Buly 1803: cult Paris beauty destination has a reverence for tradition

Walking into Buly 1803 in Paris’ artsy Saint-Germain-des-Près district on the Left Bank is like stepping back in time. The oak shelves are lined with dozens of glass bottles containing rare ingredients, each one labelled carefully in calligraphy. Below them, marble countertops are littered with perfume bottles and candles decorated with angels, while drawers open to reveal beauty tools from horn hairbrushes to toothbrushes. In the corner a saleswoman wraps a customer’s purchase using origami techniques.

The entire experience couldn’t be further removed from the cookie-cutter beauty counters found in modern malls and department stores around the world.

“These days everybody is doing the same thing in cosmetics and it’s become boring for the customer. The industry has become so globalised that we have forgotten about the basics, which include building a personal relationship with the customer and respecting the products you work with. We are into the details, and it’s important when people step into the store that they feel like they are entering another dimension,” says Buly 1803 co-founder Victoire de Taillac Touhami.

De Taillac Touhami and her husband Ramdane are the brains behind Buly 1803, which has become a cult beauty destination since opening in 2014. The Touhamis stumbled upon the brand a few years ago when Ramdane, who is credited with revamping popular candle brand Cire Trudon, was looking for a new project.

“We wanted to find a historic brand we could revamp together, one with a real identity and strengths we could develop. We hired a historian to search the period from the 19th century and we found Bully,” says de Taillac Touhami.

Buly 1803‘s illustrious past made it an ideal choice. The pharmacy, which many have compared to Florence’s Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, was founded by cosmetician and perfumer Jean-Vincent Bully in the early 19th century (the name back then was spelled with two Ls). Bully was a prominent figure in society and made a name for himself among the French aristocracy thanks to his innovative formulas, including vinegar perfumes. He left behind an extensive catalogue of products, providing the Touhamis with a solid foundation on which to build their new and improved version.