Scents and Sensibility

A scent can evoke so much: nostalgia, a fleeting memory, stress relief, an energizing pick-me-up. That desire to create products that bring to mind sensations for people was at the heart of why several women have brought their fragrant visions to the marketplace in recent years.

“Fragrance has always felt like a vehicle to fully express yourself,” says Ivy Kwon, founder of Los Angeles-based fragrance company Vagrant Story. “It can bring confidence and allow you to be authentic in expression.”

The desire for self-expression, along with an increased demand for natural perfumes and exotic scents, are part of the reason the worldwide fragrance industry has grown to nearly $54 billion, according to Grand View Research. The home fragrance market, which includes candles and aromatherapy, is expected to grow at an annualized average rate of 9% for the next six years, reaching about $20 billion by 2030. Between the pandemic, which spurred sales for home goods while everyone was stuck in their abodes, and recent trends, such as teen boys coveting $300 cologne, the fragrance industry has proven to be quite resilient when compared to other product categories. 

And yet, it’s quite a crowded marketplace, with thousands of distinct fragrances – something that wasn’t lost on Lisa Laufer, founder of aromatherapy company Nectar Republic in Wichita, Kansas. “You can go to Target and find 15 candle brands,” she says. “The world didn’t need another one.”

That didn’t stop Laufer, who was working as a consultant for a wine and liquor distributor, from making candles in her basement about a decade ago after being unsatisfied with the ones on the market. “I used to buy really expensive designer candles and I was quickly disappointed by the quality,” she says. “They didn’t have much fragrance and wouldn’t carry throughout the house.”

Side Hustle

She continued to work full time while starting to sell her candles on the side at the local farmers market. It wasn’t until a representative from the local Whole Foods approached her at the farmer’s market about a wholesale distribution opportunity that she really considered turning her aromatherapy hobby into a full-time career.

“I thought it was a joke at first,” Laufer says. But it wasn’t: Soon after she was invited to become a vendor at Chip and Joanna Gaines’ prestigious Magnolia Market in Waco, Texas. “I almost had a heart attack,” Laufer says. “But then I thought maybe it’s the universe telling me I’m on the right path.” 

Similar to Laufer, Harlem Candle Company founder Teri Johnson, who was working as a travel and lifestyle expert at the time, started making candles out of her kitchen in 2014. Using inspiration from Harlem icons including Langston Hughes, Josephine Baker, and the Roaring 1920s visions of the New York neighborhood, she’s now built up a home fragrance line of more than two dozen candles and launched a perfume line in 2022. “I was making the candles in Harlem and I loved the Harlem Renaissance,” Johnson told Inc. “My goal became to put Harlem on the map with a beautiful, luxurious fragrance.”

Fresh Take

If you’re sensing a trend here, it’s this: None of these founders were industry insiders – something that may have helped them because they had fresh perspectives. Kwon, too, was a newcomer to the fragrance industry. Having spent more than a decade working in public health, she reached a point during the pandemic when she decided to funnel her efforts into something more creative. “I knew if I didn’t make a change then that it would be even more difficult later,” she says.

Kwon was always drawn to fragrance as a consumer, wearing perfume daily and owning a curated collection of fragrances. So she decided to exit the corporate world and take a stab at building her own brand. “Just to even get started, to dare to take the first step beyond an idea and take action was terrifying,” she says.

Through networking and cold calling, she found her way to some of the world’s best perfumers, including dsm-firmenich, the company that created fragrances such as Yves Saint Laurent’s Black Opium, Marc Jacobs’ Daisy, and Dolce & Gabbana’s Light Blue. For two years, Kwon built a network of partners and suppliers to help with research and development, trading scent notes, refinements, and regulatory reports to ensure the scent quality and safety was up to the brand’s standard. Throughout the process, Kwon kept a notebook of all mistakes and challenges so that she could remind herself what she’d learned and overcome.

In November, she launched three signature fragrances direct to consumers. "Being a novice and not having any connections to the history of fragrance in France and Europe can be a strength," she says. “The biggest challenge has been the internal struggle with myself and really getting out of my own way.”

Overcoming Obstacles

No startup story is without challenges and conflict. For Laufer, the first bump came in the form of a cease-and-desist letter shortly after breaking into Whole Foods. Originally called Milk & Honey, Laufer says she was first to market in the state, but that another company had filed its trademark federally under that name, which trumped her first-to-use status in Kansas. Faced with hefty costs to try and fight for her original name, she decided instead to rebrand. “I didn’t realize the intricacies of the legality of trademarks and I think a lot of people don’t know this,” she says. Her advice for anyone who thinks about starting their own business is to secure a brand name with a national trademark immediately.

Kwon, meanwhile, was ready to seal a deal with a supplier when a regulatory report didn’t satisfy her gold standards for non-toxic ingredients. “We were pre-launch and I was ready to throw in the towel, but I took some time to sit with myself,” she says. “I kept thinking, `Will I regret it if I don’t keep going?’ And the answer was yes.” 

Harlem Candles’ Johnson found herself convincing her parents to let her use the $50,000 they had earmarked for her wedding for her business instead. “I told my parents that I wasn’t getting married and that they should give that money for my business,” she told Inc.

All three founders started out by self-funding – a strategy that allowed them to call the shots and not feel pressure to grow too quickly, which can be a pitfall of taking outside capital. Laufer took out small loans along the way but has primarily funded the business by reinvesting profits back into the organization.

Planning for Expansion

For all the commerce that’s gone online, about 75% of the fragrance industry’s revenue still comes from brick-and-mortar outfits – which makes sense considering consumers often want to test fragrances before purchasing a full bottle.

For Kwon, who launched as a direct-to-consumer brand, her discovery set allows consumers to try all three debut fragrances in 2 ml spritzes. She’s currently scouting out places to have a retail presence, via partnerships or with her own pop-up shop so that people can experience and discover scents in person.

Johnson, who also offers discovery boxes of her perfumes in 15 ml sizes online in addition to her candles, sells her products in more than 100 stores across the country, as does Laufer, whose products can be found in more than 75 shops nationwide. Laufer is also currently piloting a refill station store idea that’s filled with basics including laundry detergent, shampoo, conditioner and lotion that could be customized with customers' choice blends of essential oils or phthalate-free fragrances. “If it takes off, we could possibly franchise,” Laufer says. “We’re open to all the possibilities.”