The house
Light and shadow,
in equal measure.
Chiaro takes its name from chiaroscuro, the painter’s art of light against dark. We believe a perfume is the same: what you leave out matters as much as what you put in.
Our story
A workshop of one candle and forty-one bottles.
Élise Varenne trained in Grasse and spent a decade composing for other houses before opening a small atelier in the Marais in 2019. She wanted to make perfume the way it was made before it was made for everyone: slowly, seasonally, by hand.
Today Chiaro is a team of six. Every bottle is still filled, labelled and numbered in the same room on Rue de l’Ombre, and every new fragrance is tested for a full year before it joins the collection.
What we hold to
I
Natural first
We use natural absolutes wherever they exist, and only safe, purposeful synthetics where nature cannot do the work.
II
Slow by design
Eight weeks of ageing, a year of testing, and no more than 212 bottles in any batch.
III
Made to keep
Refillable glass, recyclable packaging and caps that outlast the perfume inside them.
How a Chiaro is made
I
Harvest
II
Distil
III
Age
IV
Bottle
Petals and peels are gathered at dawn, when their oils run richest. Every material is traceable to the farm it came from.
Come and smell the raw materials.