Creation journal
A discreet record of the projects, materials and decisions that have genuinely passed through the Creator's Apartments.
The great departure
After more than a year of reflection, intuition must meet material.
From September, the olfactory project begins to be formalised and the first genuine tests are launched.
The accumulated ideas will be confronted with raw materials, the perfumer’s trials and, progressively, the skin.
Some intuitions will survive. Others will have to be abandoned. New ones will probably appear.
The Creation Journal will no longer only tell how Maison du Lac was born. It will now tell how it is being built.
Intuition must now meet material.
The first bottle takes shape
The first visual decisions are now precise enough to be shown to the Circle.
Secret du Léman becomes the first documented file in the Creation Journal: a gradient from black to deep blue, then luminous blue and finally transparent glass.
The water effect at the bottom of the glass is studied as a discreet evocation of Lake Geneva reflections. The mineral cap compares real natural stone with slate-effect resin, with a perfectly flat top and champagne ring.
Two box architectures are studied. Nothing is presented as final: these are working directions tested against industrial constraints and the Circle’s perspective.
From here, the story of Maison du Lac also becomes the story of its decisions.
Give Maison du Lac a face
For eight months, the universe becomes more precise.
The visual identity takes shape, the language of the House is refined and the website develops. The Circle is imagined as a place where enthusiasts can follow creation and participate in selected decisions.
Bottle research progresses through proportions, transparency, colour depth, materials, a mineral cap, metallic details and the box.
The Art Vitrine concept appears: an artwork presented by selected partners and surrounded by Maison du Lac perfumes, turning a shop window into a small exhibition rather than a simple sales space.
Little by little, what began as an image seen from a terrace in Meillerie becomes a coherent universe.
A brand is built as much by what it chooses to show as by what it chooses to remove.
Give structure to the intuition
The idea now has to become achievable.
The first formulation bases begin, together with the architecture of the collection, material research and the first work on bottles.
Maison du Lac looks for partners able to support the project: perfumery, manufacturing, glassmaking, decoration and packaging.
Every choice must preserve the initial ambition without turning the House into a tourist evocation of the Alps.
By early January 2026, the foundations are solid enough to open a new phase.
Build a House inspired by Lake Geneva and the Alps without ever reducing them to a postcard.
Let the elements speak to one another
For several weeks, the idea grows and the questions multiply.
How many perfumes should be created? What should they be called? What name should the collection bear? What should the bottles look like, and above all, what sensation should remain on the skin?
In the Alps, the four elements never live separately. Water meets rock, fire warms air, air crosses forests and meadows, and earth holds water.
The perfumes could also enter into dialogue: water with fire, fire with air, air with water. Layering stops being a simple superposition and becomes a creative gesture.
The principle that will become the Alpine Ritual is born.
Change the relief, movement or trail of a creation without taking away its identity.Open the file →
Where it all began
Meillerie, on the French shore of Lake Geneva.
Maison du Lac was not born around a meeting table. It was born from a landscape.
Its founders, genuine lovers of niche perfumery and professionals in the fragrance world for nearly fifteen years, live in Meillerie, a small village between Lake Geneva and the Alps, close to Évian-les-Bains.
In mid-July 2025, on a summer evening, the lake is almost still from their terrace. The sun lowers over mirror-smooth water, a warm breeze crosses the terrace and the Valais mountains appear to the right.
Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Lake Geneva. The Alps. An intuition appears: what if a perfume could tell this territory by interpreting its elements rather than reproducing it?
The territory must be an inspiration. Never a backdrop.