With a background in flower essence remedies and reiki, Yasmin Sewell considers herself fairly intuitive. But when she launched her wellness-infused perfume line Vyrao in London in 2021, she could not have foreseen that she was on the precipice of a category shift in the fragrance market.
“I’ve always been quite intuitive in my life, and I could not have predicted it,” said Sewell.
At the time, the functional fragrance landscape was fairly sparse. Supplements company The Nue Co had launched its Functional Fragrance in 2019, but an entire brand dedicated to wellness via fragrance was still a rarity. But since Vyrao’s launch, brands like Nette, Charlotte Tilbury and Bella Hadid’s Orebella have all joined the fray of brands that mix wellness with perfume.
“My concern was that no one would actually understand it before I launched. And I thought people would think we were weird,” said Sewell. She didn’t necessarily envision Vyrao as a fragrance brand first and foremost, but simply considered scent a medium to deliver emotional benefits. And many other brands have discovered the same. “It just sort of certifies that this is where things are moving, and hopefully people realize that we were at the forefront and pioneers in this.”
On Tuesday, Sewell launched Mamajuju, Vyrao’s eighth scent. Inspired by the soil of her native Australia, Mamajuju promises a grounding effect through a sandalwood and cumin scent created by IFF perfumer Meabh McCurtin. McCurtin is also the nose behind Vyrao’s 2023 launch Sun Rae, a spicy citrus scent that promises happiness and won the Best Independent Fragrance at the 2024 Fragrance Foundation Awards.
Stocked at the likes of high-end, fashion-forward retailers Violet Grey and Ssense, Vyrao sits somewhere in the middle between wellness and luxury — a natural fit given Sewell’s background in fashion. Prior to launching Vyrao, Sewell had a hand in the determining the creative direction for retailers like Liberty, Browns and Farfetch. Sewell does not put scientific claims at the forefront of Vyrao’s branding; scents are built around broad emotional states like liberation and self-love, with aspects like eye-catching bottle design doing some of the work of attracting customers rather than solely concrete promises.
“We look at even the bottle and what that bottle represents, how the colors make you feel. It’s a very big thing, color therapy,” she said. “There’s so much that we’re doing [to ensure] this to be not just something that makes you feel better, but also a beautiful object of desire that also should bring you some joy.”
And that’s attracting the eyes of major conglomerates and investors, as well as fashion-conscious beauty shoppers. In 2023, Estée Lauder took a minority stake in Vyrao through its New Incubation Ventures arm. Manzanita Capital, the London-based hedge fund that owns a majority stake in niche fragrance brands Diptyque and D.S. & Durga, is also an investor. L Catterton announced an investment in September. Sewell declined to disclose the details of those investments but said she remains a majority shareholder in her company. As the company grows, she is considering tackling emotional well-being through senses other than just scent.
“I’ve kind of laid some foundations, and now I want to be able to build on those foundations with the right resources, the right team,” she said of her plans for the investments. “It’s almost like building on what I’ve already begun.”
Still, newer entrants to the functional fragrance sphere are putting quantitative claims on their products’ effects more front and center, in an effort to stand out in a crowded market. Functional fragrance candle line Caftari, which expanded to Credo Beauty in September, also counts a neuroscientist consultant on its team. U.K. fragrance line Others offers an app with breathwork and sound exercises backed by research on auditory and olfactory benefits on well-being. But Sewell is keeping her focus inward.
“I don’t look at any fragrance brands,” said Sewell. “I have to always make sure we are looking at things in a fresh way, and I’m sticking to what I really believe and not getting too caught up in what’s happening in the beauty industry.”
