In its essence, Spir­i­tum Paris is a per­fumery house inspired by the spir­i­tu­al realm. It’s an expres­sion of numerol­o­gy through curat­ed scents — with fra­grances such as ‘Solar Soul’, ‘Astral Twin’ and ‘Mys­tic War­rior’

Jonathan Dufour, the founder and artis­tic direc­tor of Spir­i­tum Paris, grew up in Lille in the North of France. He became the French direc­tor of Memo Paris, a Parisian fra­grance house that imag­ines per­fumes as trav­el des­ti­na­tions, cre­at­ing an olfac­to­ry world map. He launched his brand two years ago fol­low­ing a shaman­ic retreat in Peru.

When enter­ing his shop, vis­i­tors step into a world of celes­tial dark­ness. They gaze upon the black walls and black ceil­ing, beset with twin­kling lights rem­i­nis­cent of stars. Potent aro­mas fill the room, while med­i­ta­tive hand-pan music sounds in the back­ground.

How did a spiritual retreat in Peru inspire Spiritum Paris?

Jonathan D.: I went on a shaman­ic retreat in Peru, with ayahuas­ca. It is a sacred plant that you take with shamans. When the shaman sings, you go into a trance for six hours. A spir­i­tu­al retreat with ayahuas­ca is very deep, where you trans­form and heal your soul.

Some­one asked me my birth­day and gave me my life path num­ber. My life path num­ber is one. One is the num­ber of ambi­tion — leader, cre­ator, entre­pre­neur. This was the big moment of my life that helped me and gave me the cre­ativ­i­ty to cre­ate my brand. I learned the sig­ni­fi­ca­tion of all the num­bers. I let my cre­ativ­i­ty put scents to all the num­bers, and I devel­oped olfac­tive scents.

My brand, It’s not for every­one. It’s for peo­ple in spir­i­tu­al awak­en­ing.

How does your brand embrace numerology?

Jonathan D.: Two years ago, I launched my brand with a col­lec­tion of nine per­fumes inspired by the nine num­bers of numerol­o­gy — nine life path num­bers. My mis­sion when I launched was just to give peo­ple their life path num­ber.

For exam­ple, num­ber one is the num­ber of ambi­tion. Num­ber two is the num­ber of intu­ition. Three: har­mo­ny and com­mu­ni­ca­tion, four: real­iza­tion, five: pro­tec­tion. As such, I put a spe­cial ener­gy in all my per­fumes to con­nect with the per­son. This is my mis­sion with Spir­i­tum Paris. It’s to make oth­ers’ life mis­sion known, to trust in it and fol­low their des­tiny.

A memorable story about the creation of your favorite fragrance?

Jonathan D.: For the open­ing of the shop, I launched ‘Shaman­ism’. ‘Shaman­ism’ rep­re­sents the olfac­tive mem­o­ry of my first shaman­ic cer­e­mo­ny in Peru. The main ingre­di­ent of this per­fume is san­dal­wood, since I was wear­ing a per­fume with strong san­dal­wood notes dur­ing my first shaman­ic cer­e­mo­ny, and we were burn­ing san­dal­wood incense. It has san­dal­wood, incense, sage, rose, amber and musk. It’s the fra­grance of my life trans­for­ma­tion.

How do you believe scent influences the mind, body and spirit?

Jonathan D.: As many peo­ple know, san­dal­wood sacral­izes. San­dal­wood incense ele­vates your spir­it. Sage puri­fies and pro­tects. This is the com­mon base of all my per­fumes, and I trust in it. All scents have pow­ers, and how I use them depends on the num­ber. For exam­ple, rose is con­nect­ed to the pow­er of love. Woods are strong and give you ener­gy, just like cin­na­mon and vanil­la. When you put on per­fume, some scents give you emo­tion, oth­ers mem­o­ries, oth­ers still sou­venirs. To help you live your life, the nose has more pow­er than any oth­er sens­es.

If you could create a signature scent for any historical figure, who would it be?

Jon­ta­han D.: It would be for Gand­hi. And it would be a per­fume with a san­dal­wood incense and sage base, and some spicy pep­per cur­cuma (turmer­ic). Some­thing very woody with incense, because he’s a spir­i­tu­al per­son. Every­one in the world knows Gand­hi.

How do your fragrances connect people with the natural world?

Jonathan D.: Above all, I work with authen­tic­i­ty and with love. I use good qual­i­ty ingre­di­ents, because you can’t call your brand Spir­i­tum Paris and use plas­tic or mate­ri­als that don’t respect nature. For instance, I use cork for my pack­ag­ing.

Cork is the cloth­ing of the tree. Those clothes regen­er­ate every ten years, so Spir­i­tum Paris does­n’t cut trees. To me, it’s the most sus­tain­able mate­r­i­al you can use as pack­ag­ing. Anoth­er exam­ple: my bot­tles are black — I us spe­cial paint for the glass because ultra­vi­o­let light kills the per­fume.

Some­times peo­ple ask, ‘Is your per­fume 100% nat­ur­al?’ I say no, because 100% nat­ur­al scents is not ide­al. Some raw mate­ri­als are scarce around the world. I use a mix of 50% nat­ur­al oils and 50% syn­thet­ic scents. My per­fumes are refill­able. If the cus­tomers want to refill, they will have to come to the bou­tique.

What travel destination would Spiritum Paris be?

Jonathan D.: As a des­ti­na­tion, I think it’s the cos­mos. You don’t have a spe­cial des­ti­na­tion in this world for the spir­i­tu­al world.

A higher plane

At Spir­i­tum Paris’s bou­tique, vis­i­tors ascend to a high­er plane of exis­tence. They breathe in the scents of the cos­mos — ‘Wis­dom Uni­verse’, ‘Builder of Future’, ‘Car­nal Spir­it’. In this envi­ron­ment, heav­en and earth seem to col­lide. The del­i­cate, pow­dery scent of moon­dust is foot­steps apart from the ripe, hearty aro­ma of sun­shine. Spir­i­tum Paris empow­ers vis­i­tors with knowl­edge of their life mis­sion. They dis­cov­er their place in the uni­verse. They emerge from the shop walk­ing the spir­i­tu­al path — towards well­ness, soul­ful liv­ing, and bal­ance with nature.

Dis­cov­er oth­er inno­v­a­tive brands and design­ers in our ded­i­cat­ed col­umn, L’A­vant-Garde.