With the advent of the sixties, culture becomes a consumer good in a leisure society. The sixties mark the blossoming of mass culture and the first genuine cultural administration organized by Andre Malraux.

The hippie movement, coming from the United States, develops in France as a reaction against this official culture. The youth discover India, its gurus, sects, and scents : they use sandalwood, musk, patchouli, and burn incense sticks. They advocate a return to nature, a refusal of constraints, sexual equality, drug experimentation. Pop music, leather jackets, and long hair symbolize this youth in revolt, which in 1968 demonstrates its refusal of consumer society.

At the same time as this "anti-fashion", high fashion moves towards luxury ready-to- wear fashion with Yves Saint-Laurent, Daniel Hechter, Paco Rabanne, Cacharel. It is also at this time that Mary Quant creates her first mini-skirts.

Amazingly successful perfumes are launched : Fidji by Guy Laroche, Madame Rochas by Rochas, Caleche by Hermes and Dior's famed eau de toilette for men Eau Sauvage, created by Edmond Roudnitska. Discrete yet persistent, it signals the advent of men's perfumes and paves the way for feminine , masculine, and androgynous "eaux fraiches".

The seventies signal a period of genuine openness which proves especially beneficial to American culture. The new marketing techniques are a perfect reflection of this : rather than simply producing and selling , it is by now a matter of analyzing the markets and consumer habits to answer their expectations and increase profits. Public image and sales figures become primordial. Like society, perfume becomes international, composing its perfumes according to the American model and doubling its concentrations. Thus Yves Saint-Laurent's Opium perfume, released in 1976 with a large publicity campaign, is the French version of the American perfume Charlie by Revlon, released in 1973. Described as an "addictive perfume" in its publicity slogan, it incarnates the fantasies and desires of the new bourgeoisie while suggesting the transgression of taboos, escape, and ecstasy. Because of its mysterious, magical, and sacred dimension, this perfume provides access to a superior spiritual existence, and the quest for the absolute.

Other oriental perfumes follow : Expression by Jacques Fath, Magie Noire by Lancome, J'ai Ose by Guy Laroche,...

Among the new creations, several big hits manage to seduce the new bourgeoisie as well : Anais Anais by Cacharel, Chamade by Guerlain, Amazone by Hermes, Calandre and Metal by Paco Rabanne, Farouche by Nina Ricci, Mystere by Rochas, Rive Gauche by Yves Saint-Laurent, First by Van Cleef & Arpels...