9 Countries In 90 Days: Flower Shop’s Cirque Du Soleil Fragrance Goes Global Through Niche Retail

When Flower Shop partnered with Cirque du Soleil on the circus producer’s first-ever fragrance, $195 L’eau de Parfum, it launched the luxury gourmand last year in direct-to-consumer distribution on a website built exclusively for the product. 

Soon after, though, Isaac Lekach and Lillian Shalom, the husband-and-wife duo behind Los Angeles boutique fragrance manufacturer and consultancy Flower Shop, placed the fragrance in the niche perfumery channel. Within the last 90 days, it’s expanded its reach from four to over 40 niche perfumeries, marking a 900% jump in stockists.

Montreal-based Parfum Exquis and Los Angeles-based Scent Bar, where L’eau de Parfum sits on a shelf of Cult Classics, were the initial two retailers to bring in the fragrance. Now, it’s across the globe, from North America to New Zealand.

“While the visibility of big-box retail is tempting, it can compromise the sense of discovery and authenticity that niche boutiques uniquely offer,” says Lekach. “The fragrance community upon which this brand has been built truly values the intimacy and curation of specialty doors, and we feel nurturing and preserving this is essential to building a long-lasting fragrance brand of this caliber.”

L’eau de Parfum’s newest retailers include MyScentJourney in Mexico City, Perfumería Laura in Alicante, Spain and Joseph in Nashville. Eduardo Garcia De Alba, founder of MyScentJourney, calls early customer reaction to L’eau de Parfum positive. He says the fragrance is “one of the best gourmands I’ve tried this year.” He elaborates, “It’s a very interesting gourmand that smells very well-constructed and, despite having popcorn, butter, caramel, apple, cotton candy—in other words, everything you find at the circus—it doesn’t smell cloying.”

Several of L’eau de Parfum’s niche retail relationships were scored through cold outreach from Flower Shop. “There was really no prior relationship with them. We just reached out and they said, ‘OK, send us a bottle. Let’s see what it’s about.’ I remember one of them responded, ‘Delicious indeed.’ It was upwards from there.”

“While the visibility of big-box retail is tempting, it can compromise the sense of discovery and authenticity that niche boutiques uniquely offer.”

Seeding L’eau de Parfum with notable #PerfumeTok content creators has created buzz for the fragrance. Among those seeded were Emma D’Arcy, who has over 576,000 followers on TikTok and 77,000 followers on Instagram under the handle Perfumerism, Elise Grenier, who has 65,000 followers on TikTok under the handle Eliselovessmells, and Tracy Wan, who has 69,000 followers on TikTok under the handle Invisiblestories. Lekach says, “Even though some of them were too young to be that familiar with Cirque du Soleil, they really took to the fragrance.”

Lekach launched Flower Shop Perfumes Co. in 2019 with Shalom, a jewelry designer whose pieces have been worn by Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Rita Ora and Erykah Badu. She’s the creative mind behind L’eau de Parfum’s striking art deco-inspired aesthetics. Lekach followed his father, Ilia, into the perfume business. He was the CEO of fragrance manufacturer and distributor Parlux Fragrances, where Isaac first cut his teeth in the industry. 

Prior to Cirque du Soleil L’eau de Parfum, Flower Shop partnered with singer Melanie Martinez on luxury fragrance range Portals Parfums. Next up for Flower Shop will be its debut fragrance that doesn’t involve a licensing agreement. Not giving away too many details, Lekach teases “the brand, the identity, the inspiration comes from a forgotten time. The whole thing is an ode to how people say that perfume has a transportive quality. We’re really leaning into that.”

He adds, “We’re very excited. It’s very personal to us. We hope everyone loves it.”