The clarifying and (due to the 25% share of benzoic acid) partly antiseptic properties of Styrax learned Auguste Ponsot 1885 on a trip through Armenia, where the fragrant tree resin was traditionally smoked in the houses to clarify the air and to scent the rooms. Impressed by its beneficial properties and ease of use, he brought it to France. His business partner and pharmacist Henri River found that styrax could be dissolved in alcohol (it takes two months to do so) and mixed with other fragrances. Placed on a carrier substance, a kind of blotting paper, the scent can be released unaltered by glowing the paper.
To this day, the Papier d’Arménie is produced by hand in an elaborate process that takes six months. Only the resin of the genuine Styrax tree (Styrax officinalis), which is extracted in Laos, is used. Production is still in the Parisian suburb of Montrouge, where Mireille Schvartz, the great-granddaughter of Henri Rivier, continues the family business today and has added several products and fragrances to the portfolio.