“All of the perfumes are my babies,” says Frances Shoemack, founder of Abel, the boutique natural perfume company from Wellington. The brand is part of a new wave of niche perfume businesses here in Aotearoa that are women-owned, purposely small and deeply passionate about the art of scent, a diverse group that also includes Curionoir, The Virtue, Pantheon Apothecary, Sarah Dwyer, Miller Road and more.
Shoemack began her career as a winemaker in New Zealand before a spell in Europe, where she turned her senses to a new craft, perfume curation. She hands me a green bottle of Cyan Nori, which was inspired by her homecoming and holds a special place in her heart.
“I was sitting on the deck of my house on the wild South coast of Wellington,” she says, having just moved home due to the pandemic. “The sky lit up with neon streaks of tangerine and peach, so I reflected these accords in the perfume, and there was a strong waft of briny air, for which we chose a seaweed (nori) accord.
The fragrance is striking and unusual, reflecting the unique relationship she had with her master perfumer, Isaac Sinclair, who is based in Paris. “I was on the phone to him watching the sunset and described what I was seeing, and several months later he had developed the perfume ready for market, and it sold so well.”
Cyan Nori recently won a Gold Clean + Conscious Award for Natural Perfume, demonstrating its niche success. “It’s like the first whiff of ocean, when you open the car door,” Shoemack says, showing how location and narrative influence her as a curator of natural perfume.
Natural perfume is made solely from sustainably grown organic-derived ingredients, so may be a healthier option than synthetically created perfumes from big cosmetic companies. The science community has also begun to show interest in the wellbeing aspects of perfume appreciation, as possible anecdotes for stress and uncertainty in the post-pandemic era.
Emily van Oosterom also came to perfume from another background, and through it has found expressive and creative freedom.
Following burnout from her early career in fine art restoration in Auckland, van Oosterom says she “ran away” to the Golden Bay in the South Island, to learn about plant culture and retrain as a herbalist.
“I realised I still wanted to make beautiful things,” she says, and this is why she developed an interest in the art of perfume creation, a process which, she says “gives her the same buzz” as painting. She opened her store Pantheon Apothecary in 2022, in her hometown of Kerikeri, after years of travel and self discovery.
“I became fascinated with fragrance making,” she says, which for her is the “perfect balance of art and science”.
Like Shoemack, van Oosterom has used sentimental sensory memories to develop a signature range of fragrances. She introduces two of her favourite creations, Vista and Nomad, inspired by her personal travels.
Vista was created as reminiscent of the Amalfi coast, where she spent a summer. “There was a beautiful view when we went up Ravello, and an infinity terrace, you stand and look out into the Mediterranean, the sea blends into the horizon, so I wanted to capture the marine air and powdery hot stone, herbs and green florals, climbing roses, cashmere, the freshness of sea breeze.”
Nomad was developed after she spent time in Mongolia, riding horses and camels in the north-west corner of the country, so includes accords of leather, woodsmoke, Anatolian rose and cedar.
van Oosterom has created an ‘aroma bar’ in her Kerikeri store, where clients can blend their own fragrances (with her help), with a plethora of scents to choose from, woody and earthy to bright and fresh.
“What I love about perfume creation,” she says, “is that you can approach it from so many angles, memories, emotions, even colours… each client comes in with their own ideas of their perfect perfume, some have a stronger picture than others but they walk away with a completely unique perfume after their session with me.”
Brooke Lean, owner of The Virtue parfumerie based in the heart of New Plymouth, also has a diverse artistic background, as a photographer preceding her perfume business. She was attracted to the way perfumes can capture a place and emotion, much like a picture. “When worn, the scent becomes part of the viewer’s story, these memories and emotions come home with them.”
Her favourite creation is a perfume called Back Beach, after the coast in Taranaki. Lean illustrates how she captures the emotional register of a place describing the fragrance as “bold and complex, like the place. It's beautiful but hard to trust… soft wearable notes of rose and black tea collide with smoky birch tar and salt”.
This is the beauty of the rising trend in niche perfumeries, which break the boundaries of traditional designer perfume houses, offering people the opportunity to connect with their own experiences, places and moods they wish to bottle up, and wear.
“I strongly believe anyone should be able to have a high quality experience and enjoy unique scents… without the hefty price tag,” says Madeleine Patel, founder and CEO of Speak Scents. Her business is an online parfumerie which uses your data, such as mood and scent preferences, to help find “your favourite scent without the headache”, motivated by a desire to make perfume shopping less intimidating.
In similar ways, Patel and other local perfumeries are trying to demystify and democratise the perfume realm. The rise of niche perfume in Aotearoa seems appropriate for a country blessed with an abundant natural landscape and these women are leading the movement with their unique passion for botanicals and sensory landscapes.
