Marie du Petit Thouars grew up in Belgium, making candles and experimenting with scents in her mother's greenhouse. She was continuing a family legacy that began with the pioneering French botanist Louis Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars (1758-1831), who discovered thousands of plant specimens while exiled to Madagascar, Reunion, and Mauritius during the French Revolution, and later returned to France with his vast collection. Some two centuries later, Marie created Maison Louis Marie: a collection of unique floral fragrances for home and body.