The way that perfumer Maddie Phinney brings a do-it-yourself flair to the $4 billion niche fragrance market is like a whiff of fresh air, layered with notes of boozy, chocolate-covered cherries and nuts.
Centerfold, the gourmand eau de parfum that she created for Los Angeles fashion brand Hollywood Gifts, has been building buzz and selling out since its release this past summer. Phinney’s now developing a second scent for Hollywood Gifts and collaborating with another cool kid-approved fashion brand, Fear Safe. With her olfactory-themed podcast and newsletter, she’s democratizing the traditional and hierarchical milieu of fragrances.
On a video call from Marseille, France, where she stayed for several months last summer and fall, the L.A. native says DIY “has always been my world. I buy materials and create accords that are based on things that I think smell very beautiful and [create] perfume that I would want to wear.”
Describing the freedom and flexibility, she adds, “It feels like this uniquely American perspective that things can be democratic and DIY in the perfume industry because I think we don’t have, in the U.S., the degree of reverence that a layperson has in Paris for a master nose.”
The 39-year-old’s journey from working as an art curator to becoming a perfumer has spanned a decade. It started when she walked into celebrity florist Eric Buterbaugh’s perfumery showcasing his defunct fragrance brand EB Florals, which was located across the street from her apartment.
Tapping into her art experience, Phinney pitched an idea for organizing art shows in a section of the store. She subsequently launched and directed a venture called Eric Buterbaugh Gallery featuring exhibitions centered around the concepts of olfaction or flowers. Later, during the pandemic, Phinney attended a class at the Institute for Art and Olfaction in L.A.
In 2023, her professional life pivoted harder toward fragrance. She penned a newsletter called “Perfume Enjoyer” and premiered the podcast “Nose Candy” with co-host Chloe Coover. She also spent a summer working at influential specialty retailer Scent Bar, the brick-and-mortar offshoot of online fragrance platform Luckyscent. Eventually, she amassed as many as 200 bottles of perfume in her personal collection, as well as two organs she uses to concoct scents, with one stored in California and the other in France.
Then, Phinney took the first steps in developing Centerfold with Madeleine Kunkle, an artist and founder of Hollywood Gifts, which has attracted celebrity fans like Olivia Rodrigo and Kim Petras. Sharing similar tastes in fragrance, Phinney and Kunkle brainstormed about producing a glamorous scent inspired by “Star 80,” Bob Fosse’s tragic biopic about “Playboy” playmate Dorothy Stratten, who is played by Mariel Hemingway.
Ferrero’s Mon Chéri candy that Phinney’s grandmother had shared with her when she was little was another source of inspiration as the perfumer became obsessed with the notion of a fragrance with boozy, cherry, chocolate and nutty notes.
Over two years, Phinney did endless modifications. Her efforts have yielded consumer reviews describing Centerfold as “straight-up fun” and “tacky and fancy at the same time.” One effect, a fan remarked, is “you feel like an It girl.”
It was a matter of weeks before the 30-ml. bottles of Centerfold, priced at $99 apiece, sold out on Luckyscent. It’s already gone through at least three reissues. Part of its success can be justified by the popularity of the gourmand category, which Phinney says is “just yummy.” Due to growing demand for Centerfold, she’s shifting from compounding the fragrance herself to outsourcing production.
“It feels like this uniquely American perspective that things can be democratic and DIY in the perfume industry.”
In addition to Luckyscent and Hollywood Gifts, Centerfold is available at Scent Bar’s outposts in Los Angeles and New York. Phinney aspires to stock Centerfold across the Atlantic in French retailers such as Jogging in Marseille, Dover Street Market’s fragrance-centric boutique in Paris, and another Parisian shop called Nose she compares to the Scent Bar of Paris.
Interest in niche fragrances has bloomed over the past decade. Intelmarket Research projects that the global luxury niche perfume market, defined by high-end, artisanal perfumes with rare and premium ingredients, will reach $7.6 billion by 2032 from $3.8 billion in 2024, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 9.1%. It lists Arquiste, Kilian, D.S. & Durga, Jo Malone, Le Labo and Trudon as key brands in the market.
To be sure, niche brands make up less than 7% of the overall fragrance industry. Still, by appealing to aficionados’ specific preferences and offering distinct scent experiences, the artisanal labels help drive the industry’s overall momentum.
Phinney’s new scents for Hollywood Gifts and Fear Safe are scheduled for release this year. She hints that the sequel to Centerfold sits in a “category that’s adjacent to gourmand. It’s equally yummy.” The limited-edition perfume for Fear Safe speaks to the experimental process that founder and designer Charlie Kelman employs to hand-dye, bleach, mend and restore clothing for his 12-year-old label.
Phinney says, “He’s really interested in tar and different resins and things that typically aren’t incorporated into clothing, and all of those things have a very, very, very strong smell.”
While she prefers atomizing fragrances, Phinney is open to developing scented candles. Her ultimate goal is to keep unlocking the fragrance industry for a new audience. She says, “Trying to create perfume that takes away any kind of layers of exclusivity, snobbism, any of that stuff, just so as many people can enjoy it as possible, that’s so exciting to me.”
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