Amber Lenihan, 39, originally trained as a winemaker, but a love of perfume saw her switch career.
“Some may not see the connection between making wine and perfume, but it is a lot about sensory evaluation,” she says.
“You create a scent recognition memory through wine making, and I was also obsessed with perfume, so it was a really easy transition to make.”
The scents are all made from natural ingredients, making them different to nearly all commercial perfumes. “They are made from essential oils and botanicals, whereas other fragrances are made from synthetics derived from petroleum.”
Since 2014, Amber has worked on the venture full time, building up a solid buyer base in New Zealand, with nine signature fragrances, all beautifully packaged, including Honey Bee, Mystic Gypsy, Shiso Verte, Cinta and Spice Souk.
She rattles off scents, in the same way a reviewer would talk about wine. Le Lumiere is a “light, citrusy, spring floral scent; and Ash Oud is “a rich, dark, smoky, woody, resiny, unisex scent.”
The most popular? Easy, Wood Rose.
“A lot of people say rose is too old fashioned for them, so I have modernised it by adding dry cedar wood to the base and a really jammy top-note of red berries.”
Special perfume bottles have been sourced from France and the caps are wooden to keep things sustainable.
In the past two years, she has jumped through the regulatory hoops to export.
“Perfume is deemed a dangerous good so have had to do a lot of work around being about to ship internationally.”
Amber grew up on her parents’ organic market garden in Martinborough in the Wairarapa which was later planted in grapes. “That taught me a lot about different plants, flowers and scents.”
It is a team effort with her partner Tim taking care of the photography, website, Google Analytics, and social media.
The business was originally set up with $10,000 raised through the Spark My Potential crowd funding initiative, which Hamilton’s SODA Inc helped facilitate.
While the business is still in its start-up phase, it is growing quickly, especially with early international interest from clients in Australia and the Netherlands, and favourable reviews.
So, what is it about perfume she loves so much? “It is the stories… the emotion, the memories.”
I really like the romanticism behind it as well. To become someone’s signature scent…they are creating memories every time they wear that scent.”