Meet Paula Rigby of Fume Beauty

Today we’d like to introduce you to Paula Rigby.

Paula, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was attending the Boston Conservatory of Music when my best girlfriend asked me to visit her at the perfumery where she worked on Boston’s famed Newbury St. People from all walks of life would belly up to the fragrance bar to have their perfume custom blended for them. I fell instantly and completely in love with the sublime and intricate world of fragrance and ended up apprenticing at the perfumery for the next two years while I finished school.

After graduation, I moved to Seattle and converted a walk-in closet in my home into a Fragrance Studio. That was 25 years ago. Since then, I have moved my Fragrance Studio back to Boston where I had two locations, out to Arizona where I had an appointment only Fragrance Bar in Old Town Scottsdale and to my lab located in Arcadia.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The saying “when you do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life” is a half-truth. The work of creating perfume is something I can do in my sleep. It’s all the other elements of business ownership that prove to be challenging, from vendor relationships to social media know-how to negotiating contracts/leases and balancing the books/taxes.

It is important to create a mindset where the challenges outside of your discipline become an important part of the work too. It makes the notion of “struggle” align with the overall well-being of the business, and that state of well-being is never static. It is always changing and morphing, so it’s important to stay fluid in your thinking and strategies.

Fume Beauty – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I am a bespoke perfumer. In my lab, I have over 200 natural oils which have been extracted from flowers, plants, roots, resins, and bulbs. These oils are what perfume is made from. The simplest way to narrow down the multitude of choices is to hone in on what you love. There are a few basic fragrance categories that we use to determine what you like: Floral, Fruity, Spicy, Woodsy, Herbal, or Gourmand (vanilla, chocolate, honey).

Most people have fragrance categories that they are innately attracted to, or that they do not like. Once the ideal categories have been determined, we begin your aromatic expedition! You will smell several fragrances notes that you will either select to try in your perfume or eliminate. When you have narrowed down your choices, I will begin to build the fragrance on your skin.

Your body chemistry, which is as unique to you as a fingerprint, is the final ingredient in your blend and will largely determine the direction of the completed formulation. When your formulation is perfect, I will keep it on file for easy reordering.

When I create fragrance for my clients, aside from finding out what type of smells they like or dislike, I always ask them what they are trying to create for themselves in this moment of their lives and what they would like to improve on going forward. If they are looking for incorporating more self-care into their lives, we will explore what that means when translated into fragrance. Is it a warm vanilla? A soft wood to help them stay grounded?

An exuberant citrus to help them feel energized and uplifted? Is it a combination of those intentions? The most important thing I want for my client is that olfactory reminder of what they are trying to manifest. If someone feels like they are drowning at work trying to meet a deadline, and they brush their hair out of their face and catch a glimpse of the fragrance they have created to empower themselves, their attitude will immediately shift when they get that fragrance prompt.

We also explore why fragrance is SO important. Diane Ackerman, scientist, poet and author illustrates for us why this undervalued sense is informing us at all times.” “Smell was the first of our senses, and it was so successful that in time the small lump of olfactory tissue atop the nerve cord grew into a brain. Our cerebral hemispheres were originally buds from the olfactory stalks. We think because we smell.

Smell is the most direct of all our senses. When the olfactory bulb detects something- during eating, sex, an emotional encounter, a stroll through the park- it signals the cerebral cortex and sends a message straight to the limbic system, a mysterious, ancient, and intensely emotional section of our brain in which we feel, lust and invent. A smell can be overwhelmingly nostalgic because it triggers powerful emotions before we have time to edit them. There is almost no short-term memory with odors. It is all long term.

We can detect over ten thousand different odors. Maybe more. Smell is the mute sense, the one without words. We see only when there is light enough, taste only when we put things in our mouths, touch only when we make contact with someone or something, hear sounds that are loud enough. But we smell always and with every breath.” Scent is ambient but extremely powerful once we awaken to its influence and guidance.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The fragrance industry began in Mesopotamia over 3000 years ago. Since then, the industry has seen every imaginable iteration of fragrance from natural oils like Ambergris (a material secreted by a sperm whale when a cuttlefish irritates the intestines of the whale, forcing the whale to regurgitate a waxy substance that floats to the top of the sea water) to synthetic oils that smell like “river stones” or “Squid ink.”

I think Indie Perfume Houses are coming to the forefront of the fragrance market because their approach to fragrance is so non-commercial. It’s abstract and imaginative and true aroma-holics are leaning into that experience more than they are the large fragrance houses that mass produce their scents. I would like to believe that Bespoke Fragrance will also move to the forefront of the industry. It is affordable and truly special to be the co-architect of your own scent.

Pricing:

• 1/3 Ounce Custom Fragrance Oil $150
• 2 Ounce Custom Fragrance Spray $150
• 8 Ounce Custom Lotion & Shower Gel $25

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.fumebeauty.com
• Phone: 602-476-4974
• Email: [email protected]

Image Credit:
Katie Rounds Round Lens Photography

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