The French have certainly had their fair share of flamboyant and distinguished personalities over the years: Colette (saucy French novelist), George Sand (pseudonym of the great feminist Romantic writer), Mata Hari (femme fatale/spy during WWI) and, of course, the Marquis de Sade—just to name a few. Histoires de Parfums, a young Paris-based perfumery, dares to capture the essence of these characters in a new collection of fragrances called Les Personnages. While most beauty conglomerates rely on fastidious market studies in order to arrive at their next fragrance, founder Gérald Ghislain is moved by the art of storytelling through scent.

Like a great narrative, each fragrance is thoughtfully structured—top notes to capture attention, heart notes to build intensity and base notes to linger in one’s memory—and comes in a sleek glass bottle marked with the birth year of the figure it was inspired by. We were intrigued by 1740: Marquis de Sade’s heady mix of patchouli, leather and spices, which conjured up the idea of a commandeering masculine force. Meanwhile, 1804, George Sand, surprised us by opening with a mouth-watering bouquet that includes Corsican peach and Moroccan rose, finishing with a sexy white musk. Trust us, you’ll want to add a few of these histoires to your fragrance library.

—Jessica Dang