People assume fragrance is made by spraying ingredients into a vat and stirring. It’s not. The process from raw materials to a finished bottle takes weeks of testing, refinement, and patience. Here’s how we do it.
1. Concept (week 1)
Every fragrance starts as a written brief. Three sentences, sometimes less. We describe what the scent should evoke, what season it should belong to, what kind of moment it should sit inside. The brief gets pinned to the wall. We don’t open the perfumer’s organ until it’s clear.
2. Raw materials
We work with around 200 raw materials — natural essential oils, absolutes, isolates, and synthetic aroma chemicals. Each is sourced from a supplier we’ve vetted: Calabrian bergamot from Reggio, Haitian vetiver, Indian sandalwood (sustainably plantation-grown, not wild), Bulgarian rose absolute, and roughly 180 others. Every shipment comes with a Certificate of Analysis showing purity and origin.
3. Initial blending (weeks 2-3)
The first blend is a guess. A perfumer takes the brief, picks 8-15 raw materials that might work, and creates a 10ml batch — drops measured by precision pipette into a graduated cylinder. We let it sit overnight to harmonize, then smell it on a card and on skin.
Almost no first blend is correct. The first version of Dusk Vetiver was too smoky. The first Memphis Magnolia was too sweet. We adjust ratios, swap one material for another, and blend again. By the end of week three, we usually have 8-12 versions of the same fragrance lined up on the bench.
4. Refinement (weeks 4-5)
We taste-test the versions. Some get eliminated immediately. Two or three usually survive into a head-to-head. We wear those for several days each, in different lighting, different temperatures, after exercise, after a meal. A fragrance that smells perfect at 10am can collapse at 7pm. We pay attention to that.
By the end of week five, we sign off on a single version.
5. Maceration (weeks 6-8)
Before the chosen formula is bottled, it sits in a sealed dark glass container for at least four weeks. This is called maceration, and it matters. Aromatic molecules need time to settle into one another. A fragrance fresh off the bench is almost always sharper than the same fragrance four weeks later. Patience is part of the recipe.
6. Quality control + IFRA review
Every batch is tested for stability (does it discolor? does it separate?), scent profile (does this batch match the previous batch?), and safety (does it comply with IFRA’s restrictions on ingredient concentrations?). The Certificate of Analysis and IFRA documentation are filed before any unit ships.
7. Filling and labeling
Bottles are filled at our Memphis warehouse, by hand, in batches of 50-200. Each bottle is labeled, boxed, and numbered. We retain at least one finished sample from every batch, in case we ever need to retest.
The whole process
Start to finish, a new fragrance takes us 8-12 weeks before the first bottle ships. That’s slower than it has to be. It’s how we want to do it.