After 5 years, we are finally heading into OLFAC3 Perfumes V2.0.
Apparently 7 years is the magic number for most "overnight" successes.
It's been one heck of a journey, but the strange thing is things started picking up 6 months after we entered lockdown last year.
I ended my contract on another project that was close to my heart (and still is) but we were no longer moving in the same direction anymore; I walked away from several offers that seemed to promise good returns but I realised weren't what I wanted to get back into; and I started to focus.
We asked ourselves: What the heck are we doing this for, and what is our purpose, our "why"? Money isn't the goal - money is what comes eventually when we move unwaveringly towards a clear and worthy goal that is of value to others.
The question and the challenge was simple - for fragrances, a luxury lifestyle creation that appeals to different people differently and that you need to smell it before you can decide whether you like it, love it or it's not for you - how do you take it forward when retail is effectively shut down by the pandemic?
It's a creation, an art that you cannot see - you can only smell it and it cannot be shared online and over Zoom. How do you pivot an approach that has been practiced by an entire industry from 90% retail and 10% online, to the other way round? Is it even possible?
To cut a long story short, we deep-dived into first principles, and we came up with a few things that we could do, and we started doing them.
Online sales increased, new business reached out in the middle of a pandemic, and we crept towards the milestones we needed to reach in order to kick start version 2.0. We built a small, good team. We built a good, core supporter base. And as we enter into the latest lockdown, we will be launching a new fragrance for the strong, confident and magnetic, inspired by what the Sun brings on our 5th anniversary, the 6th of June.
It's named after Amun-Ra, the Sun God. Because despite the longest night we are all going through now, we will dance in the Sun again one day soon. Oh yes.
Join the @myolfac3 IG Live for the reveal, if you like perfumes and want to find out what makes this new fragrance something different and unique.
I like it. It's strong yet gentle. It takes its own time to grow on you and evolve on your skin. It's powerful yet subdued, it speaks clearly without shouting.
Nicely done, Q. It's a worthy addition to our collection.
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