected project by project. The seven reference compositions below are drawn from the maison's published catalogue, with perfumer attribution kept only when confirmed.
| Year | Perfume | Perfumer | Olfactory family |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Rose Saltifolia | Invited perfumer | Floral marine rose |
| 2018 | Bois Datchai | Invited perfumer | Woody spicy berries |
| 2018 | Santal Volcanique | Invited perfumer | Woody smoky sandalwood |
| 2018 | Fleur Diamantine | Invited perfumer | Luminous white floral |
| 2019 | Absinthe Boreale | Nathalie Feisthauer | Aromatic green anise |
| 2021 | Hibiscus Mahajad | Invited perfumer | Floral rose vanilla |
| 2024 | Tubereuse Astrale | Quentin Bisch | White floral tuberose |
The house today
In May 2026, Maison Crivelli operates a flagship boutique at 314 rue Saint-Honore in Paris (France), a stretch of the right bank now identified as a hub of contemporary luxury perfumery, alongside Creed and Acqua di Parma. The house is also distributed through Galeries Lafayette and La Samaritaine in Paris, and through a selective network of niche perfumeries internationally.
As of the last update of this page, no acquisition by a luxury group is publicly documented. Maison Crivelli is presented as an independent house, still directed by its founder Thibaud Crivelli, with a catalogue that grows at a rhythm of a few launches per year and outside any industrial seasonal logic. The commercial proposition pairs the boutique flagship with selective wholesale distribution, in line with the broader independent niche model of the Paris scene.
The house positions itself within the contemporary French niche perfumery segment that emerged in the 2010s alongside Nicolai, Le Galion redux and a wave of founder-driven projects. Its distinctive feature within that segment is the consistency of the collaborative model, where the creative direction stays with Thibaud Crivelli while the technical composition rotates across a small circle of trusted perfumers, a structure comparable in spirit to the editorial model of Editions de Parfums Frederic Malle.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Maison Crivelli: official site (accessed 23 May 2026)
- Fragrantica: Maison Crivelli designer page (accessed 23 May 2026)
- Parfumo: Maison Crivelli brand page (accessed 23 May 2026)
- Wikiparfum: Maison Crivelli brand page (accessed 23 May 2026)
- The Perfume Society: Maison Crivelli house profile (accessed 23 May 2026)
- Twisted Lily: interview with Thibaud Crivelli (accessed 23 May 2026)