Bois Impérial by Essential Parfums: Why It Took Over
Article Summary: Bois Impérial is a 2020 eau de parfum by Quentin Bisch of Givaudan for Essential Parfums, the Paris house Géraldine Archambault founded in 2018 on three ideas: the perfumer's name goes on the bottle, the juice is 86 to 93 percent natural and the price stays at 94 euros for a refillable 100 ml because there is no advertising to pay for. Thai basil, timut pepper and grapefruit sit over a heart of Akigalawood, patchouli, vetiver, Georgywood and Petalia on Ambrofix, a short formula built around one wood. By the brand's own account it is half of everything the house sells, the Dubai retailers that carry it had none to sell more often than not, and in July 2026 a Milan private equity firm bought a minority stake on the back of it. MOJ's reading, Imperial Boys, is AED 48, 59 and 109, every size available on October 29, 2026.
- UAE searches for "bois imperial perfume" run about 880 a month at low difficulty, and our Imperial Boys page has been shown 1,421 times since May with no article behind it, which is why this one exists.
- Akigalawood, the material the whole fragrance is built on, is a Givaudan ingredient made from patchouli by a biotechnology process; Bisch says he wrote the scent around it.
- Bois Impérial Extrait (2024, 32 percent, 30 ml) and a 2025 Collector Edition exist; there is no "Bois Impérial Intense".
- Essential Parfums has no shop or counter in the UAE and its own site does not ship here; Dubai department stores list the 100 ml at around AED 520 to 560 when they have it.
What Bois Impérial is
Bois Impérial is an eau de parfum launched in December 2020, in the plain glass flask with the perfumer's name printed under the fragrance name that every Essential Parfums bottle uses. The brand lists Thai basil, timut pepper absolute and grapefruit on top; Akigalawood, Indonesian patchouli, Haitian vetiver, Georgywood and Petalia in the heart; and Ambrofix at the base. Timut pepper is the Nepalese sichuan pepper that smells of grapefruit peel, and Akigalawood is the point of the whole thing, a Givaudan material made from patchouli by a biotechnology process that smells of peppery, incense-like wood; Bisch says he created the fragrance around it and kept the formula short and direct to match the house's name. The concentration is given by one reviewer as 16 percent and the natural content as 93 percent, against 80 percent on a Dubai retailer's listing, so somewhere between the two. It comes in a 100 ml that refills from a 150 ml flask and a 10 ml travel spray, and in October 2026 the brand's site had it at 94 euros for the 100 ml.
Who makes it: a Paris house with no marketing department
Essential Parfums was founded in Paris in 2018 by Géraldine Archambault, who had spent about thirty years in the fragrance industry, with Stanislas Archambault, after a quiet first showing in a New York cafe. The idea was to strip out what the big houses spend on, the celebrity, the advertising and the box, and spend it on the formula instead: a well-known perfumer on every bottle, Antoine Maisondieu for Nice Bergamote, Natalie Gracia-Cetto for Orange x Santal, Sophie Labbé for Rose Magnetic, Bruno Jovanovic for Mon Vetiver and Calice Becker for The Musc in the first year, Olivier Pescheux for Divine Vanille in 2019, then Bisch for Bois Impérial in 2020, Nathalie Lorson for Fig Infusion in 2022, Fabrice Pellegrin for Patchouli Mania in 2023, Anne Flipo for Néroli Botanica in 2024, Dominique Ropion for Velvet Iris in 2025 and Jordi Fernandez for Ambre Latte in 2026. By an undated trade interview the house was in 550 points of sale in 60 countries with more than a million bottles sold and sales tripling each year, the company's own figures; it has its own shops in Paris and Bordeaux and opened its first outside France, in London's Soho, in October 2026, with fifteen to twenty planned over three years. On July 9, 2026, Style Capital of Milan took a minority stake, its first beauty deal, with the founders keeping control and the terms undisclosed.
Why it took over
Three things we can source, and one we cannot. First, the number: the brand told Paris Match in December 2025 that Bois Impérial is fifty percent of its sales, which for a house with about a dozen fragrances is an extraordinary dependence on one bottle; a trade profile adds that Essential Parfums sits in the top three sellers at Jovoy in Doha and Limited Gallery in Dubai. Second, the price: 94 euros for a refillable 100 ml by a Givaudan perfumer, at a time when niche houses charge three times that, is the argument the brand was built to make, and Bois Impérial is the one that made it. Third, the community: Parfumo rates it 8.1 from nearly 4,800 reviews, 24th among all unisex fragrances on the site, and Luckyscent calls it a cult classic. What we cannot source is the TikTok story. The videos exist, including a "discontinued" rumour tag that is wrong, but no press article names a creator, a date or a view count, so we do not. What the Gulf can see is the shelf: Paris Gallery and L'Etoile in Dubai both had none available on October 29, 2026, a Paris stockist had neither the 10 ml nor the refill the same day, and our own Imperial Boys page has been shown 1,421 times since May to people typing the original's name. The house marked the fragrance's fifth anniversary in November 2025 with a Collector Edition of the same juice in a new bottle.
The Bois Impérial line
Bois Impérial Extrait de Parfum arrived in October 2024, again by Bisch, 30 ml at 32 percent, and it is a different fragrance rather than a stronger one: black and pink pepper and timut over rose absolute, Atlas cedar, labdanum, fir balsam and leather, darker and resinous where the original is green and dry. The Collector Edition of 2025 is the original formula in an anniversary bottle, and a Bois Impérial hair and body mist arrived the same year. There is no Bois Impérial Intense, whatever a marketplace listing says. The rest of the house is in the paragraph above; Patchouli Mania is the one the oud crowd should try next, and the brand's 2025 Extraits of Nice Bergamote and The Musc are the two other concentrations.
What it costs in the UAE
Essential Parfums has no shop or counter in the UAE and its site ships to Europe and the UK only, so the brand price, 94 euros for 100 ml, is about AED 400 at October rates and not available to you directly. None of the three retailers we price from, Faces, Ounass and Bloomingdale's, listed it when we checked. Dubai department stores that do carry it showed AED 523 at Paris Gallery, none available, and AED 559 at AlHimyan, which ships across the Gulf, with five left; a marketplace seller had it at AED 525. The gap between 400 and 560 is the import, and the stock-outs are the demand. Our niche guide has the houses it sits beside and their counters.
The MOJ reading
Our Imperial Boys follows the brand's materials: akigalawood, woody notes, basil, vetiver, timur, ambroxan and patchouli, the basil and pepper on top, the dry woods through the middle, ambroxan and patchouli underneath. It is our own composition inspired by the original, an eau de parfum in 30, 50 and 100 ml at AED 48, 59 and 109, every size available on October 29, 2026, and it sits in our unisex collection. Office days first, because it is the cleanest woody we make, then spring and autumn evenings; two sprays, and in August it is one of the few on this site that still works at noon. The long lasting guide and the men's guide have its neighbours.
- Top: basil, timur
- Heart: akigalawood, woody notes, vetiver
- Base: ambroxan, patchouli
Should you buy the original or the reading
If you want the bottle with Quentin Bisch's name on it and the 93 percent natural formula, buy the original when a Dubai department store has it, at around AED 520 to 560, or bring one back from Europe at 94 euros, which is the better deal by some distance. If you want to find out whether basil and peppery wood is your smell before chasing a bottle that is unavailable half the time, the MOJ 30 ml at AED 48 answers that, and our guide to inspired perfumes explains what a reading is and is not. If you already own Bois Impérial, the Extrait is the brand's own next step and the one worth the hunt. Stock changes, so the product page is the final word.
Frequently Asked Questions
A dry, green, peppery wood. Essential Parfums lists Thai basil, timut pepper absolute and grapefruit on top, Akigalawood, Indonesian patchouli, Haitian vetiver, Georgywood and Petalia in the heart, and Ambrofix at the base. The whole fragrance is built around Akigalawood, a Givaudan material made from patchouli by a biotechnology process that smells of peppery, incense-like wood; the perfumer, Quentin Bisch, says he wrote the scent around it and kept the formula short. It is an eau de parfum launched in December 2020, 86 to 93 percent natural by the house's figures, in a refillable 100 ml and a 10 ml.
Essential Parfums, a Paris house founded in 2018 by Géraldine Archambault, a thirty-year fragrance industry veteran, with Stanislas Archambault. The idea is to spend on the formula instead of on marketing: a known perfumer's name on every bottle, highly natural compositions and a price of 94 euros for a refillable 100 ml. Bois Impérial is by Quentin Bisch of Givaudan. The house opened its first shop outside France in London in October 2026 and sold a minority stake to Style Capital of Milan in July 2026.
Essential Parfums has no shop or counter in the UAE and its own site ships only to Europe and the UK, where the 100 ml is 94 euros, about AED 400. Faces, Ounass and Bloomingdale's did not list it when we checked in October 2026. Dubai department stores that carry it showed AED 523 at Paris Gallery, with none available, and AED 559 at AlHimyan, which ships across the Gulf. MOJ's reading, Imperial Boys, is AED 48 for 30 ml, 59 for 50 ml and 109 for 100 ml, every size available on October 29, 2026.
By the brand's own account it is half of everything Essential Parfums sells, and a trade profile places the house in the top three sellers at Jovoy in Doha and Limited Gallery in Dubai. The price argument, a Givaudan perfumer's formula at 94 euros when niche houses charge three times that, is the one the brand was built on, and Parfumo rates it 8.1 from nearly 4,800 reviews. TikTok videos about it exist, but no press article names a creator or a view count, so we do not claim one. The clearest sign is the shelf: Dubai retailers had none available when we checked, and MOJ's Imperial Boys page has been shown 1,421 times since May to people searching the original's name.
There is an Extrait and no Intense. Bois Impérial Extrait de Parfum launched in October 2024, again by Quentin Bisch, 30 ml at 32 percent, and it is a different fragrance rather than a stronger one: black and pink pepper and timut over rose absolute, Atlas cedar, labdanum, fir balsam and leather. A 2025 Collector Edition is the original formula in an anniversary bottle, and a hair and body mist arrived the same year. Any listing for a Bois Impérial Intense is not an Essential Parfums product.
