Fragrance house

Institut Tres Bien

Institut Très Bien was founded in Lyon in 2003 by Frédéric Burtin, a Lyon-based chemist-cosmetician trained at ISIPCA. Its starting point was a 1906 cologne formula found in Burtin’s family papers, prepared for his grandmother by a Lyon beauty institute called Très Bien. Cologne à la Russe, recreated by perfumer Pierre Bourdon and recorded as a 2004 creation, was the brand’s first major revival; Burtin has described it as an iconic creation, and it became the fragrance around which the brand’s early development proceeded. Related interpretations, Cologne à l’Italienne and Cologne à la Française, followed. In 2016, the Cologne Fine trio introduced rose, tuberose, and violet within a cologne structure, with the fragrances developed by Vanina Muracciole and Thomas Fontaine. Across the range, the brand’s olfactory signature was the cologne spirit, recurring powdery character, and smoky and leathery nuances. After 20 years, Institut Très Bien’s official website announced that the brand had ceased activity.