Europe has dominated the world of perfumery for centuries, but it seems like things are starting to change – recent years have birthed some incredibly exciting niche Australian perfume houses that we think give the European ones a run for their money.
We’re also beginning to see an increase in international demand for Australia’s beautiful and unique raw materials made visible by Australian fragrance brands. Our native trees are responsible for around 40% of the world’s sandalwood oil, and our iconic botanicals like boronia and mimosa have indisputably become staples in the European perfumer’s toolkit.
At Lore Perfumery, we have always cared about stocking and supporting local brands, and have made a point of curating a range of Australian fragrance houses that demonstrate the capability this beautiful land has for producing incredible fragrance. Each of the Aussie perfume brands we carry are so incredible in their own way, so we wanted to give you a little introduction to each one and showcase the incredible variety they offer.
One of the first luxury Australian fragrance houses(and the first we ever stocked at Lore!), Goldfield & Banks was founded by Dimitri Weber in 2016. Weber moved to Australia from France after a visit that made him fall in love with our country’s wild beauty – the burning deserts, sparkling coastal vistas and lush, aromatic forests. As a veteran of the French perfume industry familiar with the native botanicals and raw perfumery materials that came from Australia, he was shocked to learn there were nearly no local fragrances houses utilising them, which compelled him to found Goldfield & Banks. A house that combines the science of Australia’s most authentic native essences with centuries of French expertise in the art of perfume making, Goldfield & Banks offers a modern yet timeless collection of genderless luxury perfumes emblematic of the Australian olfactory experience.
Founded by local Fitzroy couple Jules and Josh Mihan in 2017, Mihan Aromatics encapsulates the unique Australian experience through fragrance. Both from creative backgrounds, Jules and Josh had been thoughtfully noting aromas that defined their creative and personal partnership since they met, which inevitably led to the birth of Mihan Aromatics. Romantic and nostalgic, genderless and timeless – each Mihan aroma conjures heartache, hubris and harmony, all the while showcasing high quality, clean Australian native ingredients. At Lore Perfumery we have a special connection to Mihan Aromatics, and particularly to Josh and Jules as one of their first ever stockists. Each scent is inspired by a place in the same suburb both Lore and Mihan are based (Fitzroy!) so they’ll always be particularly close to our hearts.
Map of the Heart
Brought into being in 2014 by creative Sarah Blair and filmmaker Jeffrey Darling, Map of the Heart as a fragrance house came about as a result of the couple’s shared belief that scent can be as profound and moving as words and images. Therefore, each Map of the Heart fragrance comes straight from their hearts, taking the wearer on a journey of emotion, memory, and sensation. At the base of every scent in the range is Australian native sandalwood, an acknowledgement of the brand’s roots in the Australian landscape, but that is the only similarity between the fragrances – each one is wildly different from the other, making for an incredibly stimulating olfactory experience.
Grandiflora
In 1995, Saskia Havekes opened her flower shop, Grandiflora, in Potts Point, Sydney. The name draws its inspiration from the Magnolia grandiflora, Saskia’s favourite flower. The Grandiflora fragrance collection was born from Saskia’s love for flowers and want to capture and distill the rarity of transient scented flowers – which unsurprisingly for someone who spends so much time with flowers, she has done brilliantly. Complex, subtle and vivid, the enigma of these flowers has yielded six distinct and original fragrances that are as beautiful as the flowers themselves.
The Raconteur
The brainchild of Craig Andrade, The Raconteur (“The Storyteller” in French) is an artisanal luxury fragrance house specialising in Australian native botanicals and plant extracts. As a brand, The Raconteur’s ethos is all about championing Australian native botanicals, not just the better-known ones (sandalwood, boronia, lemon myrtle, etc) but the rarer ones too. Using naturals wherever possible and safe synthetics only to enhance the splendour of the native ingredients, Craig has infused every Raconteur fragrance with his cheeky sense of humour, making for uniquely Australian fragrances that aren’t just feel-good, they’re good for you!
Tulita
Based in Melbourne, made in Australia, Tulita (“Balanced” in Sanskrit) was founded by Lucy Bradshaw in 2024.
Her goal with Tulita was to redefine the fragrance experience, using scent as a conduit for connection with nature’s vibrational life force. All-natural and free from any harmful synthetics, Tulita is a passionate pioneer in the blue beauty movement, with an unwavering dedication to sustainability and transparency. From, inspired by and honouring the vibrational powers of Mother Nature, each of Tulita’s fragrances uses activated crystals and botanical extracts interwoven with the infinite wisdom of Ayurvedic practice to unlock your capacity to feel present, grounded and in a state of reverie for the everyday.
Chasing Scents
Founded by Sandy Wong in 2021, Chasing Scents is a perfume house dedicated to capturing the essence of tea through fragrance. Sandy grew up in Sydney, Australia; where she grew curious about her mother’s miniature perfume collection from Hong Kong. Today, she is a scientist with a PhD in Chemistry. It was during her candidature she experimented with scents out of hours and discovered the scientific mystery of perfumes with her partner, before realising she could combine it with her other great love – tea! Chasing Scents perfumes draw their inspiration from the experience and ritual of drinking tea, from enjoying it by yourself to sharing it with loved ones. Their scents are modern but still rich in their cultural roots, with formulas that use a variety of teas, natural extracts, aroma compounds and resins.
Ficifolia
Ficifolia Fragrances was conceptualised in the Melbourne lockdowns during the Covid pandemic of 2020, when founder, Sophie Marcoux, struggled with a loss of face-to-face time with friends, family and Melbourne culture. Inspired by the connection between scent and memory, Sophie began developing scents that reflected her pre-lockdown life in Melbourne, in her words “reverse-engineering” a moment, time or place gone by.
In each Ficifolia fragrance, potency is served in smell and storytelling, the bottles paying homage to niche local experiences: first came a trilogy capsule celebrating distinctly ‘Melbourne’ vibes in 2023, and in 2024 a suite of Sydney-centric scents followed.
ÖRÖK FRAGRANCES
Founded in 2023 by John Domjan, ÖRÖK FRAGRANCES is about sharing cultural heritage, specifically narratives of queer joy, diversity, adversity and resilience, all through the power of scent. A Naarm (Melbourne) based brand, many of the ÖRÖK fragrances are evocative of local queer experiences – nights out clubbing, days at the beach with friends, shenanigans in city gardens.“ÖRÖK” is an homage to Domjan’s heritage, meaning inheritance/legacy/eternity in Hungarian. A fitting name, given each ÖRÖK fragrance aims to capture those culturally inherited experiences we all share, and the threads that connect each of our identities to one another. The ÖRÖK outlook is that fragrance isn’t just an accessory, it can act as a representation of who you are.
Explore our entire range of Australian fragrance here.
Lore Perfumery acknowledges the Traditional Owners and true sovereigns of the land we operate on, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to their elders, past, present and emerging. We recognise the great importance storytelling and the dissemination of oral histories has in Wurundjeri cultures, and strive to honour that as we engage in storytelling on the lands of the Kulin Nation.
