Ex-Estée Lauder Influencer Marketers Set To Launch Clean Luxury Fragrance Brand Eauso Vert

Launching this June, the fragrance brand Eauso Vert is starting with five fragrances representing a range of feelings and moments in time. “There’s something for everyone,” says co-founder Faye Harris.

The fragrance Purple Noon will invite wearers to “bask in the glory of the sun’s warmth touched by a salted breeze,” exalts Eauso Vert, which is pronounced oh so vair, and the fragrance Joga will encourage them to “surrender to the simplicity of fluidity.” Vanilla Embers is described as having “refined sexuality;” Sintra as “renewal met with soft sensuality;” and Boozy Patchouli as “grounding.” The fragrances will retail from $150 to $180.

Over past two and a half years, Harris built Eauso Vert with Tanya Gonzalez, her co-founder at the brand, from their homes in London and San Francisco, respectively. The two met at Estée Lauder Cos. Inc., where they held influencer marketing roles at Too Faced. In addition to Estée Lauder, their beauty industry resumes span Too Faced, Sephora, Kendo, Juice Beauty and Ole Henriksen social media and influencer marketing positions. Currently, Harris works at eBay as its global influencer and creator marketing lead, and Gonzalez works at Instagram on product marketing.

“We were always discussing different trends within the space and how we really wished that the clean category would make its way on over to fragrance,” says Gonzalez. “This was six years ago. So, while a lot has changed, there’s still so much more to go in terms of getting consumers to understand how all brands really develop and define clean as to what it means to them.”

“In our efforts to develop this brand, we’re doing what we can with what we have and making small steps toward progress every step of the way.”

Harris describes Eauso Vert as “luxury that gives a damn.” She explains the brand is “intent on marrying responsible product development with clean and luxurious formulas.” Its version of clean fragrance considers has three main elements. The first is establishing a baseline ingredients standard. There’s no universal clean fragrance ingredients standard, but Harris and Gonzalez have opted for Eauso Vert to adhere to the standards for fragrance ingredients set by Credo Beauty and the International Fragrance Association.

IFRA standards grounded in scientific evidence and consumer insights are commonly adhered to in the fragrance category. Credo requires that purveyors of products with fragrance categorize the sources of their fragrance ingredients. Among the categories are synthetic, natural, naturally-derived, certified organic and essential oils. Credo has challenged its brands to fully disclose their fragrance ingredients and, per its website, nearly 70% have to date.

The second element of Eauso Vert’s version of clean fragrance is the thoughtful use of ingredients. The brand utilizes upcycled ingredients such as essential oil byproducts of rose oil extraction and tries to employ the entirety of plants when possible. For instance, it employs the entirety of the turmeric plant. “We use everything from the base to the root, which not only helps in ensuring that we’re reducing waste, but it also actually creates something that’s olfactory interesting,” says Gonzalez.

The third element of Eauso Vert’s version of clean fragrance is traceability. The brand harnesses blockchain technology to track materials throughout its production process, and social and environmental practices are chronicled as well to protect and foster local communities. Consumers can access information to get a deeper look at the fragrances they’re purchasing from Eauso Vert. Gonzalez says, “The buyer will be able to scan a QR code and trace the fragrance and its origin back from seed to bottle.”

Eauso Vert reached its goal of $25,000 in the first 10 days of its Kickstarter campaign and brought in $32,899 total from 178 backers. Some backers of the campaign will receive a discovery set of the brand’s five fragrances.

Eauso Vert’s perfumer Pascal Gaurin is a senior perfumer at IFF and works with the company’s green chemistry assessment tool to score the sustainability of its ingredients and facilitate waste reduction. Gaurin concocted the clean fragrance brand Henry Rose’s fine fragrances that claim to be the first of their kind created with 100% ingredient transparency. Eauso Vert asserts its formulas are 98% renewable, and it’s 95% to 99% biodegradable.

“[Gaurin] understands in terms of the unique properties of making something clean, which is a blend of natural and upcycled [ingredients] as well as safe synthetics,” says Harris. Gonzalez chimes in, “We’re all just figuring it out together. It’s not something that is perfect from day one, it’s something that we’re continuously monitoring to make sure that, in our efforts to develop this brand, we’re doing what we can with what we have and making sure that we make small steps toward progress every step of the way.”

Harris and Gonzalez initially planned to raise money for Eauso Vert via venture capitalists, but quickly realized the process of raising venture capital was extremely difficult for women, particularly women of color. They decided to tap a small, but loyal community they’ve cultivated on social media and launch a Kickstarter campaign. “Rather than viewing it as a loss, we realized that we really needed to focus our energy and our time on avenues that we felt we could be successful,” says Gonzalez.

Eauso Vert reached its goal of $25,000 in the first 10 days of its Kickstarter campaign and brought in $32,899 total from 178 backers. The money will go toward obtaining packaging, including glass bottles, and wood and cork caps. Supporters pledging $130 or more will receive a discovery set with its five fragrances, one full-size fragrance and an exclusive coffee book. Those pledging $600 or more will receive a 45-minute Zoom masterclass with Eauso Vert’s master perfumer Pascal Gaurin. “Given how early stage we are, we felt that it was almost more beneficial and valuable to us to be able to get the product in people’s hands to really use it as an opportunity to get feedback and understand what is resonating with people,” says Gonzalez.

Eauso Vert will hit the market as the fragrance business has been advancing. In the second quarter of this year, market research firm The NPD Group estimates prestige fragrance sales increased 18% to $1.1 billion. Eauso Vert is debuting in direct-to-consumer distribution, a channel that can be hard for fragrance brands. However, it’s become easier with brands the likes of Henry Rose, Hawthorne and Skylar kicking off in DTC, although they’ve migrated to traditional retail as they’ve matured. Gonzalez and Harris plan on turning to a network of influencers they’ve amassed along with fragrance enthusiasts known as fragheads to tell the brand’s story in immersive and experiential ways.

“I don’t know if you’ve seen people make their coffee in the morning on TikTok or Reels, but it’s almost like romanticizing these simple moments in life,” says Gonzalez. “So, imagine partnering with different creators to create stories around each fragrance: Spritzing the fragrance and having someone narrate what it means to them, whether that’s on a green screen or developing different snippets of their day-to-day life with their fragrance in hand. We’re excited about different ways of storytelling in fragrance.”