Final yr alone, Scent Journer offered over 8,000 of its hand-blended perfumes
For so long as she will bear in mind, Joyce Lian has been fascinated by scents—not simply how they odor, however why they odor the best way they do.
That curiosity led her to enrol in Singapore Polytechnic’s perfumery and beauty science course in 2013, the place she realized about uncooked supplies, chemical buildings, and the formulation of private care merchandise.
Her curiosity solely deepened throughout a ten.5-month internship at international large Worldwide Flavours & Fragrances, the place she was posted to the perfume division. With permission from the corporate, Joyce typically stayed after work hours to experiment with small portions of uncooked supplies, creating her personal perfume formulations.
She painstakingly memorised the scent profile of every ingredient, constructing a private information base to coach her sense of odor. On the time, she had dedicated 147 uncooked supplies to reminiscence.
Joyce’s ardour for perfumery in the end grew into Scent Journer, her personal perfume label promoting 1000’s of merchandise, together with on Sephora’s on-line platform. We spoke with the 30-year-old who shared what it takes to construct a fragrance model from scratch.
Navigating profession detours
“To me, how I expertise perfume could be very totally different from most individuals. I’ve skilled myself to understand and discern the totally different layers that lie in a fragrance bottle,” Joyce shared whereas explaining her eager sense of odor that she has honed through the years.
After graduating from Singapore Polytechnic, Joyce went on to finish a Chemistry diploma on the Nationwide College of Singapore (NUS) in an accelerated timeframe of simply 2.5 years that led to 2018.
The yr after, she landed a job as a technical specialist at a cosmetics firm, the place she stayed for 5 months. Whereas the function was steady, it was not what she had envisioned—her ardour lay in fragrances.
However Singapore’s perfumery trade again then was small (and nonetheless is, at the least in keeping with Joyce), and alternatives have been restricted. Not like her associates, she was additionally unable to go abroad to pursue perfume roles because of familial constraints on the time.
Ultimately, Joyce was not discovering any pleasure in her cosmetics place. On the recommendation of certainly one of her associates, she determined to strive one thing completely totally different: she joined OCBC in 2020 as a private monetary advisor.
However lower than a yr later, Joyce realised the function wasn’t her cup of tea both. She missed working in labs, formulating, and experimenting with totally different scents.
A colleague then instructed she begin her personal enterprise and discover an entrepreneurship programme run by the Nationwide College of Singapore (NUS)—a suggestion that will in the end change the course of her life.
Constructing Scent Journer from the bottom up
In 2021, Joyce utilized for the three-month Enterprise Constructing Programme at NUS collectively along with her accomplice, Alex Lim, and her sister, Jacelyn Lian, the place they constructed the stepping stones for Scent Journer.
The programme taught the trio the foundations of entrepreneurship, from validating concepts to understanding clients. One requirement was to interview at the least 100 potential customers to evaluate market demand.
What Joyce and her crew uncovered was telling. Many Singaporeans solely wore fragrance for particular events as they seen it as an costly product, whereas others averted it completely as a result of fragrances triggered complications or nausea. As such, solely a small minority wore fragrance each day.
Figuring out these ache factors, Joyce wished to create perfumes that may very well be “worn each day within the city-state and have been much less more likely to trigger complications or nausea, whereas making the assorted scent notes extra discernible,” Joyce defined.
“I would like the title of Scent Journer to talk for itself, bringing our clients on a journey by means of scent, with the perfume appearing as an on a regular basis companion.”
After pitching her thought, Scent Journer was awarded the Startup SG Founder Grant in two tranches, amounting to S$50,000. NUS contributed one other S$10,000, and Joyce, Alex, and Jacelyn pooled an extra S$10,000, bringing the entire startup finances to S$70,000. It was a good finances, however sufficient to get the enterprise off the bottom.
The model operated on-line for its first eight months after incorporation in Apr 2021. Then, an sudden alternative arose.
In Dec, after seeing Scent Journer’s ads on-line, the now-closed Japanese-inspired French pastry store Flor Patisserie reached out to the model and provided it a pop-up house at its outlet for a day, for simply S$50 to provide the latter an opportunity to work together bodily with potential clients.
The pop-up exceeded expectations, recording an 80% conversion charge. For Joyce and her crew, it was a pivotal second that gave them the much-needed confidence that they have been onto one thing concrete.
Contained in the perfuming course of
Scent Journer launched with three fragrances and has since expanded to 5, whereas additionally regularly providing different product codecs like fragrance sachets that may be hung in wardrobes, other than hand sanitisers and scented candles.
On particular events like their anniversary and Christmas, Joyce releases limited-time choices—for instance, the A New Veil perfume with inexperienced tea notes, and the Spiced Winter Tea Candle. To rejoice Singapore’s birthday final yr, the model even got here up with a kaya toast–scented candle.
Every perfume that’s launched by Scent Journer undergoes six months to a yr of analysis and improvement, and each one is hand-blended by Joyce to make sure high quality.
She begins with a sugarcane alcohol base, combining it with different substances distilled into liquid type—over 85% of that are naturally derived, with no dangerous components.
Most of what she works with are sustainable or upcycled substances, resembling carrot seed essence, and the sugarcane alcohol she makes use of is gentler on the senses—although considerably dearer.
“We use high-quality, perfumery-grade pure ethanol derived from sugarcane alcohol. Conversely, mainstream perfumes use artificial alcohols, which usually tend to be denatured by the methanol inside them and should have a better risk of inflicting customers to expertise nausea and complications, particularly people who find themselves extra delicate to alcohol,” Joyce defined.
As soon as achieved, every bottle is sealed and prepared on the market.
Scaling its offline presence
Through the years, Scent Journer has scaled its offline presence considerably. In 2022, the model entered consignment areas with stockists after Tangs reached out, adopted by Metro at Design Orchard.
Since Oct 2023, the model has been out there on KrisShop, and a yr later, begun retailing on Sephora’s on-line platform.
The model has all the time been a well-recognized face at varied pop-ups, together with Boutiques Truthful, Singapore’s largest design-led procuring occasion, having attended six occasions and counting.
Scent Journer has additionally expanded past Singapore, partnering with a specialty perfume retailer in Guangzhou, China, in 2023—a milestone for its abroad progress.
“Our transfer into the Chinese language market has been important; there’s a rising demand for area of interest fragrances, notably these with distinctive tales and inventive scent compositions,” shared Joyce. “Chinese language shoppers have gotten extra discerning, and our concentrate on high-quality substances and immersive olfactory storytelling resonates strongly with their altering tastes.”
That mentioned, clients from different markets may buy merchandise by means of the model’s web site, which ships internationally. Joyce recalled being shocked when clients from France willingly paid steep transport charges simply to get their fingers on the model’s merchandise.
Collaborations with native manufacturers
Collaborations have additionally performed a key function in increasing Scent Journer’s attain. Joyce has crafted bespoke fragrances for manufacturers resembling homegrown distillery Compendium Spirits and cafe Nesuto, working intently with every to translate their model id into scent.
For Compendium Spirits, the distillery was in search of a perfume to accompany its Rojak Gin, and so Joyce delivered it as each a room spray and hand wash.
“I understood that gin is nothing with out juniper berries, and rojak is just not one with out the torched ginger lily flower. Therefore, I developed a scent that turned Compendium’s Rojak Gin right into a perfume.”
The distillery additionally requested for an odour-neutralising answer to deal with the inevitable plumbing smells in its previous Round Street shophouse. Joyce’s crew created a perfume solvent that broke down the disagreeable odours whereas filling the house with Scent Journer’s signature scent.
Equally, on a bigger scale, Nesuto requested an autumn-like scent to be subtle all through its cafe, so Joyce got here up with a concoction of inexperienced tea, roasted chestnut and different substances that collectively reproduce a “heat atmosphere of autumn.”
The realities & rising prices of expertise
Joyce’s merchandise have been successful—final yr alone, she offered greater than 8,000 bottles by means of retail and shopper initiatives.
Like every startup, Scent Journer has confronted its justifiable share of challenges.
Joyce’s formulations are extremely particular, and worth fluctuations have a direct impression—after the pandemic, the price of her sugarcane alcohol ingredient surged by about 70%.
Beforehand working out of NUS BLOCK71, a startup incubation house, Joyce moved to her present lab in Tampines in Sep 2023, the place operational prices turned much more obvious.
Mixed with distributor cuts, these components left her little alternative however to lift retail costs—a tough however essential resolution to maintain the enterprise sustainable. At this time, a 25ml bottle at Scent Journer prices S$128.
To handle prices, Joyce operates her lab and workplace on an appointment foundation whereas operating retail operations by means of consignment areas and pop-ups.
Presently, Scent Journer is present process a model overhaul to rejuvenate the model. Joyce’s recommendation to aspiring founders is straightforward however hard-earned: do what you like.
“Discover an issue to unravel somewhat than doing issues which might be fashionable,” she mentioned. “It’s exhausting to face out and final, particularly should you’re coming into an already saturated market.”
She mirrored on what number of new perfume manufacturers gravitate in direction of acquainted notes like pear and freesia—scents popularised by different common manufacturers and immediately recognisable. For Joyce, longevity lies not in imitation and chasing fleeting tendencies, however in carving out one thing quietly, unmistakably your personal.
Be taught extra about Scent Journer right here.
Learn different articles we’ve written on Singaporean companies right here.
Featured Picture Credit score: Scent Journer
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