Although born in 1873 in the birthplace of Napoleon, Francois Coty made his way to Paris at a very early age. Noticing that all the fashion houses covered their floors with ostrich feathers, he proved himself to be a quick entrepreneur when he became a salesman of these lavish floor ornaments. However, it was a neigbor who sparked in him the idea that would soon become his legacy. As he watched his young friend chemically composing toilet waters, he began to realize that he could make his own and present them in artistically-designed containers. Coty moved to Grasse spent two years training himself in the growing and harvesting of flowers and the extraction of their scent. With a little money from his grandfather, Francois Coty set up his first business in the Rue de la Boetie in Paris. A small stroke of luck made him the rage of Paris almost overnight when one of his French crystal bottles, made by the famous Jacques Lalique, fell upon the floor and broke. The five hundred bottles sold within days due to the in intoxicating and life-like smell of the rose perfume. Coty’s Rose perfume was followed by the internationally successful fragrances of L’Origan, Chypre, and L’Aimant. Within three years of his first opening, Coty was so successful that he was able to move his premises to the more fashionable Bois de Bologne, where the factory still presides today. By the time he was forty, Coty had made his mark upon the world with his philosophy which is still applicable today, “Give a woman the best product you can compound. Present it in a container of simple, but impeccable taste, charge a reasonable price for it, and a great business will arise such as the world has never seen.”