Beauty loves a makeover, but few have had the Cinderella moment of Phlur. Before the fragrance brand became a viral bestseller with $100 to $125 million in revenue, banking on the romantic longing of Missing Person (a floral woody musk by Constance Georges-Picot meant to emulate the scent of your lover’s skin) or the timeless popularity of Vanilla Skin (Clement Gavarry’s blend of sugar, cashmere wood, and sandalwood), Phlur was a relatively unknown fragrance brand in square white and grey packaging.
Eric Korman (former President of Ralph Lauren Digital and Global E-Commerce) and his wife Cynthia (an art director for publication houses like Condé Nast and Hearst) launched the digital-first Certified B Corp fragrance brand in 2014 with a range of ingredients and environmentally conscious fragrance, bodycare, and home fragrance.
Stockists included Sephora and Credo. In June 2019, the brand completed a $6 million Series A led by Symrise, Next Coast Ventures, and Belcorp. In the same move, it also acquired manufacturer Texas Beauty Labs, which rebranded to The Goodkind Co. A change of ownership occurred in February 2021, when The Center acquired Phlur for an undisclosed amount.
Under the leadership of co-owner and Creative Director Chriselle Lim, and Ben Bennett, founder and CEO of The Center, Phlur’s new persona is sexy, cool, and covetable—the perfume equivalent to a mysterious downtown girl with kohl-smudged eyes, dressed in a vintage Calvin Klein slip dress dashing past you in the subway station at the midnight hour.
Lim clearly knows what it takes to capture the eyes and attention of an online audience. She began her career as a freelance stylist and influencer (today her Instagram follower account stands at 1.6 million), running a YouTube channel and the fashion and lifestyle blog The Chriselle Factor. She co-founded the creative agency, Cinc Studios, whose early clients included Valentino and Facebook, and to date, has worked with beauty brands like Milk Makeup, Gucci Beauty, and Shiseido.
Bennett and Lim kept Phlur’s ingredient standards and transparency practices as non-negotiables, but the brand moved away from using the term “clean” in its marketing and branding. “Within the beauty industry, the word ‘clean’ isn’t regulated, and in some instances, ‘clean’ language can be negative and create unnecessary or unvalidated concerns among consumers. Instead, we prefer to focus on the ingredients we choose and why, while continuing to be fully transparent with all of our formulations,” Lim explained.
“Anytime you take on a rebrand, you need to carefully balance what you keep versus what you change. We wanted to respect what people loved about Phlur while leaning into and building on what made the brand unique and what connected customers to the scent.”
The new opportunity was fragrance as a platform for self-expression, with Lim sharing her inspirations and interpretations of the scents, which in turn led to customers sharing the same on social media.
She sees this power of interaction and fragrances that “are both deeply personal and yet universally shared” as the key to unlocking Phlur’s success in online sales.
“This personal storytelling helps customers feel they really understand the fragrance and the emotion behind it, giving them the confidence to purchase it before smelling the scent.”
As part of its rebrand, Phlur debuted with only one fragrance: Missing Person. That one elusive musk quickly hit online virality. “At the time, skin musks weren’t as widely popular, so Missing Person felt like a fresh, intimate introduction to the clean scent category,” Lim noted.
In 2023, the brand tapped into the hot market of hair and body mists. The global market for the format was valued at $8.57 billion in 2024 and is expected to reach $14.66 billion by 2031. With a lower price point and larger size than traditional eau de parfums ($38 for eight fluid oz of mist versus $99 for 50 ml of eau de parfum), not to mention greater layering potential, the format has its biggest audience in (but is not limited to) Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
Each scent is designed by a mood, moment, or desire “meant to enhance who you are or who you want to be that day,” Lim said. “It needs to evoke something deeper in you and feel different. Vanilla Skin is a great example—it’s not a straightforward vanilla. It has a spicy and creamy twist that creates an allure and intrigue. All of our scents have this unique element that’s never quite what you think the fragrance will smell like but always exactly what you want it to smell like. We don’t do straightforward scents.”
Vanilla Skin, Missing Person, and Father Figure (a woody fragrance by Frank Voelkl with notes of fig, iris, and patchouli leaf inspired by the duality of playing both a mother and father figure, “commanding, yet tender”) round out Phlur’s bestsellers list. Vanilla Skin originally launched as a body mist in 2023 but banking on its instant popularity, was later released as an eau de parfum and the brand’s first deodorant in 2024.
For Lim, the expansion into the body mist format came as “a natural evolution. We think of them as a way to be more playful with scent, with fun, yet sophisticated fragrances.” She noted a higher fragrance load than traditional body mists for increased projection and longevity.
For Phlur, there is no difference between a customer buying eau de parfums versus body mists; in fact, Lim noted they purchase both and layer different formats. The brand’s customer skews towards Gen Z and millennials. “Our customer is modern and looking for an effortless elevation through fragrance—a way to seamlessly express her/himself through scent. With our approachable price point and wide range of formats and scents, we are definitely bringing a new customer into fragrance.”
Consumer studies back up the wider consumer mindsets behind Phlur’s success. A NielsenIQ report states that 81% of TikTok sales are expected to come from health and beauty, while 53% used “buy” buttons on social media. Furthermore, the concept of a fragrance wardrobe rather than a signature scent has gained increased traction, with consumers mixing and matching their scents of the day, rather than sticking to one singular creation.
Lim was blown away by the success of the brand being online-only, as well as the number of blind buys. As the brand grew, she decided to expand beyond this online presence with “carefully chosen retail partners.” Phlur launched at Sephora in-store in March 2022 and online in April. The brand made its UK exclusive debut with Selfridges in September of that year, followed by a rollout to SpaceNK in May 2024. “We are curated in our distribution and are focused on bringing the brand to life in an elevated way, where our customer is looking to shop. Both Sephora and SpaceNK have been phenomenal partners, unlocking brand growth and helping us to reach an engaged, excited consumer in a way that feels true to Phlur.”
Margaret Mitchell, Chief Commercial Officer at SpaceNK, told BeautyMatter that in its first year of trade, the brand outperformed its original forecast fourfold, ranked in the top 25 brands overall, and top 5 fragrance brands, “an outstanding result for a first-year brand.”
Vanilla Skin and the mini trio sets sit in the top 20 fragrance products as a total business. Mitchell sees three factors that make the brand unique: a large range of fragrance families, an art to fragrance storytelling through digital and social channels, and a customer journey leveraging body mists and travel sizes as well as full-sized eau de parfums, “allowing the brand to both acquire and retain successfully.”
“The brand performs exceptionally well online, with a channel mix of 54% online (where our total business is about 45% online). This is unique to a fragrance brand and speaks to the strength of their social presence and pull.” While all demographics purchase the brand due to its breadth of fragrance options, Mitchell notes, “Certainly they are attracting a Gen Z consumer into fragrance—customers come into stores asking and looking for Phlur specifically so they can smell the different fragrances.”
In the last year, Lim has introduced new leadership to the house of Phlur to strategize how to best reach those audiences. In May 2024, Elizabeth Ashmun (the former President of Moon Juice) was brought on as CEO, and in September 2024, Erica Dunivan (K18’s former VP of Global Marketing) was brought on as CMO. “Both are incredible leaders focused on building on what customers love about Phlur: the genuine connection to the fragrances, the compelling storytelling, and the unique, evocative scents. Together with their teams, they lead the way in bringing the Phlur values to life across industry-leading digital activations, in-person eventing, and through strategic retail distribution,” Lim said.
As for the year ahead, the brand will build on the momentum of its best-selling categories, expanding into “new territories” with “scent-forward, skin-loving launches that bring the fragrance experience into your everyday rituals,” following the warm reception of its deodorant and body oil launches. So far, it has already debuted three new scents: Golden Rule eau de parfum (a fruity floral scent with notes of jasmine, orange blossom, and vanilla cream), Rose Whip eau de parfum (a leathery floral), and Vanilla Smoke Body Mist, (a tonka bean and incense blend).
Phlur will expand into yet-to-be-named new international markets and build strategic retail partnerships, bringing its covetable cool scents to different territories, spreading its scented storytelling to a global audience.
Carla Seipp 
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