Новая Заря (The New Dawn)

Новая Заря (The New Dawn) is a perfume and cosmetics producing factory in Moscow, Russia. It used to be Henri Brocard’s factory in Moscow (i.e. before the Revolution in 1917) and was later nationalized and given a new, Soviet-like name – Novaya Zarya (the New Dawn). Henri Brocard came to Russia after his father Athanase Brocard’s failed attempt to strengthen and further develop his own cosmetics- and soap-making family business in France and later in the U.S. The competition there was too strong, yet Russia, with its aristocracy and its emerging luxury-craving bourgeoisie, seemed to be a vast and highly attractive market. Henri Brocard started his own factory on Moscow’s Nikolskaya street in 1861: he began by producing mass cosmetics merchandise, such as soap and tooth-powder, for the lower class. His soap was an instant hit due to its attractively low price: before that, even factory-produced soap was quite expensive. His merchandise was supported by clever and humorous advertising: people on the posters were either simple civilians or peasants and the scenes depicted were often quite comical. Sample slogans in Russian announced products like ‘The National Soap’. Russian cosmetics market existed long before Brocard’s arrival on the scene: a huge French factory, A.Rallet & Co., founded by Alfonse Rallet in 1843, had already successfully operated in Moscow. However, Rallet’s factory mainly produced costly pomades and fragrances. After the Revolution, the factory was nationalized and got a new name as well, Svoboda (‘Freedom’), and it is still in operation. Brocard, happy with his initial success in Russia, started to produce high-quality cosmetics, adding essential oils and glycerine in hopes of winning a more high-profile clientele. Among others, he received shipments of the aromatic raw materials from Roure Bertrand Fils, a company based in Grasse, France. Brocard’s merchandise caught the interest of the royal family and quite soon the factory became the official supplier to her Royal Highness Alexandra Fiodorovna, the wife of the last Russian tsar Nicholas II. The luxurious soap that he started producing wasn’t simply high-quality, it was also highly attractive: oval or round in shape, with carved letters on each, the soap was even suitable for small children. It is highly likely that his wife, Charlotte Ravey, who grew up and studied in Russia, but was actually of Belgian descent, helped him a great deal, since she was familiar with the peculiarities of life Russia and the psychology of the Russian customer. In Russia, the company listed itself as The Brocard Assotiation, which was highly typical at that time (the last name of the owner was spelled with intended omission of the final silent consonant D but with the obligatory Ъ in the end). The factory later added fragrances to its list of products. The merchandise got numerous prestigious awards on various shows and fairs, such as the ones held in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia and even Paris, France. Henri Brocard died in Cannes, France in 1900. The factory was nationalized in 1917, after the Communist Revolution, and was assigned a meaningless name ‘Soap factory # 5’. Only later, in 1922, it was given the new name Novaya Zarya, which it bears still. Interestingly, Polina Zhemchuzhina, the wife of a famous Soviet politician Molotov (and a close friend of Stalin’s wife Svetlana Allilueva), was the factory’s CEO for two years (1930-1932). During WWII, the factory, like many others, was evacuated to Sverdlovsk (formerly and recently Ekaterinburg), in the Ural area. While stationed there, the factory also gave birth to a new company, a factory called Kalina (it was renamed into ‘Uralskye samotsvety’ in 1974, but later returned to its original name). The factory is now being developed by its perfumer and CEO, who truly believes in future success of Russian perfumery in general. The company's most famous perfume is Krasnaya Moskva, known to every citizen of the former Soviet Union and its name is full of emotional associations. Designer Новая Заря (The New Dawn) has 366 perfumes in our fragrance base. Новая Заря (The New Dawn) is an old perfume house. The earliest edition was created in 1882 and the newest is from 2022. Новая Заря (The New Dawn) fragrances were made in collaboration with perfumers Alla Belfer, Ivan Orlyuk, Victoria Merkulova, Pavel Ivanov, Ekaterina Silverstova, Alexey Pogudkin, Tamara Soboleva, V Ryzhova, Marina Stepanova, Valentina Gribanova, Auguste Michel, Elena Kaboshina, Nina Kaminskaya, L N Danilova, Antonina Vitkovskaya and Alla Gribina.