A New Approach to Perfume: Les Toupies by Henry Jacques
Henry Jacques’ Les Toupies collection redefines the way we think about perfume. Instead of viewing fragrances as solitary expressions, the brand sees them as conversations. The crystal flacons that house these scents are not just containers but objects meant to be owned and cherished for a lifetime.
The brand has long been known for its precision, and Les Toupies takes this philosophy to new heights. The collection is named after the spinning top, or “la toupie” in French—a childhood toy that has been transformed into a piece of art. This modern interpretation of the toy is more sculpture than plaything, capturing the essence of movement and balance.
Artistic director Christophe Tollemer spent over three years working with Europe’s top crystal houses to push the boundaries of their craft. He insisted on creating perfectly symmetrical, multifaceted flacons without a central axis. These designs are stable enough to hold rare perfumes, yet they are crafted to be held and turned rather than simply displayed. The facets of the flacons catch and scatter light with even the slightest rotation, transforming the container into a statement in itself. The more you hold it, the more it reveals.
Les Toupies is structured as a triptych, featuring three pairs of scents, each with its own distinct character.
The first pair, Mr H and Mrs Y, pays tribute to the house’s founders, Henry and Yvette Cremona. The scent combines cedar leaf and geranium with ylang-ylang, rose damascena, and jasmine. It balances sandalwood, tobacco, and amber with iris and lily of the valley, while tonka bean weaves the two together. The woody trail of Mr H shapes the floral diffusion of Mrs Y, while her brightness gives his depth somewhere to land. Neither leads, yet together, they create something complete.
The second pair, Fanfan and Galileo, explores rhythm rather than contrast. Galileo features patchouli, lavender, and Italian mandarin that deepen into tobacco, myrrh, and amber, while Fanfan responds with saffron, rose damascena, and a shared note of lavender. The balance between these two is not symmetrical but has a sense of momentum—expansion answering softness, depth answering glow.
The final pair, No 16 and No 81, operates through friction. No 81’s bergamot and grapefruit sharpen into smoke, wood, and spice, while No 16 counters with Rose de Mai settling into a honeyed warmth. Where one draws lines, the other softens them, and where one builds, the other blurs.
Although the tension is most evident in the last pair, none of the three pairs settle into simple harmony. Each holds something unresolved, a tension that keeps the fragrances alive and evolving.
For Henry Jacques, perfume and vessel have always been inseparable, forming what the maison calls a “total artwork.” Les Toupies takes this commitment further by designing for lifetime ownership across different formats. The collection includes Les Solides in their Clic-Clac compact, Essences or Brumes in an HJ Voyage travel case.
Only a few hundred sets of Les Toupies exist. Combined with the technical difficulty of the crystal work, this scarcity places the collection closer to heirloom design objects than collectable curiosities. Henry Jacques seems comfortable with this distinction and trusts its clients to appreciate the value of these pieces.
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