The Superfumista: Bespoke Perfume Service With an App
Fragrance News
by Sergey Borisov
10/23/21 11:55:02 ( 12 comments )
Have you ever dreamed of your own perfume? A Made-to-measure perfume that is unique and made only for you? Have you found the price of bespoke perfumes too high? Meet Benjamin Sachs, who runs his project The Superfumista to create bespoke perfumes for the price of a niche brand bottle. We talked with Benjamin in Florence to find out more!
BENJAMIN SACHS: The name of my project is The Superfumista, and the idea was to make bespoke fragrances more accessible. I have created fragrances for people around me for years, and when I started researching how accessible bespoke perfumes are, I found that it’s way too expensive.
SERGEY: The starting point is around tens of thousand euros, right?
BENJAMIN: Exactly. If you go to Guerlain, it’s about 67000 euros.
I wanted to stretch the boundaries of making it more accessible financially, but also geographically, because if you don’t live in a big city in France, or another country where custom perfumes are available, you can’t do it. On top of that, it’s a long process, and you need to go back and forth many times, so I thought that making an app to guide people to describe their project of a custom perfume and chat with them would be a nice idea.
Wherever you are, you can take the time quietly at home with your mobile; first you’ll be guided through the app and then get your own unique perfume. You just imagine your ideal perfume, then choose your level of expertise – low or high, and start to discuss your ideal perfume with us. After that, we will help you through the creative process, and you’ll get your own perfume! You also choose your own perfume name, the stopper, and the ribbon color – but the best part is your own perfume.
SERGEY: Let’s start with the prices first.
BENJAMIN: It’s 300 euros for the first journey to create your fragrance. And you get 30 ml Eau de Parfum with a 3 ml pocket spray for that. If you buy a Premium pack, for 490 euros, you get a refill, which is 60 ml bottle with a funnel. Actually, we have three options: Deluxe, Deluxe+, and Premium.
SERGEY: And how long does it take to create the bespoke perfume?
BENJAMIN: If you’re really quick in describing what you want, and we’re quick in getting my assistant to understand what you want, then it could be 2 months; that is about the time it takes to start with the formula from scratch to get your bespoke perfume, let it maturate a bit, and send it out to you. Then you try it and if you’re happy with it, then we make a concentrate.
SERGEY: How many steps back and forth are allowed?
BENJAMIN: In The Deluxe Journey, it includes two iterations, and if you’re not happy, (which so far hasn’t happened yet), you can buy extra formulations so we can adjust the formula again.
SERGEY: The extras are priced the same as The Deluxe Journey – or less?
BENJAMIN: Extra-formulations are three new choices for 80 euros. Just to be sure the perfume suits your needs and desires.
SERGEY: As far as I can compare your procedure with others in this niche, like Fragonard in Grasse, the price is about the same, but their route is very quick, just a few hours and up to half a day. They are not online, though, you make it yourself with the help of a perfumer.
BENJAMIN: It’s not the same service. There, you combine Fragonard’s pre-mixed bases, while our raw material palette is over 800 materials, natural and synthetic. We’re a small startup, and it’s not easy to get access to all materials of the world, because our quantities are small, but we buy from the best manufacturers – IFF, Firmenich, Symrise – through PCW, for example. Of course, no captives, but most of the molecules are available. I hope that when we grow bigger, we can start some partnerships with the manufacturers, so we’ll have a maximum palette.
SERGEY: So far, I can see a great opportunity for this project’s development, but I also see the limiting part. When people order made-to-measure perfumes from Guerlain or, say, perfumer Bertrand Duchaufour, you are assured of the perfumer’s skills and experience, considering their previous works. What’s your personal history, education, and experience?
BENJAMIN: Yes, it’s true, I came out of nowhere. First, I was a perfume addict for many years, ever since I was a child, and so I have a life-long experience – I love perfumes.
SERGEY: So basically, you are the same perfume fan as your potential clients?
BENJAMIN: Well, maybe a little bit more educated and experienced. My background is that I worked in consulting and change management, and my main focus is to put people and their identity into the focus of perfume creation, to make them the heart of the project.
What was a problem to me was that marketing is very aggressive in perfumery, and everything is made very quickly. They find a famous face and people buy the fragrance right away when they identify themselves with the famous face. What I wanted is to step down and try to take your time to find your own identities and memories, because that is what I like about perfume, and how you can connect with other people but be true to yourself.
SERGEY: So, the benefit of your project is the chat with people, in which you can talk about memories and preferences, and find the true personality of your clients… This part is what lacks in most famous brands’ bespoke service. Am I right?
BENJAMIN: Yes. And also the perfumers, me and my assistant Samuel, are totally at the service of the customer. Of course, we have our own sensitivity and touch, but we’re really trying to forget about ourselves to serve the customer. We try to get into his or her head, heart, and sensitivities, and I think that makes a big difference.
SERGEY: How old is your project?
BENJAMIN: I launched it a year ago. And since our launch, we created about 50 perfumes. Most of our clients are from France, but we started activating The Superfumista app in other countries in Europe. I was like, “Let’s meet the market, let’s meet the people, maybe some cultural limitations should be taken into account, but I’m not gonna say no to the opportunities.”
SERGEY: There are some postal restrictions. You cannot send perfumes from and to some countries by post, as they consider perfumes to be dangerous goods.
BENJAMIN: Right now, we are limited to Europe, mostly. But I think we could grow and open some local ateliers for the different regions, so we can make the perfume concentrates there. You know, the communication is digital, and we could just create the formula and send it to our ateliers to mix it there. That way, the shipping inside the region would be easier.
But this is our possible future as we just activated our app in Italy in September, that’s why we are here in Florence, and we are just two people. I don’t wanna rush it, so we make a slow start, and we spend enough time with each customer. There’s no point in focusing on making a name and trying to get a volume right away. But of course, I do want to get bigger and would like to find help, because I financed it all by myself. I’m open to collaborations with independent perfumers as well, but I think that not every independent perfumer would agree to this kind of collaboration looking at our prices.
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After the interview, which was recorded in September of 2021 in Florence, I found that The SUPERFUMISTA app is now available in the following countries: France, Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom. So far my country is not included, and I cannot try it myself – but what I can do is read the testimonials. The app is available on Google Play and Apple Store, and you can find more info about the project on Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Author
Sergey Borisov Editor, Columnist
Sergey Borisov studied Physics at Krasnoyarsk University. He’s been known in the Internet perfume world under the nickname moon_fish for more than 15 years. His texts about perfumes have been published in Russian print and online publications such as GQ, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, The Rake, Glamour, and other magazines. He loves oud oils, as well as vintage perfumes, and notes of leather, vetiver, neroli, and orris. In 2013, Sergey joined the Fragrantica team.
*Prices updated in September 2022
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